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Amuck with a Ranunc |
A favorite flower of childhood is the buttercup. It grows in meadows, farm field and lawns so parents frequently encounter them on family outings. Held up under a child's chin, the yellow petals reflect yellow light onto the skin. The yellow glow obviously means the child likes butter.
What is not obvious is that there are perhaps 600 species of buttercup, the genus Ranunculus. Spread across every continent, the many species have different shapes, colors, and growing needs, but all are cheery little plants. Whether growing in an alpine meadow or on a windswept seaside, they all share a sunny, cheerful personality-at least it seems that way to me, and it is that personality that we like to share with our children.
But buttercups are just the flagship flower of the family Ranunculaceae. Although the family shares many unifying characteristics (usually herbaceous, similar chemistry, insect-pollinated, many stamens, multiple pistils, etc.), there are other plants and some inspire me to imagine other personalities.
The forest dwelling bugbanes (genus Cimicifuga) are more stately restrained plants, only rarely given over to enthusiasms when their long stalks of white flowers bloom. Cimicifuga foetida was used to drive away bugs in its native Siberia, and the name bugbane stuck.
The North American Cimicifuga racemosa is more familiar as black cohosh than black bugbane. Looking at its stately two-foot inflorescences in the quiet summer shade of a natural woodland, it seems as different as can be from the buttercup. However, the six foot plants and their white spires of flowers may be exactly what adults want to enjoy on quiet evenings when the children are in bed. It is hardy to zone 3 and needs a good supply of moisture through the summer.
The cultivars 'Atropurpurea' (purple foliage in sun) and 'Brunette' (bronze foliage) have been considered very attractive examples of the species-but are more accurately part of Cimicifuga ramosa, branched bugbane. Unfortunately, with names so alike, it quickly becomes very confusing-C. ramosa is somewhat taller, has more branched clusters of flowers, and probably only found growing in gardens.
Finally, Kamkatcha bugbane (C. simplex) is also quite common in gardens (and may also be mislabeled as C. racemosa). A smaller plant, it flowers late in the year, and has selection of cultivars too: 'Braunlaub' has purple foliage; 'Elstead' has dark green, dissected leaves; and 'White Pearl' has exceptionally long and dense flower clusters.
If buttercups are child-like, and bugbanes are adults, the baneberries (Actaea) are the crazy in-laws. Although the genus Actaea is very closely related to Cimicifuga (some taxonomists propose merging the two), the plants strike gardeners very differently. In particular, it is not the stately spires of flowers that are remarkable, it is the distinctive, even alarming fruit that attract admires.
The first Actaea I saw was in the Ohio woods. Out of a sea of green, I was arrested by a cluster of white orbs, each with round black pupils in front and a thickened red stalk behind. "Dolls' eyes" someone said to me, and it truly looked like a plant sown to grow body parts. After I recovered my aplomb, I head about a blue form of the plant-Actaea alba, white baneberry, or dolls' eyes-where the berry is blue with a black dot. I have never tried, but apparently the berries are quite sturdy, and would last well in a doll.
The red baneberry, Actaea rubra, is not as useful for making dolls: predictably, it has red berries with black dots on slender red stalks. Although I would be alarmed to find them on a doll, they are very ornamental in a woodland garden. I have never seen the black baneberry, Actaea spicata, but I am given to understand it has black berries on slender black stalks.
All of them are woodland species that need moisture in hot summers. Grow them in shade with moist, humus-rich soil. Their dissected, compound leaves work well in many gardens as far north as zone 3. They have white flowers in the spring and the berries become ornamental in the months following. Note that the berries and other parts of the plants are poisonous (hence "baneberry") so any dolls' eyes you collect for crafts or propagation should not be eaten.
On last word of warning: red baneberry has white forms (one cultivar is named 'Neglecta') and white baneberry has red forms. It seems like the perfect footnote for the alarming in-laws of the buttercup family. |
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