Jeffersonia B.S. Barton. Subfamily: Podophylloideae. Twinleaf.

A genus of 2 species, perennial herbs, the only other species of the genus being native to e. Asia (eastern Russia, Korea, Manchuria). The closest North American relatives of Jeffersonia are Achlys and Vancouveria of the Pacific Northwest.

ID notes: Jeffersonia has a very distinctive leaf, unlike any other species in our region. The single leaf, borne from a rhizome, is divided into two ovate segments barely connected in the middle. Sanguinaria canadensis (Papaveraceae) has a similar flower but has a fan-shaped leaf with numerous finger-like lobes, not divided into two sections. When Jeffersonia starts to flower, the single leaf is held only about 1-2 dm off the ground, but after flowering it can reach 5 dm tall. The leaf blade is unusual, in that it is essentially divided in half, to yield 2 elliptical or ovate segments that are wavy-edged to barely notched. Each segment is about 5-8 cm long and half as wide, but after flowering is almost twice the size. The separate flowering stalk is about 2 dm tall at first, barely above the leaves; the single flower is white, usually with 8 narrowly elliptical petals and a spread of about 5 cm across. The very odd leaf, divided into two ovate segments barely connected in the middle, looks like no other species. Only remotely similar, at least in the flower, is Sanguinaria canadensis, but that species has a fan-shaped leaf with numerous fingers and not divided into two sections.

Ref: George (1997c) In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (1997); Loconte & Estes (1989b); Loconte In Kubitzki, Rohwer, & Bittrich (1993); Stearn (2002). Show full citations.

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