General: Deciduous perennial from a long, creeping, underground rhizome.
Leaves: Large, triangular, 3-pinnate, 60-170 cm long, 30-100 cm wide, with long, thick stipes, the ultimate segments numerous, woolly to smooth on the lower surface.
Notes: Most BC plants of this species belong to P. aquilinum ssp. lanuginosum. Two subspecies can be distinguished as follows:
1. Leaves broadly triangular, but rarely divided in 3 main segments; pinnules nearly at right angles to the rachis, their lower surface densely woolly or woolly short-hairy; the inner indusium fringed and sometimes also hairy.................... ssp. lanuginosum (Bong.) Hult.
1. Leaves mostly with 3 main subdivisions; pinnules at an oblique angle to the rachis, their lower surface nearly smooth and short-hairy only on the midrib; the inner indusium without hairs......................... ssp. latiusculum (Desv.) C.N. Page
Dry to wet forest margins, peat bogs, avalanche tracks, clearings, roadsides, burns, dry openings in forest and meadows, from the lowland and steppe to subalpine zones; common in BC south of 55degreeN (ssp. lanuginosum) or rare in the steppe zone S BC (ssp. latiusculum); cosmopolitan, E to W AB, disjunct to MB and ON, and S to GA, TX, NM, AZ and CA; Eurasia, Africa, Australia, S America.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
A shade-tolerant/intolerant, submontane to subalpine, cosmopolitan fem (transcontinental in North America). Occurs on water-shedding and water-receiving sites in boreal, temperate, mesotherrnal, and tropical climates; its occurrence decreases with increasing latitude and elevation. Scattered in coniferous forests where it is usually associated with Gaultheria shallon, Hylacamium splendens, and Vaccinium parvifolium; plentiful to abundant. often dominant, in initial communities on cutover and burnt sites where its vigorous growth and litterfall may hinder growth of conifers. Characteristic of fire-disturbed sites.
