Actaea japonica (Japanese Bugbane)
Day Four of a few days away in East Anglia.
Today was the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, which was just down the road from our hotel.
Actaea, commonly called baneberry, bugbane and cohosh, is a genus of flowering plants of the family Ranunculaceae, native to subtropical, temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America.
The genus was redefined to include Cimicifuga and Souliea in the 1990s based on combined evidence from DNA sequence data, similarity in biochemical constituents and on morphology returning it to the original Linnean concept of the genus.
Baneberry contains cardiac toxins that can have an immediate sedative effect on human cardiac muscle. The berries are the most poisonous part of the plant (hence the name baneberry). Children have been poisoned by eating the waxy, shiny red or white berries. Ingestion of the berries can lead to cardiac arrest and death. It is toxic to rabbits. The berries are harmless to birds, the plant's primary seed disperser. Actaea species are closely related to plants in the genus Aconitum, a highly toxic plant genus which contains wolfbane and several varieties of monkshood.
Actaea japonica is a herbaceous perennial producing a clump of leaves up to 75cm long, with divided, lobed leaflets. Narrow, branched flower spikes are produced in late summer and autumn, reaching up to 1m tall with small, fluffy, white flowers.
Actaea japonica (Japanese Bugbane)
Day Four of a few days away in East Anglia.
Today was the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, which was just down the road from our hotel.
Actaea, commonly called baneberry, bugbane and cohosh, is a genus of flowering plants of the family Ranunculaceae, native to subtropical, temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America.
The genus was redefined to include Cimicifuga and Souliea in the 1990s based on combined evidence from DNA sequence data, similarity in biochemical constituents and on morphology returning it to the original Linnean concept of the genus.
Baneberry contains cardiac toxins that can have an immediate sedative effect on human cardiac muscle. The berries are the most poisonous part of the plant (hence the name baneberry). Children have been poisoned by eating the waxy, shiny red or white berries. Ingestion of the berries can lead to cardiac arrest and death. It is toxic to rabbits. The berries are harmless to birds, the plant's primary seed disperser. Actaea species are closely related to plants in the genus Aconitum, a highly toxic plant genus which contains wolfbane and several varieties of monkshood.
Actaea japonica is a herbaceous perennial producing a clump of leaves up to 75cm long, with divided, lobed leaflets. Narrow, branched flower spikes are produced in late summer and autumn, reaching up to 1m tall with small, fluffy, white flowers.