{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}} {{speciesbox |image = Carolina redroot (Lachnanthes caroliana) (7450499000).jpg |image_caption = ''Lachnanthes caroliana'' |display_parents = 2 |genus = Lachnanthes |parent_authority = Ell. |species = caroliana | status = G5 | status_system = TNC | status_ref = <ref name="ns" /> |authority = (Lam.) Dandy |synonyms = *''Anonymos tinctoria'' <small>Walter</small> *''Dilatris caroliniana'' <small>Lam. </small> *''Dilatris heritiera'' <small>Pers.</small> *''Dilatris tinctoria'' <small>(Walter ex J.F. Gmel.) Pursh</small> *''Gyrotheca tinctoria'' <small>(Walter ex J.F. Gmel.) Salisb.</small> *''Heritiera gmelinii'' <small>Michx.</small> *''Heritiera tinctorum''<small> Walter ex J.F. Gmel.</small> *''Lachnanthes tinctoria'' <small>(Walter ex J.F. Gmel.) Elliott</small> *''Lachnanthes tinctoria'' var. major <small>C. Wright ex Griseb.</small> |synonyms_ref = <ref>[http://tropicos.org/Name/14900001 Tropicos]</ref><ref>[http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-251506 The Plant List]</ref> }}
'''''Lachnanthes''''' is a genus of monocotyledonous plants in the bloodwort family containing only one species, i.e., '''''Lachnanthes caroliana''''' ('''''caroliniana'''''),<ref>Dandy, James Edgar. Journal of Botany, British and Foreign 70: 329. 1932.</ref> commonly known as '''Carolina redroot''' or '''bloodroot'''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://eol.org/pages/1117179/overview|title=Encyclopedia of Life}}</ref> The plant is native to eastern North America, from southeastern Nova Scotia (especially the Molega Lake area)<ref>{{citation|last=Ware|first=Beverley|title=Knox on Wood|url=http://nsnt.ca/pdf/Molega%20Lake_Nova%20Scotian.pdf|newspaper=The Novascotian|year=2007|access-date=10 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331134325/http://nsnt.ca/pdf/Molega%20Lake_Nova%20Scotian.pdf|archive-date=31 March 2012}}</ref> and Massachusetts in the north, south to Florida and Cuba, and west along the Gulf of Mexico to Louisiana. It has also been reported from an island in the western Caribbean off the coast of Honduras.<ref>[http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=251506 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families]</ref> It prefers wet, acidic, usually sandy soils, restricting it to various wetland habitats such as bogs, pinelands, hammocks and pocosins, among others.
The plant's common name is based on its red roots and rhizomes. Its flowers, consisting of six pale yellow tepals, emerge from mid to late summer. The plant is sometimes a significant weed in commercial cranberry bogs.<ref name=flora>{{Citation| last =Robertson| first =Kenneth R.| contribution =Lachnanthes caroliniana| year =2003| title =Flora of North America online | volume =26| pages =47–48| contribution-url =http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242101724| place=New York & Oxford| publisher =Oxford University Press| access-date =2008-11-17}}</ref>
==Taxonomy== The generic name "''Lachnanthes''" is a conserved name in botany. This means that the name has been granted a special exemption to the ordinary priority rules, allowing a newer name to be used instead of an older one. Three names are relevant here:<ref>[http://tropicos.org/Name/40000752?projectid=24 Rare and Endangered Plant Seed Bank, Missouri Botanical Garden]</ref>
*''Heritiera'' Aiton, Hortus Kewensis 3: 546. 1789. *''Heritiera'' J.F. Gmelin, Systema Naturae, ed. 13 2: 113. 1791. *''Lachnanthes'' S. Elliott, Sketch of the Botany of South-Carolina and Georgia 1: 47. 1816.
The first is a different plant, a tropical tree. This makes the second name an illegitimate homonym, unusable. The conservation decree allows the third name to be used in place of the second to refer to the plant now called ''Lachnanthes caroliana''.
== Phylogeny == Comparison of homologous DNA has increased the insight in the phylogenetic relationships between the genera in the Haemodoroideae subfamily. The following trees represent those insights.<ref>{{cite journal|first1= Stephen D.|last1= Hopper|first2= Rhian J.|last2= Smith|first3= Michael F.|last3= Fay|first4= John C.|last4= Manning|first5= Mark W.|last5= Chase|year= 2009|title= Molecular phylogenetics of Haemodoraceae in the Greater Cape and Southwest Australian Floristic Regions|journal= Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution|volume= 51|issue= 1|pages= 19–30|doi= 10.1016/j.ympev.2008.11.015|pmid= 19063982|bibcode= 2009MolPE..51...19H}}</ref> {{clade|label1=subfamily Haemodoroideae |1={{clade |1={{clade |1={{clade |1='''''Lachnanthes''''' |2=''Haemodorum'' }} |2=''Dilatris'' }} |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=''Xiphidium'' |2=''Schiekia'' }} |2={{clade |1=''Wachendorfia'' |2=''Barberetta'' }} }} }} }}
==References== {{Reflist | <ref name="ns">{{cite web |title=''Lachnanthes caroliniana'' |url=https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.140914/Lachnanthes_caroliniana |website=NatureServe Explorer |access-date=4 September 2025 |language=en}}</ref>
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==External links== *{{Commons-inline}} *[http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=7386&flora_id=1 Distribution Map in North America from Flora of North America] *[http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=41594&flora_id=1 Illustration from Flora of North America] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20090122102239/http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/node/217 Video from University of Florida]
{{Taxonbar|from1=Q16880304|from2=Q6468494|from3=Q67192976}}
Category:Haemodoraceae Category:Monotypic Commelinales genera Category:Flora of Northern America Category:Taxa named by Stephen Elliott