Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

FALSE RUE ANEMONE

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Enemion biternatum Raf.

[=Isopyrum biternatum (Raf. ) T. & G.]

Jefferson County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 6-16 inches

Family: Ranunculaceae - Buttercup Family

Flowering Period: April, May

Stems:

Slender, wiry, glabrous, branched.

Leaves:

Alternate and basal, compound; leaflets 3, broadly egg-shaped, 2/5 to 1 inch long, irregularly 2-3-lobed; lobes sometimes with secondary lobes; tips rounded; basal leaves with 3 principal divisions, each with 3 leaflets, stalks 1.6 to 5.6 inches long; stem leaves short-stalked to sessile.

Inflorescences:

Solitary or loose 2-4-flowered groups, from leaf axils.

Flowers:

Sepals 4-5, petal-like, 1/4 to 1/2 inch across, white; petals absent; stamens 25-50.

Fruits:

Pods, sessile, ovate, compressed, 1/8 to 1/5 inch long, upright to widely divergent, 3-seeded; style on each pod 1/20 to 1/12 inch long, straight or curved.

Habitat:

Moist deciduous woods and thickets; often on rocky, calcareous soils.

Distribution:

East 1/3 of Kansas.

Comments:

The roots have tuber-like thickenings.

Sometimes mistaken for rue anemone Anemonella thalictroides . Rue anemone is often solitary, occurs on drier sites, has a whorl of 6 leaflets below the flower, and has 5-8 petal-like sepals. False rue anemone leaves are deeply lobed.

False rue anemone