1. Galax Sims, Bot. Mag. 20: plate 754. 1804.
Beetleweed, wand-flower [Greek gala, milk, presumably alluding to flower color]
Guy L. Nesom
Herbs, colonial, scapose, rhizomatous; rhizome slender, scale-leaved, slightly lignescent. Stems erect, unbranched. Leaves basal or rosulate at rhizome tips, 80-350 mm; petiole present; blade broadly ovate to orbiculate, margins finely dentate-serrate, apex obtuse to rounded, surfaces glabrous, subpalmately veined. Scapes ebracteate, barely elongating after flowering. Inflorescences compact racemes. Flowers: sepals barely connate proximally; petals distinct nearly to base, corolla urceolate, 3.5-8 mm, lobes white, margins entire; anthers 1-locular, without basal spurs, transversely dehiscent; filaments and staminodes connate basally, forming coronalike tube adnate to corolla base, free distally; staminodes present. x = 6.
Species 1: e United States.
Prior to 1972, the single species of Galax was known as G. aphylla Linnaeus; the type of that name was shown by R. K. Brummitt (1972) to represent a species of Nemophila (Hydrophyllaceae). Because Galax Linnaeus 1753 was based on the Nemophila type, the later name Galax Sims has been conserved.
