Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Richardson's alumroot

RICHARDSON'S ALUMROOT

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Heuchera richardsonii R. Br.

Leavenworth County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 6-28 inches

Family: Saxifragaceae - Saxifrage Family

Flowering Period: June, July

Stems:

Flowering stems erect, densely stipitate-glandular, often leafless.

Leaves:

Basal; stipules present; petiole 1.2 to 8 inches long, densely or sparsely stipitate-glandular; blade not leathery, broadly ovate to cordate, 1 to 4 inches long, 1.2 to 3.2 inches wide, margins deeply 5-7-lobed and dentate, base cordate to nearly truncate, apex acute, surfaces stipitate-glandular or adaxial sometimes glabrous.

Inflorescences:

Terminal, racemose or narrowly paniculate, open or congested, 2 to 8 inches long, glandular-puberulent.

Flowers:

Hypanthium bilaterally symmetric, green, cylindric to campanulate, .2 to .55 inch, stipitate-glandular; sepals 5, erect, equal, .05 to .16 inch, apex rounded; petals 5, erect, green or greenish white, rarely pink, narrowly spatulate, .05 to .16 inch, margins finely dentate or coarsely fringed; stamens 5, enclosed or slightly exserted.

Fruits:

Capsules ovoid, .28 to .6 inch, 2-beaked, beaks divergent; seeds numerous, dark brown, ovoid to ellipsoid, .02 to .03 inch, prickly.

Habitat:

Tallgrass prairies and oak-hickory woodlands.

Distribution:

East 1/4 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

Native American tribes took decoctions and infusions of root or chewed the root to treat diarrhea, used an infusion of root as a wash for sore eyes, and applied a poultice of powdered roots to sores.

Comments:

Heuchera, for Johann Heinrich von Heucher, Austrian botanist and professor of medicine, and richardsonii for John Richardson, Scottish naturalist and explorer.

Richardson's alumroot leaves