Plant of the Month

August/September 2005

Trautvetteria
A Modest Woodlander

by Brian Mathew

Trautvetteria © Brian Mathew

It is good to see the current degree of popularity of woodland plants in gardens. This is no doubt partly due to the recent influx of new introductions or reintroductions from abroad, notably China, and partly thanks to the professional interest by several nurseries in making them available to enthusiasts. Small, not necessarily very showy, perennials have a particular following and we can now find in catalogues a fine array of species and variants of Epimedium, Disporum, Polygonatum, Arisaema, Roscoea and many other smaller genera in a range of families. Ranunculaceae have not been overlooked in this wave of enthusiasm and there are some interesting additions to our garden flora which are well worth having from the interest point of view, even if not spectacular.

One of these is Trautvetteria, a modest woodland plant uncommon in cultivation but with an amazingly wide wild distribution, if one takes a broad view of species. There are three main areas where the genus is found: Eastern North America, Western North America and Eastern Asia.

Trautvetteria was named and described in 1835 by Friedrich Fischer & Carl Meyer, the name acknowledging the long association with St Petersburg Botanic Garden of Ernst Rudolf von Trautvetter (1809-1889). The species representing their new genus was T. palmata which was first described in 1803 by André Michaux as Cimicifuga palmata. Although at first it appears that palmata might therefore be the earliest and valid epithet it is not, for Thomas Walter had already described the same eastern North American plant in the genus Hydrastis as H. caroliniensis in 1788. It was over 100 years later when the combination Trautvetteria caroliniensis was published by Anna Murray Vail in 1890. Although there is a little superficial likeness, the genus Hydrastis is now considered so distinct that it is excluded from the family Ranunculaceae. If, as is currently the general opinion, there is only one species of Trautvetteria then its full name is T. caroliniensis (Walter) Vail. Other names for the species (synonyms if only one species is recognised) and its variants include (for eastern North American representatives) T. palmata, (for western North American representatives) T. caroliniensis var. borealis, T. caroliniensis var. occidentalis, T. grandis, (for eastern Asiatic representatives) T. japonica, T. caroliniensis var. japonica. In 1912 Edward Lee Greene published specific names for a range of variants: T. applanata, T. fimbriata, T. media, T. nervata, T. rotundata and T. saniculifolia. Such a proliferation of names is usually an indication of much variation, in this case notably in the leaves, but this is not an unusual situation in the Ranunculaceae where leaf morphology is often very plastic. Helleborus is a classical example and has resulted in many a distraught botanist having to make the choice between, on the one hand, extreme 'splitting' (which is seldom very convincing) and, on the other, extreme 'lumping' (which is the simplest way out of the problem)! I have not studied T. caroliniensis from all its areas of distribution in any great detail but it does appear that the plants from each of the three main regions are similarly variable, making it difficult to come up with any definitive distinctions. Just such an assessment led to the statement in Flora of North America (Vol. 3) that "Aside from geography, varietal differences seem rather arbitrary". For gardeners, however, variability is a valuable asset. Because of the wide variation in Trautvetteria it is possible to have several plants of different origins which are distinct in appearance and all of horticulture merit.

However, that is quite enough of the background to the name and classification, what of the plant itself? When in flower, at a glance one might be forgiven for thinking it is a strange Thalictrum for the flowers are not dissimilar. The leaves, however, are quite different, being palmate with usually 5-10 broad lobes which are pointed and coarsely toothed at their margins. In fact one can sympathise with Michaux who described his new species (palmata) as a Cimicifuga (bugbane); this similarity is perpetuated in some of the vernacular names for Trautvetteria, false bugbane, Carolina bugbane, western false bugbane. The flowering stems rise well above the leaves and may be as tall as a metre or more, although in cultivation often less than this, and have flat-topped panicles of fragrant white flowers. These have no petals but there are 3-5 (sometimes up to 7) greenish-white, oval, cupped sepals 3-5 mm long; these quickly fall off leaving the longer and more conspicuous white stamens, usually between 50 and 100 of them, to form the most obvious part of the flower which can be 1-1.5 cm across; at least the outer stamens have flattened, white filaments which gives them more substance. The fruiting head is a cluster of 1-seeded achenes, each with a hooked beak (the persistent style) at the apex. As with many Ranunculaceae the plant has a compact rhizomatous rootstock with fibrous roots and these are reported to have been used medicinally for the treatment of boils.

Trautvetteria is a summer-flowering perennial inhabiting woods or damp meadows and has been recorded from sea level to over 3000 m. Known to botanists for at least 200 years and no doubt to local herbalists for much longer than that, it has never been widely cultivated although mentioned in literature from time to time; for instance there is a passing mention in Sampson Clay's The Present Day Rock Garden (1954) and Graham Stuart Thomas included it in Perennial Garden Plants (1976). It is available from several of the very good small specialist nurseries.

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