HEART-LEAF AVENS
File Size: 29 KB
 
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.

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