Canadian honewort

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Canadian honewort inflorescence

Canadian honewort

Canadian honewort

Canadian honewort inflorescence

Canadian honewort leaf

Canadian honewort

Canadian honewort habit

Canadian honewort leaf

Morphology

Stem

Erect, branched distally, glabrous, frequently hollow.

Leaves

Basal and cauline, alternate, simple or compound. Basal leaves: petiole 2.7 to 8 inches; blade ternately compound, ovate to oblong-ovate in outline, 1.2 to 5 inches long 2 to 4 inches wide; leaflets obovate to rhombic or oblong-lanceolate, 1.2 to 6.3 inches wide, margins doubly serrate to 2-3-lobed, ultimate segments 1.2 to 3.1 inches wide, surfaces glabrous. Cauline leaves gradually reduced distally on stem; petiole present or absent; blade ternately compound to 3-lobed or lanceolate.

Inflorescence

Terminal and axillary, compound umbels; peduncles .6 to 3 inches; involucral bracts 0(-1); rays 2-7, unequal, .4 to 2.4 inches; umbellets 2-10-flowered; involucel bractlets 0-3, narrowly lanceolate, .08 to .16 inch. Pedicels .08 to 1.2 inch.

Flower

Calyx lobes absent or minute; petals 5, white, obovate, tips usually elongate and curled inward; stamens 5, filaments distinct; pistil 1, 2-carpellate; ovary inferior, 2-locular; styles 2, often swollen at base; stigmas 2.

Fruit

Schizocarps, splitting at maturity into 2 mericarps, fusiform, slightly flattened at right angle to commissure, .14 to .3 inch long, .06 to .12 inch wide, glabrous; mericarps each usually suspended from slender stalk (carpophore), dark brown, ribs with 5 longitudinal, not corky, not winged, oil tubes conspicuous; seeds 1 per mericarp.

Ecology

Habitat

Maple-basswood, mesic oak-hickory, and floodplain forests, shaded river and stream banks

Distribution

East 1/3 of Kansas

Additional Notes