Mitchella  Mitchella is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is found from China to temperate eastern Asia, and from eastern Canada to Guatemala. The genus "Mitchella" was named by Carl Linnaeus after his friend John Mitchell (1711–1768), an English physician who lived in America and gave Linnaeus much valuable information on the American flora. It consists of a two species of glabrous or puberulous, creeping, rhizomatous herbs with white axillary flowers with funnel-shaped corollas. They prefer mildly acidic soils, growing in woods near pines, hemlock or mossy hummocks. The fruits of "Mitchella repens", known as partridge berries, are eaten in some places.