Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Agrimonia rostellata Wallr.
- Family: Rose (Rosaceae)
- Flowering: July-September
- Field Marks: Agrimonies are distinguished by their small yellow flowers, pinnately compound leaves that have tiny leaflet segments mixed in with larger leaflets, and fruits with hooked bristles. This one differs from the other species by having only 5 or 7 larger leaflets and nearly smooth stems.
- Habitat: Woods.
- Habit: Perennial herb with slender, thickened roots.
- Stems: Upright, branched, slender, smooth or slightly hairy, up to 3 feet tall.
- Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, with 5 or 7 large leaflets and several small leaflet segments mixed in, the large leaflets elliptic to obovate, tapering to the base, toothed, smooth or hairy on the veins beneath, up to 2 inches long.
- Flowers: Many in spike-like racemes, yellow, up to 1/4 inch across.
- Sepals: 5, green, forming a short tube, the upper edge of the tube with a ring of hooked hairs.
- Petals: 5, yellow, free from each other, about 1/8 inch long.
- Stamens: 5-15.
- Pistils: 2, the ovaries concealed by the tube of the sepals.
- Fruits: Dry, covered by hooked bristles, containing 2 achenes.
- Notes: The hooked hairs on the fruits get lodged in the fur of mammals and are dispersed in that manner.
Previous Species -- Tall Hairy Groovebur (Agrimonia gryposepala)
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Next Species -- Woodland Groovebur (Agrimonia striata)
