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Acanthus > |
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Acanthus mollis, commonly known as Bear's Breeches, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the genus Acanthus, native to the Mediterranean region from Portugal and northwest Africa east to Croatia, and is one of the earliest cultivated species of garden plants.
It grows to 2 m tall, with basal clusters of deeply lobed and cut, shining dark green leaves up to 1 m long and 20 cm broad. The flowers are tubular, whitish, lilac or rose with spiny green or purplish bracts, and produced on stout spikes which grow up to 2.5 m (8 ft) above the leaves. It flowers in late spring or early summer. It grows in dry areas, and is tolerant of drought and shade. The plants are propagated from tubers and tend to form large, localized clumps which can survive for several decades. The leaves of this plant are generally considered by historians to have been the design inspiration for the Corinthian column capitals of Greco-Roman architecture.[1]
Read about Acanthus in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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Acanthus (akanthos, thorn). Acanthaceae. Bear's Breech. A genus of twenty species of temperate Old World, mostly hardy herbaceous perennials of vigorous growth and broad pinnatifid foliage, suitable for backgrounds of borders and subtropical effects. Height 3-4 ft.: spikes 1-1 1/2 ft. long; fls. dull white to rose or purplish, sessile, spicate, densely clustered; corolla 1-lipped, the lip 3-lobed; anthers 1-celled, ciliate. Mostly S. Eu. They need a rich, light, well-drained soil and much sunshine. Excessive moisture is fatal, especially in winter and spring. Fall-planted stock should always be protected for the winter by long litter or evergreen boughs, even where established plants are hardy. Must be deeply mulched north in winter. Propagation is by division in spring or early autumn, and by seeds. It is supposed that acanthus leaves afforded the suggestion for the foliage decoration on the capital of the Corinthian and other columns. Fig. 85 shows the conventionalized decoration, and Fig. 86 the form of leaf of A. spinosus. The leaves of A. mollis were probably also involved in variations of decoration.CH
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Species
Selected specieswp:
- Acanthus balcanicus Heywood & I.Richardson (Syn. Acanthus hungaricus (Borbás) Baenitz, Acanthus longifolius Host)
- Acanthus dioscoridis Willd.
- Acanthus ebracteatus Vahl
- Acanthus eminens C.B.Clarke
- Acanthus hirsutus Boiss.
- Acanthus ilicifolius L.
- Acanthus mollis L.
- Acanthus montanus T.Anders.
- Acanthus polystachyus Delile
- Acanthus spinosus L.
- Acanthus syriacus Boiss.[2]
Gallery
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Acanthus montanus
photo 2
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photo 3
References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
External links
- w:Acanthus. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
- Acanthus QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)
- ↑ Vitruvius. On Architecture. Book IV.
- ↑ "Species Records of Acanthus". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved on 2010-06-19.