Synonym: Achlys triphylla
English: Vanilla leaf; Vanilla-leaf; Vanillaleaf.
Name: from Greek Achlys meaning mist or darkness.
Genus: 2 or 3 species
Name: from the Greek goddess Achlys, an ancient Greek goddess symbolizing the mist of death, or the eternal night before Chaos.
Region: western North America.
Habitat: moist shady forests, near-surface understory, along stream banks, well-shaded ravines.
Use: insect repellent, strongly aromatic smell of vanilla; excellent tent air freshener.
Culture: According to Hesiod, Achlys was the personification of misery and sadness, represented on the shield of Heracles as pale, emaciated, and weeping, with chattering teeth, swollen knees, long nails on her fingers, bloody cheeks, and her shoulders thickly covered with dust.

Botany: erect perennial herb; creeping rhizome; leaves palmately divided into three leaflets, with a long petiole, with vanilla scent when crushed.; flowers small, lack sepals and petals, with long showy white stamens in single erect spikes; leaflets typical, bend back the middle leaflet and an upside-down set of moose antlers, bend back the two side leaflets shows a goose or deer foot.