[Named for Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third president of the United States]

Lisa O'Rourke George

Herbs, perennial, deciduous, 1-4 dm, glabrous. Rhizomes short, producing 4-8 or more leaves per year. Aerial stems absent. Leaves alternate, 2-foliolate; petiole long, slender. Leaf blade reniform-orbiculate in overall outline, 1.5-18 cm, leaflet margins entire to shallowly lobed; venation palmate. Inflorescences terminal, solitary flowers borne on scapes. Flowers 4-merous, 15-30 mm; bracteoles absent; sepals caducous, (3-)4(-5), petaloid; petals 8, white [lavender]; stamens 8; anthers dehiscing by 2 apically hinged flaps; pollen exine striate; ovaries obovoid; placentation marginal; style central. Fruits capsulelike, brownish, obovoid, with transverse or oblique dehiscence, top forming reflexed lid. Seeds 10-25, red; aril white, not enclosing seed. x = 6.

Species 2 (1 in the flora): e North America and e Asia.

Lower Taxon

• Jeffersonia diphylla (Linnaeus) Persoon