Geum canadense
Geum vernum
benoîte du Canada, white avens
heartleaf avens, spring avens
30–100 cm, glabrate to downy, hairs to 1.5 mm, sometimes glandular.
20–70 cm, pilose or sparsely pilose, hairs septate.
basal 10–25 cm, blade simple or pinnate, major leaflets 3–5, plus 0–4 minor basal ones, terminal leaflet larger than major laterals;
cauline 3–8 cm, stipules ± free, 4–13 × 1–7 mm, blade 3-foliolate or simple and 3-lobed to unlobed.
basal 4–27 cm, blade simple or pinnate, leaflets 3–11, terminal leaflet larger;
cauline 2–7 cm, stipules ± free, 8–25 × 7–12 mm, blade pinnate to 3-foliolate.
3–15-flowered.
3–13-flowered.
densely hairy, hairs of varying lengths, few long stiff ones, sometimes glandular.
glandular-downy, becoming glabrate in fruit.
erect;
epicalyx bractlets 0.5–1.5 mm;
hypanthium green;
sepals spreading but soon reflexed, 3–6 mm;
petals spreading, white, obovate to oblong, (3–)4–8 mm, ± equal to or slightly longer than sepals, apex rounded.
erect;
epicalyx bractlets absent;
hypanthium green;
sepals reflexed, 1–3 mm;
petals spreading, yellow to cream, oblong to elliptic, sometimes obovate, 1–2 mm, equal to or shorter than sepals, apex rounded.
sessile, densely bristly, hairs 1–2.3 mm.
on 3–7 mm stipes, glabrous.
geniculate-jointed, proximal segment persistent, 2–8 mm, apex hooked, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely hairy or stipitate-glandular, distal segment deciduous, 1–2 mm, pilose in basal 1/2, hairs much longer than diam. of style.
geniculate-jointed, proximal segment persistent, 1.5–3 mm, apex hooked, nearly glabrous except for few septate-glandular hairs, distal segment deciduous, 0.7–1 mm, nearly glabrous except for short hairs.
= 42.
= 42.
Geum canadense
Geum vernum
Varieties and forms have been described in an effort to classify the variation encompassed in Geum canadense. In the eastern half of the United States, it is by far the most common, widespread, and variable of the Geum species. Nearly all writers of recent floras have not found it worthwhile to apply names to the variants. Perhaps the most distinctive and worthy of further consideration are plants from the southwestern corner of the range in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. These plants, some of which fit Fernald and Weatherby’s description of var. texanum, bloom from late March through May, significantly earlier than the rest of the species, which typically flowers after June first, even in the other southern states.
Geum canadense hybridizes with G. urbanum (= G. ×catlingii J.-P. Bernard & R. Gauthier); see discussion under 15. G. urbanum.
Geum album J. F. Gmelin is a superfluous name that pertains here.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Geum vernum is distinctive and is recognized by its early flowering, minute petals, lack of epicalyx bractlets, and heads of achenes soon elevated well beyond the recurved hypanthia and sepals. Recently, it has been expanding its range northward and has been collected with increasing frequency in southern Ontario, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, and Wisconsin. No specimens could be located to confirm reports of G. vernum from Mississippi or Texas.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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