Commonly known as hellebores (), the Eurasian genus Helleborus consists of approximately 20 species of herbaceous or evergreen perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, within which it gave its name to the tribe of Helleboreae. Many hellebore species are poisonous. Despite common names such as winter rose, Christmas rose, and Lenten rose, hellebores are not closely related to the rose family (Rosaceae).
Etymology
The common name "hellebore" is first attested in 1300s; it originates, via Old French and Latin, ultimately from Ancient Greek: ἑλλέβορος, romanized: helléboros. Although traditionally translated as "plant eaten by fawns", this could be folk etymology and, according to Beekes, really a Pre-Greek word. It is not related to the word "hell", despite the toxic nature of this plant. In Anglo-Saxon England, the Anglo-Latin word elleborus had varied meanings. Around 900 AD, it was linked with "tunsingwyrt" (various spellings; likely an Allium species) in the Old English Herbarium. Ælfric of Eynsham seemed to assert that elleborus had no vernacular Old English translation; by the early 11th century, "wodewistle" was used to gloss the word, possibly referring to hemlock or similar. These shifts reflect the developing understanding of Latin plant names in Old English texts.
Description The flowers have five petal-like sepals surrounding a ring of small, cup-like nectaries which are actually petals modified to hold nectar. The sepals do not fall as petals would, but remain on the plant, sometimes for many months. The persistence of the sepals may contribute to the development of the seeds.
Taxonomy The genus was established by Carl Linnaeus in volume one of his Species Plantarum in 1753. The scientific name Helleborus could derive from the Ancient Greek word ἑλλέβορος (helléboros), the common name for H. orientalis, constructed from ἑλεῖν (heleîn, "to injure") and βορά (borá), "food.".
Species and subspecies Twenty-two species are recognised and divided into six sections. The table below shows the species of the genus Helleborus, give its common name, the area of distribution, an image if available and the meaning of the scientific name. The cladogram shows the relationship between the different species determined with microbiological methods by Meiners et al. (2011).
Caulescent species
These four species have leaves on their flowering stems (in H. vesicarius the stems die back each year; it also has basal leaves).
Helleborus argutifolius – Corsican hellebore Helleborus foetidus – stinking hellebore or setterwort Helleborus lividus Helleborus vesicarius
Acaulescent (stemless) species These species have basal leaves. They have no true leaves on their flower stalks (although there are leafy bracts where the flower stalks branch).
Helleborus atrorubens Helleborus croaticus Helleborus cyclophyllus Helleborus dumetorum Helleborus abruzzicus Helleborus liguricus Helleborus bocconei Helleborus multifidus Helleborus multifidus subsp. hercegovinus Helleborus multifidus subsp. istriacus Helleborus multifidus subsp. multifidus Helleborus niger – Christmas rose or black hellebore Helleborus niger subsp. macranthus (syn. H. niger major) Helleborus niger subsp. niger Helleborus odorus Helleborus odorus subsp. laxus Helleborus odorus subsp. odorus Helleborus orientalis – Lenten rose, Lenten hellebore, oriental hellebore (N.B. most of the Lenten hellebores in gardens are now considered to be H. × hybridus) Helleborus orientalis subsp. abchasicus (syn. H. abchasicus) Helleborus orientalis subsp. guttatus Helleborus orientalis subsp. orientalis (syn. H. caucasicus, H. kochii) Helleborus purpurascens Helleborus thibetanus (syn. H. chinensis) Helleborus torquatus Helleborus viridis - green hellebore or bear's-foot Helleborus occidentalis (formerly H. viridis subsp. occidentalis) Other species names (now considered invalid) may be encountered in older literature, including H. hyemalis, H. polychromus, H. ranunculinus, H. trifolius.
Hellebore hybrids
Hybridising (deliberate and accidental) between H. orientalis and several other closely related species and subspecies has vastly improved the colour-range of the flowers, which now extends from slate grey, near-black, deep purple and plum, through rich red and pinks to yellow, white and green. The outer surface of the sepals is often green-tinged, and as the flower ages it usually becomes greener inside and out; individual flowers often remain on the plant for a month or more. The inner surface of each sepal may be marked with veins, or dotted or blotched with pink, red or purple. "Picotee" flowers, whose pale-coloured sepals have narrow margins of a darker colour, are much sought-after, as are those with dark nectaries which contrast with the outer sepals. Recent breeding programmes have also created double-flowered and anemone-centred plants. Ironically, doing this is actually reversing the evolutionary process in which hellebores' true petals had been modified into nectaries; it is usually these nectaries which become the extra petals in double, semi-double and anemone-centred flowers. Double-flowered hellebores provide a very interesting variation to the standard hellebore. They are generally easy to maintain and share the same planting conditions as the standard hellebore. Semi-double flowers have one or two extra rows of petals; doubles have more. Their inner petals are generally very like the outer ones in colour and patterning. They are often of a similar length and shape, though they may be slightly shorter and narrower, and some are attractively waved or ruffled. By contrast, anemone-centred flowers have, cupped within the five normal outer petals, a ring of much shorter, more curved extra petals (sometimes trumpet-shaped, intermediate in appearance between petals and nectaries), which may be a different colour from the outer petals. These short, extra petals (sometimes known as "petaloids") drop off after the flower has been pollinated, leaving an apparently single flower, whereas doubles and semi-doubles tend to retain their extra petals after pollination.
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