Your help is appreciated. We depend on donations to help keep this site free and up to date for you. Can you please help us?

Donate

Native Plant Trust: Go Botany Discover thousands of New England plants

Geum

See list of 10 species in this genus

Fresh petal color should be noted on herbarium collections because the color sometimes fades to a dingy yellow-white on old collections, regardless of the color in life. Petal length is an important character for identification. However, the petals do not reach a fully expanded size until the sepals are in a reflexed position for most species (i.e., measuring petal length while the sepals are ascending or merely spreading will result in a shorter measurement than is typical for the species). See Smedmark et al. (2003) for rationale of including Waldsteinia in Geum.

  • 1a. Flowering stems scapose or subscapose, with highly reduced stem leaves or lacking leaves altogether; styles ± straight, no portion conspicuously curved, not articulated or articulated at the base
    • 2a. Basal leaves with 3 leaflets, the lateral leaflets not or only somewhat smaller than 
the terminal leaflet; gynoecium with 2–6 (–10) carpels; styles deciduous at the base in fruit by an articulation point; petals 5–10 mm long
    • 2b. Basal leaves with 1 large terminal leaflet and 0–6 pairs of very small lateral leaflets; gynoecium with 30 or more carpels; styles persistent and plumose in fruit; petals 8–15 mm long
  • 1b. Flowering stems with evident, well-developed leaves; styles articulated near the middle, the basal part hooked at the tip and becoming indurate, the apical part usually deciduous
    • 3a. Epicalyx absent; cluster of achenes stipitate on a stalk 1–2 mm long, elevated above the persistent calyx; petals 1–2 mm long
    • 3b. Epicalyx present; cluster of achenes sessile or nearly so with respect to the calyx; petals 2–10 mm long
      • 4a. Sepals petaloid, purple to red-purple, ascending to erect at anthesis [Fig. 845]; petals erect to ascending; flowers somewhat to conspicuously nodding (becoming erect in fruit) [Fig. 845]
      • 4b. Sepals sepaloid, green, reflexed at anthesis [Figs. 842,843]; petals spreading; flowers erect
        • 5a. Petals yellow to orange-yellow
          • 6a. Basal segment of style minutely glandular [Fig. 844]; terminal segment of basal leaf blades suborbicular to reniform, truncate to cordate at the base, 
much larger than the lateral segments; pedicels minutely and densely puberulent, sometimes also with scattered, longer hairs; fruiting receptacle glabrous or inconspicuously short-pubescent, the carpel scars plainly visible on the denuded receptacle
          • 6b. Basal segment of style eglandular; terminal segment of basal leaf blades oblanceolate to obovate, cuneate at the base, not or scarcely larger than the lateral segments; pedicels both conspicuously hirsute and minutely puberulent [Fig. 842]; fruiting receptacle hirsute, the hairs partially obscuring the carpel 
scars on the denuded receptacle
            • 7a. Achenes usually numbering 200–250 per cluster, evidently spreading-pubescent near the base of the basal segment of style; petals (5–) 6–10 mm long; pedicels relatively stout, mostly thicker than 1 mm; stipules of stem leaves relatively small, conspicuously reduced compared with the leaflets; leaf teeth usually sharply pointed
            • 7b. Achenes usually numbering fewer than 100 per cluster, the basal segment of the style glabrous; petals 4–7 mm long; pedicels relatively slender, mostly thinner than 1 mm; stipules of stem leaves relatively large, ± appearing as a pair of leaflets set close to the stem; leaf teeth usually blunt to obtusely pointed
        • 5b. Petals white to yellow-white
          • 8a. Pedicels both conspicuously hirsute and minutely puberulent [Fig. 842], relatively stout, mostly thicker than 1 mm; basal leaf blades variable, but commonly with 3–7 principal leaflets (smaller leaflets also often present; sometimes with only 1 principal leaflet); achenes usually numbering more than 160 per cluster 
 [Fig. 842]
          • 8b. Pedicels minutely and densely puberulent, sometimes also with scattered longer hairs [Fig. 843], relatively slender, mostly thinner than 1 mm; basal leaf blades with usually 3 principal leaflets; achenes usually numbering 30–160 per cluster [Fig. 843]
            • 9a. Petals ochroleucous, 2–4 mm long, much shorter than the sepals; leaf 
teeth usually blunt to obtusely pointed; stem moderately hirsute (at least in the basal half)
            • 9b. Petals white, (3.5–) 4–9 mm long, nearly as long as or longer than the sepals; leaf teeth sharply pointed; stem glabrous or sparsely hirsute near 
the base

Show All Couplets

 Show photos of:   Each photo represents one species in this genus.