Florida star-anise, Illicium floridanum Ellis, was one of the best
surprise shrubs when I saw it for the first time while to taking a dendrology
class.At first glance it resembles a
Catawba rhododendron, Rhododendron
catawbiense Michx., but the ranges do not overlap.The fruit is star shaped, with several points, which is where it gets
part of the common name, and each point had a red petal when in flower, and
ideally results in a seed.When I first
saw them, initially thinking they were rhododendrons, I heard something that
kept hitting the leaf duff under them.This turned out to be explosively dehiscent seed, and when we came back by sometimes later the professor lifted
a branch to show us the fruit we practically had to duck due to the
number of seeds that shot out at us.The seed can
easily shoot 15 feet, which has even been scientifically documented, and will definitely to get your attention.Meanwhile the professor had just
mentioned that the area we were in was frequented by skinny dippers, and he casually asked a biology major if she had ever been there before when a silent blush confirmed that she
had. Later in the semester due to a weekend field trip
conflicting with her birthday we had a surprise party with a cake and box with several gifts including bayberry candles since the first species we all saw was wax-myrtle, Myrica cerifira L., which has since had its name change to Morella cerifera (L.) Small. The person instrumental in setting up
the surprise then played a trick by acting like a gift had been
overlooked, specifically something to wear swimming, but it turned out to be
nothing but a birthday suit, which immediately resulted in an even deeper blush, but I digress.There is another species yellow anise-tree, I. parviflorumMichx. ex Vent., or small flower anise-tree, which is a direct translation of the binomial name, and it is almost endemic to Florida, where William Bartram was probably the first to collect specimens, but not get credit for the discovery.The flower color is the reason it is called yellow anise-tree and it seems
more common in the nursery trade, but some I saw some at a big-box store garden center that were partially mislabeled because the common name was listed as Japanese star-anise, which is confusing because the
star-anise species from Japan
is I. anistatum L.As a result I avoided getting any of them
because misnomers like that are a pet peeve, and because it is nearly as bad as
a t-shirt I saw with design feature of an old Alabama map, but it didn't have the Tennessee River on it. The proprietor then explained that I was in error (another pet peeve) because the map was made
before TVA had dug the river channel.So
instead of not even getting just one, and I absolutely did not get the two or three
in my size much less the entire stock, but I digress again. The Chinese star-anise, I. verum Hook. f., is used both medicinally and as a spice, which substitutes for true anise, Pimpinella anisum L., but Japanese star-anise is highly toxic, therefore, it is only used for incense while the native species are probably intermediate in toxicity.
