Comptonia peregrina


Comptonia peregrina is a species of flowering plant in the family Myricaceae. It is the only extant species in the genus Comptonia, although a number of extinct species are placed in the genus. Comptonia peregrina is native to eastern North America, from southern Quebec, east to Nova Scotia, south to the extreme north of Georgia, and west to Minnesota. The common name is sweetfern or sweet-fern, or in Quebec, comptonie voyageuse.

Description

Comptonia peregrina is a deciduous shrub, growing to tall. The leaves of the plant are linear to lanceolate, long and broad, with a lobed margin; they give off a sweet odor, especially when crushed. Plants are monoecious with separate unisexual flowers. The staminate flowers grow in clusters at the ends of branches, and are up to long. The pistillate flowers are only, but elongate when the fruits form, reaching.

Taxonomy

The species was first described, as Liquidambar peregrina, by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, in the second volume of Species Plantarum. Further on in the same volume, he described Myrica aspleniifolia as a different species. In 1763, he changed his mind concerning Myrica aspleniifolia, and it became Liquidambar aspleniifolia, and so in the same genus as Liquidambar peregrina. In 1789, Charles Louis L'Héritier placed Linnaeus's original Myrica aspleniifolia in his new genus Comptonia. In 1894, John M. Coulter transferred Linnaeus's Liquidambar peregrina to Comptonia, and treated Linnaeus's Myrica aspleniifolia as a synonym. Comptonia peregrina is now the only extant species in the genus.

Distribution and habitat

Comptonia peregrina is native to eastern North America, from Ontario and Quebec in the north, east to Nova Scotia, to Georgia in the south, and west to Minnesota. It tends to grow on dry sandy sites, and is associated with pine stands.

Ecology

Comptonia peregrina is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including Bucculatrix paroptila, grey pug, setaceous Hebrew character, Io moth, and several Coleophora case-bearers: C. comptoniella, C. peregrinaevorella, C. persimplexella, C. pruniella and C. serratella. It is also a non-legume nitrogen fixer.

Uses and consumption

The plant produces a bristly burr that contains 1 to 4 edible nutlets.
The aromatic leaves are also used to make a tea. The Canadian author Catharine Parr Traill includes it in her book The Female Emigrant's Guide in a list of substitutes for China tea. "When boiled," she notes, "it has a slightly resinous taste, with a bitter flavour, that is not very unpleasant." Mistaking it, like others, for a fern, she says that it is in high repute "among the Yankee and old Canadian housewifes." Tea made from the plant has been said to treat the affects of poison ivy when applied to the affected area. The plant has also been used as a seasoning.