General: Biennial or short-lived perennial herb from a cluster of fibrous roots; stems usually single, erect or nearly so, 10-60 cm tall, smooth, hollow.
Leaves: Basal, persistent, round to kidney-shaped, not divided, but sometimes inner ones 3-parted or -lobed, 1.5-4 cm long, 2-5 cm wide, base shallowly to deeply notched, margins round-toothed to round-lobed, the stalks up to 10 cm long; lower stem leaves similar to basal, but often deeply 3-lobed or -parted; upper stem leaves and bracts divided into 3 to 5 linear or narrowly lanceolate, entire segments.
Flowers: Inflorescence a 3- to 50-flowered cyme; flower stalks to 10 cm long, smooth or nearly so; receptacle sparsely long-hairy; petals 5, distinct, yellow, fading to white, 1.5-3.5 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, nectary on upper surface, the nectary scale smooth, 0.5-0.7 mm long; sepals 5, spreading to bent back, early deciduous, greenish-yellow and usually purplish-tinged, 2.5-4 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, smooth above; stamens 15-30; pistils 20-40 (50).
Fruits: Achenes, 20 to 50 in an egg-shaped head 3-6 mm long, 2.5-5 mm wide, the achenes egg-shaped, 1.4-1.6 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, smooth; beaks awl-shaped, curved, 0.1-0.2 mm long.
Wet to moist clearings, meadows, streambanks, shores and ditches from the lowland to subalpine zones; frequent throughout BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, rare along the coast; N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to ID, CO, FL, TX and WA, Cuba.
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)
