Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

CANADIAN SANICLE

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Sanicula canadensis L.

Marion County, Kansas

Biennial

Height: 8-40+ inches

Family: Apiaceae - Parsley Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July

Stems:

Erect, branched above, glabrous.

Leaves:

Basal and cauline. Basal leaves: petiole 1.6 to 10 inches; blade 3-, 5-, or rarely 7-palmately compound or lobed, nearly circular in outline, 1.2 to 5 inches long, 2.4 to 5.6 inches wide; leaflets obovate to oblanceolate, .8 to 5 inches, margins serrate to doubly serrate, sometimes deeply incised distally, ultimate segments .6 to 2 inches wide, surfaces glabrous. Cauline leaves gradually reduced above; petiole present or absent; blade mostly 3- or 5-palmately compound or lobed.

Inflorescences:

Compound umbels, terminal and sometimes axillary, peduncles 1.6 to 4.4 inches; involucral bracts (1-)2(-3); rays 1/12 to 1.2 inches; umbellets with mixture of 1-4 staminate and 2-5 bisexual flowers; involucel bractlets usually 8, lanceolate, ca. 1/25 inch.

Flowers:

Calyx lobes 5, narrowly triangular; petals 5, greenish white, obovate; stamens 5, filaments distinct; styles 2; stigmas 2; styles of bisexual flowers shorter than bristles of schizocarps.

Fruits:

Schizocarps, nearly spherical, 1/8 to 1/4 inch, splitting at maturity into 2 mericarps along the commissure (the joint formed by facing mericarps), flattened at right angle to commissure, densely bristly, bristles hooked; mericarps olive or brownish olive, ribs absent, oil tubes obscure; seeds 1 per mericarp.

Habitat:

Maple-basswood, floodplain, and oak-hickory forests, forested bluffs, stream banks, and moist ravines in tallgrass prairies

Distribution:

Occurs statewide

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Sanicula, to heal, alluding to medicinal properties. Our plants belong to the variety canadensis.

Canadian sanicle fruits