Question

Which plant is described by these clues? Its genus name is an ancient Greek plant name recorded by Dioscorides, traditionally traced to a word for the pupil of the eye because the root was once used for eye inflammation. It belongs to the oldest surviving branch of the {monocots}, a lineage now placed as sister to every other monocot, grasses, lilies and orchids included. For most of its botanical history it was filed with the arums, until closer study of its leaves, flowers and seeds earned it a family of its own. Its tiny flowers crowd a finger-like {spadix} that juts sideways from a flattened stalk, the stalk carrying on past it as a leaf-like {spathe}. Its seeds are cloaked in bristles 1/8 to 3/16 inch (3 to 4 mm) long, longer than the seed itself. In the wild it grows on moist rocky stream banks and in wet meadows from China and Southeast Asia to Korea and Japan. Bruise a leaf or snap the slender {rhizome} and a sweet, spicy scent rises from the oil-laden tissue. Unlike its taller, stout-rooted relatives, its blades carry no raised {midrib} at all. Its species epithet simply means grass-like, a nod to the narrow blades that lead most people to call it a grass. Its rootstock is a traditional East Asian herbal medicine, and in Japan its leaves have been used in steam baths. This dwarf selection forms tufts only 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 cm) tall, its blades about 1/4 inch (6 mm) wide and striped so heavily with yellow that they read as gold. Its cultivar name is the Japanese word for gold, and this fragrant grass-that-is-not-a-grass is a staple of pond margins, bog gardens and even freshwater aquariums.

Accepted Answer

Acorus gramineus 'Ogon'

Name That Plant #135