{"id":15319,"date":"2024-10-31T11:35:16","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T18:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/?post_type=pal&p=15319"},"modified":"2025-03-13T13:01:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T20:01:30","slug":"ruscus-and-other-plants-with-cladodes","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/ruscus-and-other-plants-with-cladodes\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruscus and other plants with cladodes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just learned about butcher\u2019s broom, which has leaves that are not actually leaves. Are there other plants that have similar faux-leaves?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Ruscus<\/em> has evergreen leaf-like structures called cladodes which are actually flattened modified stems that do the task of photosynthesis just as leaves would. The plant does have leaves, but these are non-photosynthetic and very inconspicuous. An Italian herbal from the 1400s<\/a> depicts it with the name \u2018Bislingua,\u2019 meaning another tongue, which is descriptive of the way the small flap (a bract) lifts up over the cladode. Names in other languages<\/a> also refer to \u2018two tongues,\u2019 \u2018below a tongue\u2019 (similar to the species name hypoglossum<\/em>) and more. There are helpful photographs and descriptions in Trees and Shrubs Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ruscus<\/em> flowers and fruit grow right in the middle of the cladode, something which does not occur with true leaves. You can read more about Ruscus <\/em>in an article by Walt Bubelis in the Fall 2018 issue of the Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin<\/a>. You can also find the plant in the Arboretum’s Witt Winter Garden and in the Woodland garden. Danae racemosa<\/em>, related to Ruscus<\/em>, is also found growing in the Arboretum, is described by Roy Farrow in this blog post<\/a>. Sallly Razelou’s article, “A Neglected Genus \u2013 Ruscus<\/em>” by Sally Razelou (The Mediterranean Garden<\/em> No. 54, October 2008) points out that the curious ‘leaves’ caught the attention of Theophrastus in 3rd century C.E.: “There are three trees peculiar to Mount Ida, the tree called Alexandrian laurel, a sort of fig and a vine. The peculiarity of the laurel is that it bears fruit on its leaves, like the \u2018prickly myrtle\u2019: both have their fruit on the midrib of the leaf.”<\/p>\n

Examples of other plants with cladodes are Sciadopitys<\/em><\/a> (Japanese umbrella pine) and Colletia paradoxa<\/em><\/a> (anchor plant), garden asparagus<\/a>, and asparagus fern<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cladodes<\/a>, <\/span>Danae<\/a>, <\/span>Ruscus<\/a><\/div>\n
Cladodes<\/a>, <\/span>Danae<\/a>, <\/span>Ruscus<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just learned about butcher\u2019s broom, which has leaves that are not actually leaves. Are there other plants that have similar faux-leaves? Ruscus has evergreen leaf-like structures called cladodes which are actually flattened modified stems that do the task of photosynthesis just as leaves would. The plant does have leaves, but these are non-photosynthetic and very inconspicuous. An Italian herbal from the 1400s depicts it with the name \u2018Bislingua,\u2019 meaning another tongue, which is descriptive of the way the small…<\/p>\n

Continue reading Ruscus and other plants with cladodes<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[1206,1205,1204],"class_list":["post-15319","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-cladodes","keyword-danae","keyword-ruscus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/15319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=15319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}