8. Cimicifuga Wernischeck, Gen. Pl. 298. 1763.
Bugbane, snakeroot, cohosh [Latin cimex, bug, and fugare, to drive away]
Gwynn W. Ramsey
Herbs , perennial, from hard, knotted, long-lived rhizomes. Leaves basal and cauline, compound, petiolate with basal wings clasping stem; cauline leaves alternate. Leaf blade 1-3-ternately compound; leaflets ovate-lanceolate to broadly obovate or orbiculate, 2-5-lobed, lobe margins toothed or shallow to deeply incised. Inflorescences terminal, many-flowered panicles of racemelike branches [spikes in Asian spp.], 7-60 cm; bracts 1 or 3, alternate, subtending pedicel (pedicels bracteolate in C . americana ), not forming involucre. Flowers bisexual [unisexual], radially symmetric; sepals not persistent in fruit, (2-)4-5(-6), greenish white or cream to greenish yellow, sometimes pinkish or tinged with red, plane or ± concave, ovate to obovate, 3-6 mm; petals 0-8, distinct, white or yellowish, plane, apex 2-cleft [entire], sometimes clawed, 3-6 mm; nectariferous area sometimes present; stamens 20-110; filaments filiform [flattened]; staminodes absent between stamens and pistils; pistils 1-8, simple; ovules 4-15 per pistil; style present. Fruits follicles, usually aggregate, sessile or stipitate, ovoid to obovoid, weakly to strongly compressed, sides not prominently veined; beak terminal, straight or hooked at tip, 0.5-2.5 mm. Seeds pale brown to reddish or purplish brown, angled or laterally compressed, hemispheric, lenticular, or cylindric, smooth, slightly ridged, verrucose, or densely scaly. x = 8.
Species 12 (6 in the flora): North America and Eurasia.
Cimicifuga may be divided into two natural groups: those with seeds scaly and those with seeds lacking scales or nearly so. Cimicifuga racemosa and C . elata of North America, with scaleless seeds, are most closely related to C . biternata (Siebold & Zuccarini) Miquel and C . japonica (Thunberg) Sprengel of Asia.
Four or five species of Cimicifuga are cultivated as ornamentals, and at least five named cultivars have been developed.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Compton, J. 1992. Cimicifuga L.: Ranunculaceae. Plantsman 14(2): 99-115. Ramsey, G. W. 1965. A Biosystematic Study of the Genus Cimicifuga (Ranunculaceae). Ph.D. thesis. University of Tennessee. Ramsey, G. W. 1987. Morphological considerations in North American Cimicifuga. Castanea 52: 129-141.
