Clethras

Clethra alnifolia, cultivated, National Botanic Garden, Washington, DC

Native to southern Mexico, also known as C. vicentina. Photo from San Francisco Botancial Gardens.In context at www.dixpix.ca/meso_america/Flora/ericales/index.html

I could smell something along the Rough Ridge trail and I suspect it was this shrub - Clethra acuminata. They are reported to have "spicily perfumed" flowers and indeed they don't smell like your typical sweet flower smell. The spicy seeds were apparently used by the settlers as a substitute for black pepper, hence the name pepperbush. They are endemic to the Southern Appalachians where they tend to grow in bush form - they were fitting in well with the rhododendrons on the ridge in terms of size and growth form. But the species is also used in gardens and often trimmed as a small tree. They typically grow 8 to 12 feet tall and wide in cultivation and larger specimen up to 20 feet have been reported.

Ranging from here in southern Mexico to Panama, with names such as Jaboncillo.

Summary[edit] DescriptionAPI Deutsch: Tharandt, Forstbotanischer Garten (Landesarboretum): Berg-Zimterle (Clethra acuminata) Date 20 September 2011 Source Own work Author Bananenfalter

Summary[edit] DescriptionAPI English: Clethra arborea, Clethraceae; botanical garden of Pillnitz Castle, Germany Date 11 September 2011 Source Own work Author JoJan

Scientific name Clethra barbinervis 日本語: リョウブ Place:Osaka-fu Japan DescriptionAPI Clethra barbinervis Date 9 July 2006 Source KENPEI's photo Author KENPEI Permission (Reusing this file) GFDL,Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.1 Japan License Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.htmlGFDLGNU Free Documentation Licensetruetrue This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This licensing tag was added to this file as part of the GFDL licensing update.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/CC-BY-SA-3.0Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0truetrue This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.1 Japan license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.1/jp/deed.en CC BY-SA 2.1 jp Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.1 jp truetrue

Clethra alnifolia L.

Summary[edit] DescriptionAPI Deutsch: Tharandt, Forstbotanischer Garten (Landesarboretum): Berg-Zimterle (Clethra acuminata) Date 20 September 2011 Source Own work Author Bananenfalter

Summary[edit] DescriptionAPI English: Clethra arborea Date October 1999 Source Own work Author Omar hoftun

Scientific name Clethra barbinervis 日本語: リョウブ Place:Osaka-fu Japan DescriptionAPI Clethra barbinervis Date 16 July 2006 Source KENPEI's photo Author KENPEI Permission (Reusing this file) GFDL,Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.1 Japan License Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.htmlGFDLGNU Free Documentation Licensetruetrue This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This licensing tag was added to this file as part of the GFDL licensing update.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/CC-BY-SA-3.0Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0truetrue This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.1 Japan license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.1/jp/deed.en CC BY-SA 2.1 jp Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.1 jp truetrue

DescriptionAPI Location: Botanical Gardens Berlin Date September 2006 Source Own work Author User:BotBln Permission (Reusing this file) GNU Free Documentation License Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.htmlGFDLGNU Free Documentation Licensetruetrue This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This licensing tag was added to this file as part of the GFDL licensing update.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/CC-BY-SA-3.0Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0truetrue

Close-up view of Clethra acuminata flowers. They were spicing up the area with their scent.

Species Clethra acuminata Mountain Sweet Pepperbush (Clethra acuminata). Photo: Zen. Source: http://flickr.com/photos/zen/974257/ This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 CC BY-SA 2.0 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 truetrue

Summary[edit] DescriptionAPI English: Clethra arborea, Clethraceae; botanical garden of Pillnitz Castle, Germany Date 11 September 2011 Source Own work Author JoJan

Summary[edit] DescriptionAPI Deutsch: Japanische Zimterle (Clethra barbinervis) English: Japanese Sweet Shrub (Clethra barbinervis) Date 4 June 2012 Source Own work Author Römert