Physochlaina is a small genus of herbaceous perennial flowering plants belonging to the nightshade family, Solanaceae,Armando T. Hunziker: The Genera of Solanaceae. A.R.G. Gantner Verlag K.G., Ruggell, Liechtenstein 2001. . found principally in the north-western provinces of China (and regions adjoining these in the Himalaya and Central Asia)An-ming, Lu and Zhi-yu, Zhang Studies of the Subtribe Hyoscyaminae in China, paper no. 5 in Solanaceae : Biology and Systematics, Ed. William G. D'Arcy, pub. Columbia University Press 1986.Polunin, Oleg and Stainton, Adam, Flowers of the Himalaya, pub. Oxford University Press 1984, pps. 288-9. although one species occurs in Western Asia, while others occur in Siberia, Mongolia and the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. Some sourceshttps://cicon.ru/physochlaina-physaloides.html Retrieved 11.28 a.m. on Tues 7/4/20 maintain that the widespread species P. physaloides is found also in Japan, but the species is not recorded as being native in one of the few English-language floras of the country.Ohwi, Jisaburo, National Science Museum, Tokyo, Japan, Flora of Japan (in English) pub. Smithsonian Institution Washington DC 1965. p. 787: Fam. 176 Solanaceae https://ia802308.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/31/items/floraofjapaninen00oiji/floraofjapaninen00oiji_jp2.zip&file=floraofjapaninen00oiji_jp2/floraofjapaninen00oiji_0007.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0 Retrieved 11.37 a.m. on Tue 7/4/20 The genus has medicinal value, being rich in tropane alkaloids, and is also of ornamental value, three species having been grown for ornament, although hitherto infrequently outside botanical gardens. Furthermore, the genus contains a species (P. physaloides – recorded in older literature under the synonyms Hyoscyamus physalodes, Hyoscyamus physaloides and Scopolia physaloides) formerly used as an entheogen in Siberia (re. which see translation of Gmelin's account of such use below).Rätsch, Christian, The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications pub. Park Street Press 2005
Derivation of genus name The name Physochlaina is a compound of the Greek words φυσα (phusa), 'bladder' / 'bubble' / 'inflated thing' and χλαινα (chlaina), 'robe' / 'loose outer garment' / 'cloak' / 'wrapper' – giving the meaning 'clad loosely in a puffed-up bladder' – in reference to the calyces of the plants, which become enlarged and sometimes bladder-like in fruit – like those of the much better known Solanaceous genera Physalis, Withania and Nicandra, from which they differ in enclosing, not berries, but box-like pyxidial capsules, like those of Hyoscyamus (see below).The Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening ed. Chittenden, Fred J., 2nd edition, by Synge, Patrick M. Volume III : Je-Pt. Pub. Oxford at the Clarendon Press 1965. Reprinted 1984. The variant spelling Physochlaena – as employed by Professor Eva Schönbeck-Temesy in her section on the Solanaceae for Flora Iranica – appears first on page 737 of Volume 22 of the German-language journal Linnaea for the year 1849.
Publication of genus name The genus name Physochlaina was first published in 1838 by Scottish botanist George Don (great-uncle of Monty Don) on page 470 of volume IV of his four-volume work A General System of Gardening and Botany, often referred to as Gen. Hist. (an abbreviation of the alternative title A General History of the Dichlamydeous Plants) and written between 1832 and 1838. He included in his new genus the two species hitherto known as Hyoscyamus physaloides L. and Hyoscyamus orientalis M. Bieb. – the latter published by Baron Friedrich August Marschall von Bieberstein in his Flora taurico-caucasica of 1808.
Common names Not being native to Western Europe, plants belonging to the genus Physochlaina have no common name of any antiquity in English, nor have they acquired a more recent common name among English-speaking gardeners, despite the passage of two centuries since their introduction to cultivation in the U.K.
Robert Sweet coined the English name Oriental Henbane for P. orientalis in his work The British Flower Garden in 1823, but this is simply a translation of the (now obsolete) name Hyoscyamus orientalis. He further coins the name Purple-flowered Henbane for the Siberian species P. physaloides, but this adds to the confusion, as, not only is the species in question no longer classified as a Henbane (i.e. Hyoscyamus), but there are also a number of (true) Hyoscyamus spp. which bear purple flowers – e.g. Hyoscyamus muticus.
There is, however, a common name (age unknown) for Physochlaina in Russian, namely Пузырница (Puzeernitsa) – 'bladder / bubble plant', qualified Пузырница Физалисовая (Puzeernitsa Phizalisovaya) – Physalis-like Bladder plant in the case of P. physaloides .YouTube.com Physochlaina videos produced by Вокруг Света (Vokrug Sveta) TV and Дмитрий Сутуԓа (Dmitriy Sutula). The Swedish common name for the genus – Vårbolmört – translates as 'Spring(-flowering) Henbane',Glosbe online Swedish dictionary. while the Finnish common name Kievarinyrtti means 'Inn Herb'Google translate: Finnish to English. and the Estonian common name is Ida-vullrohu, meaning 'Eastern Henbane'.Facebook page for Tartu Üllikooli botaanikaaed (= University of Tartu Botanical Gardens )
In Turkey, where the species Physochlaina orientalis is native to the region abutting the easternmost stretch of Turkey's Black Sea coast, the common name given to the plant is Taş Banotu, meaning Stone Henbane i.e. "the henbane that grows on/out of, stone" in reference to the plant's ability to thrive in rock crevices [see section below on P. orientalis with accompanying image of wild specimen growing in crevices in volcanic rock].https://www.bizimbitkiler.org.tr/v2/sonuc.php?i=Vm0xMFlWbFdWWGhVYmtwUFZsWndUMVl3Vm1GV01XeHpWMjVrV2xadGVIcFhhMUpQVkcxS1NHVkdhRmhXUlRWMldWVmFXbVF4WkhOalJtUlhaV3hhVFZkV1ZtRlhiVlowVW10c1ZXSklRazlaYkZWM1RWWmFWbGRyV2xCV2EwcFRWVVpSZDFCUlBUMD0= Retrieved at 1.30am on 12/2/20http://www.bizimcicekler.org.tr/gallery.php?taxonID=12831 Retrieved at 2.10am on 12/2/20 The late Professor Turhan Baytop lists the Turkish common name Yalancı Banotu (= "False Henbane") for the plant in his 1963 work on the medicinal and poisonous plants of Turkey. He does not, however, record any information concerning any medicinal properties attributed to Physochlaina orientalis or folk medicinal uses of it made in Turkey. While Baytop includes a brief mention of the plant in the section "List of the Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Turkey" under the family heading "Solanaceae", he does not include it in the section which constitutes the bulk of his work - namely "Principal Medicinal Plants of Turkey" - this in marked contrast to his substantial treatment of the related genus Hyoscyamus. The list entry for P. orientalis reads simply " * Physoclaina [sic.] orientalis (M.B.) G.Don. - Yalancı Banotu: Gümüşhane" - the initial asterisk here indicating a plant not only medicinal but actively poisonous, and "Gümüşhane" the province of Turkey in which the plant is to be found.Baytop, Turhan (Professor of Pharmacognosy at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Istanbul University) Türkiyenin Tibbi ve Zehirli Bitkileri (Translation: "The Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Turkey") Istanbul University Publications, No.: 1039, Faculty of Medicine, No.: 59, İsmail Akgün Press, 1963.
In the ancient, Iranian language Ossetian, spoken both to the North and the South of the Greater Caucasus range, plants of the genus Physochlaina have the common name Тыппыргæрдæг – approximate pronunciation Typpyrgərdəg (where schwa stands for the unique Ossetian vowel for which the special letter 'æ' had to be created in the Cyrillic alphabet).Техов Ф.Д. (Tekhov, F.D.)Названия растений в осетинском языке. Издательство «Ирыстон», Цхинвали (Tskhinvali).Дзабиты 3арбег. (Dzabit, Zarbeg) Ирон адæмон хостæ. — Дзæуджыхъæу: Ир, 1995 — 201 ф. (See also page Physochlaina in Wikipedia, language: Ирон). The name Тыппыргæрдæг is composed of the Ossetian elements тыппыр (typpyr) 'swollen' / 'puffed up' and кæрдаг / гæрдаг ((approx.) kerdag / gerdag) 'grass' / 'herb' (and also - confusingly - 'fungus' / 'mushroom'),https://langlation.com/translation/ossetian-to-english Retrieved at 11.52 on Tuesday 8/10/24 thus yielding an English translation of bladder-grass (cf. Ossetian таппуз (tappuz) 'bladder' / 'bubble'). This Ossetian common name for the plant is thus very similar in meaning to the Russian Puzeernitsa, but it is not clear whether it arose independently or is simply a translation of the Russian name for the plant. This said, Abaev lists a second meaning (prevalent particularly in the Digor dialect) of the Ossetian word typpyr, namely 'kurgan' (burial mound), in which the primary sense of 'swelling' is applied specifically to a swelling in the landscape i.e. a tumulus or small artificial hill. It is thus possible that the compound Typpyrgerdeg is translateable as grave-grass i.e. a herb associated in some way with grave mounds. Such a meaning for this compound would be compatible with a native Ossetian provenance - not unlikely in regard to the name of a plant native to the Caucasus (see below re. P. orientalis).Абаев, В.И. Историко-Етимологический Словарь Осетинского Языка (Abaev, V.I. Historico-Etymological Dictionary of the Ossetian Language pub. Nauk Academy, Leningrad, USSR 1979). Vol. III pps. 340-341.Glosbe online Ossetian dictionary https://glosbe.com/en/os/fodder recovered at 21.07 on 30/10/19
There are likewise several common names for the Himalayan Physochlaina praealta in the various languages of Nepal, and common names for the genus Physochlaina and the various Physochlaina species of Eastern Asiatic provenance in Standard Chinese ( pao nang ts'ao shu), Tibetan (khyn khors), Kazakh (үрмежеміс = (approximately) urmezhemis), Uzbek (xiyoli), Uyghur, Mongolian (garag chig tav) and certain Tungusic languages.Quattrocchi, Umberto (2012). CRC World dictionary of medicinal and poisonous plants: common names, scientific names, eponyms, synonyms and etymology. IV, M-Q. CRC Press Taylor and Francis Group. p.
Accepted species The Plant List, a joint project of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden, accepts only six species of the genus: Physochlaina capitata A.M. Lu (common name in Chinese: yi li pao nang cao i.e. "Physochlaina of the Ili River region"): Xinjiang: Ili River valley region, encompassing Borohoro Mountains and S.W. Tian Shan: Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture (principal settlement Yining City): Xinyuan County (known as Künes pre-1946) and Gongliu County, growing on grassy slopes and in rock crevices. Corolla: yellow with purple throat or pale purple veined with deeper purple. Flowering time April to May and fruiting from May to June. Physochlaina infundibularis Kuang: Southeastern and North-Central China: South and West Henan, Qin Mountains of Shaanxi and South Shanxi, growing in valleys and forests at altitude of . Corolla: greenish-yellow, pale purplish at base or yellowish-purple. Flowering time: March to May and fruiting from May to June.https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_Medicine/From_Pachydictyon_Coriaceum_To_Python_Molurus_Bivittatus Retrieved 20/6/17 at 12.22 pm It has also been reported as native to Primorskiy Krai.Фитоаптека (Fitoapteka) http://fitoapteka.org/herbs-p/4103-101032-physochlaina-infundibuaris Physochlaina macrocalyx Pascher (common name in Chinese chang e pao nang cao): Tibet. Little-known species. Corolla entirely yellow (no trace of violet). Not yet observed in fruit. Only description available the original brief one by Adolf Pascher, publisher of species name. Physochlaina macrophylla Bonati: South-Central China: W. Sichuan, growing in forests at altitude of 1900-2400m. Corolla purple. Flowering time: June to July and fruiting from July to August.