Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Small-flower agrimony

SMALL-FLOWER AGRIMONY

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Agrimonia parviflora Aiton

Ottawa County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 1-5 feet

Family: Rosaceae - Rose Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September

Stems:

Erect, simple or branched above, glandular and densely hairy with short antrorse and longer spreading hairs.

Leaves:

Basal and cauline, alternate, odd-pinnately compound, 1.6 to 10 inches long, frequently with smaller leaflets intermixed with larger ones; stipules leaf-like; petiole present on basal and lower cauline leaves, absent on upper cauline leaves; lower cauline leaves with primary leaflets 11-23, minor leaflets 1-4 pairs; primary leaflets narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, 1 to 3.2 inches long, .2 to .8 inch wide, margins serrate to dentate, apex acuminate, abaxial surface glandular and pubescent to villous.

Inflorescences:

Racemes, terminal and sometimes axillary, 5-75-flowered, axis glandular and densely puberulent, also often with few scattered longer hairs .04 to .08 inch long.

Flowers:

Hypanthium campanulate to broadly turbinate, fringed with hooked bristles; sepals 5; petals 5, yellow, oblong, .08 to .24 inch; stamens 5-10; pistils 2, distinct.

Fruits:

Indurate hypanthium enclosing 1 achene topped by erect, connivent, hooked bristles; hypanthium .06 to .12 inch long, .06 to .16 inch wide, shallowly to moderately grooved, grooves gland-dotted, glabrous, ridges sometimes sparsely hirsute; achenes globose, .08 to .1 inch wide.

Habitat:

Mesic to dry oak-hickory forests and woodlands, thickets, mesic tallgrass prairies, marshes, seeps, ravines, often in sandy soil.

Distribution:

East 2/3 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

The Cherokee took an infusion of the fruits for fevers and an infusion of roots to satisfy children's hunger (Moerman 1998).

Comments:

Agrimonia, possibly a corruption of Argemone, a plant mentioned by Pliny and parviflora small flower.

Small-flower agrimony flowers