Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

HEART-LEAF AVENS

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Geum vernum (Raf. ) Torr. & A. Gray

Cherokee County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 8-28 inches

Family: Rosaceae - Rose Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June

Also Called:

Spring avens.

Stems:

Ascending to erect, usually branched from base, pilose, sometimes sparsely so.

Leaves:

Basal and cauline, alternate, simple, often with smaller leaflets intermixed with larger ones; stipules foliaceous; petiole present on basal and lower cauline leaves, absent on upper cauline leaves. Basal leaves 1.6 to 10.6 inches, surfaces glabrate to pilose; blade simple to pinnate; leaflets 3-11, margins crenate to serrate or lobed, terminal leaflet 1.2 to 3.2 inches long, .8 to 2.4 inches wide. Cauline leaves: stipules .3 to 1 inch; blade pinnate to 3-foliolate, .8 to 2.8 inches.

Inflorescences:

Cymes, terminal, 3-13-flowered.

Flowers:

Pedicels glandular-pilose, glabrate in fruit; hypanthium saucer- to cup-shaped, .06 to .08 inch; sepals 5, reflexed, .04 to .12 inch; petals 5, yellow, oblong to elliptic, .04 to .08 inch; stamens numerous; receptacle hemispheric to cylindric; pistils numerous, distinct; basal portion of style persistent.

Fruits:

Heads of aggregated achenes, .24 to .55 inch. Achene: stipe .12 to .28 inch, glabrous; body ovoid to fusiform, tapered distally to style, .08 to .12 inch; style .06 to .12 inch at maturity, nearly glabrous except for few septate-glandular hairs, tips hooked, distal segment deciduous, nearly glabrous except for short hairs; seeds many.

Habitat:

Floodplain, maple-basswood, and mesic oak-hickory woods, river and stream banks

Distribution:

East 1/4 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Geum, ancient name used by Pliny and vernum, vernal or of spring.

Heart-leaf avens habit