Gray Double

The species range covers the central and northern regions of Japan and the island of Sakhalin .

It grows in moist, humus-rich valleys. A component of the grassy layer in stony birch, dark coniferous , coniferous-deciduous and mixed forests, mainly in the middle mountain zone and below. Prefers well-drained and well-moistened soil. Mesophyte ^[3] .

The plant is 30-50 cm high. The rhizome is knotty, thick, creeping, slightly branched, superficial, with well visible scars - traces of dead annual shoots. By scars, you can determine the age of the plant. The adnexal roots are cord-shaped ^[3] . Brown webbed vagina is developed at the base of the stem.

Leaves , including two, alternate, petiolate , 20–25 cm long, broadly rounded bud-shaped, thyroid, bilobate at the apex, with 7–9 main veins , mostly fluffy along the veins, unevenly angularly serrated at the edges; the teeth are one larger, including 10-12, triangular; between the smaller teeth are other smaller ones. The first leaf is almost twice as large as the second. The leaf blade is thin, delicate, rounded kidney-shaped ^[3] .

Inflorescence is an almost umbrella-like scutellum with 8-12 flowers ; pedicels pubescent, simple or branched. Flowers up to 2 cm in diameter, wide open, white. Calyx corolla, of six sepals. Perianth consists of six to seven white or pale lilac leaves with a diameter of 2-2.5 cm. The stamens are beautiful, bright orange. It blooms in late May - June for a month. The flowers have a light pleasant aroma of rose hips . Each plant blooms for about 10 days ^[3] .

The fruit is a berry , juicy, blue or dark blue, about 6-9 seeds, up to 2 cm long, similar to small grapes . Pear -shaped seeds . The fruits ripen in late July - in August, by which time the leaves completely die off. In August, the entire aboveground part dies. Renewal buds are located at the base of the stem (one large and one or two small) ^[3] .

Species Gray bifolia is a member of the genus Bifolia ( Diphylleia ) tribes of the Barberry ( Berberideae ) subfamily of the Barberry family ( Berberidoideae ) of the family Barberry ( Berberidaceae ) of the order Ranunculales .

Synonyms

According to The Plant List for 2013, the synonymy of the species includes ^[5] :

• Diphylleia cymosa var. grayi ( F.Schmidt ) Maxim.
• Diphylleia cymosa subsp. grayi ( F.Schmidt ) Kitam.
• Diphylleia cymosa var. incisa ( Takeda ex Takeda & Tanabe ) T.Shimizu
• Diphylleia grayi f. incisa takeda & tanabe

Gray bifolia contains β-apopicropodophyllin ^[6] , and podophyllotoxin in the roots ^[7] .

Rare view. It is listed in the Red Book of Russia and the Red Book of Sakhalin Oblast ^[8] . Limiting factor: deforestation.

The species was recorded in the Verkhnebureinsky natural monument , the Eastern Reserve , the Kuril Reserve , on the Mendeleev Volcano , Cape Kuznetsov, structural and denudation remnant Lyagushka, and the South Sakhalin mud volcano ^[9] .

The most commonly cultivated member of the genus. In a culture is steady. In August, the entire aboveground part dies. It grows well only in shady or semi-shady places, on fairly moist fertile soils. It grows quite slowly. Propagated mainly by division, since the seeds germinate poorly ^[10] .

It has been cultivated in SakhKNII since 1962, and grows in partial shade on humus soil. It has been cultivated in the Main Botanical Garden since 1961 (brought from Sakhalin), grows well in partial shade on loose soil ^[11] .

• Gray bifolia is called “skeleton flower” due to the fact that the flowers of the plant, when water gets on them, become transparent. This is because there is no white pigment in the flower’s petals, the cell structure of the petals is loose, and in the petals there are a large number of lacunae and intercellular spaces filled with air. On a sunny day, diffuse reflection occurs between conjugated air bubbles and colorless cytolymphs, resulting in white petals. In rain, water enters the gaps and intercellular spaces: the initial pair “air-liquid” (“air-cytolymph”) is replaced by a pair “liquid-liquid” (“water-cytolymph”). Since cytolymph and water have comparable refractive indices of light , light transmission significantly increases ^[12] .
• South Korean singer Kim Jonghyun wrote and released in 2015, as part of the Story Op.1 album, a song called 산하 엽 (Diphylleia Grayi). The composition "Diphylleia Grayi", uses the metaphor of the double leaf as the personification of the internal and external struggle. Jonghyun tried to write a song that could become the soundtrack to the historical Korean drama ^[13] . In September 2015, Jonghyun presented his book Skeleton Flower: Things That Have Been Released and Set Free (Skeleton Flower: Things That Were Released and Free), in which he described his songwriting experience and inspiration ^[14] .

Gray Bifurcation : Information on the taxon in the Plantarium project (identifier of plants and an illustrated atlas of species).

• Genus 542. Double Leaf - Diphylleia LCRich. // Flora of the USSR : in 30 tons / chap. ed. V.L. Komarov . - M .; L .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , 1937. - T. 7 / ed. volumes B.K. Shishkin . - S. 541-542. - 792, XXVI p. - 5200 copies.