Chamaenerion is a genus of flowering plants in the family Onagraceae (the evening primrose or willowherb family). It has sometimes been included in the genus Epilobium.[2][3] Members of the genus may be called willowherbs (along with Epilobium),[4] or fireweeds,[2] based on a common name used for C. angustifolium. They are upright herbaceous perennials, growing from a woody base or from rhizomes, with racemes of usually purple to pink flowers. All species are found in the northern hemisphere. Most occur in moist habitats; C. angustifolium is the exception, favouring disturbed ground.
Chamaenerion species are upright herbaceous perennials with either unbranched stems or, much less often, slightly branched stems. They either have a woody base or grow from rhizomes. The leaves are generally spirally arranged on the stems and are usually narrow, rarely ovate. The inflorescence is a simple or slightly branched raceme. Individual flowers have four petals that are rose-purple to pink, rarely white. The petals are free at the base rather than united in a floral tube, as in Epilobium. The lower petals are narrower than the upper ones, making the flower radially unsymmetric (zygomorphic). There are eight more-or-less equally sized stamens, and a long, four-lobed style. The fruit is a long, thin, four-chambered (loculicidal) capsule that splits to reveal the many seeds.[2] The seeds have a tuft of hairs at one end.[3]
The taxonomy of Chamaenerion is complicated, as there is contention over whether the genus be separated from Epilobium, and if so, whether the valid generic epithet should Chamaenerion or Chamerion.
Nomenclatural issues were reviewed by Alexander N. Sennikov in 2011. Although pre-Linnaean authors had used the name Chamaenerion, which may have originated as early as 1561, in 1753 Carl Linnaeus preferred Epilobium.[1] Chamaenerion is derived from the Greek chamai (χαμαί), meaning "low", "near the ground", and nerion (νήριον), the oleander, Nerium oleander.[5] Some authors continued to use Chamaenerion (or the alternative spelling Chamaenerium), but this name was not published legitimately under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) until Jean-François Séguier did so in 1754.[1] It was assumed by some later authors that Séguier's name was a superfluous replacement for Linnaeus' Epilobium,[6] but Sennikov argues that a strict application of the ICN shows that it was legitimate. Ludwig K.G. Pfeiffer in 1873 used Chamaenerion in a more restricted sense than Linnaeus' Epilobium, designating Epilobium angustifolium L. as the type species. Thus the correct name for a genus separated from Epilobium and including Linnaeus' Epilobium angustifolium is Chamaenerion.[1]
In 1818, Constantine Samuel Rafinesque used the name Chamerion, suggesting it as either a subgenus or genus. Rafinesque had his own "rules" of botanical nomenclature, regarding it as appropriate to shorten generic names. However, his name was not acceptable under the ICN until published by Josef Ludwig Holub in 1972. Holub designated a different type species, Epilobium amenum Raf. As this is now included in Chamaenerion angustifolium, Chamaenerion has precedence over Chamerion.[1] Sennikov's conclusion has been accepted by many sources since the publication of his paper, including Tropicos,[7] GRIN Taxonomy for Plants,[4] the Onagraceae website of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History,[3] and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.[8] Some sources published earlier that also split up Epilobium use the name Chamerion, including the Flora of China.[9]
In 1994, a molecular phylogenetic study of 22 taxa of Epilobium, broadly defined, included three species previously assigned by some botanists to a separate genus, Chamaenerion, and by others to a section within Epilobium. The results showed that Epilobium and Chamaenerion were sister taxa:[10]