Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Sanicula gregaria Bickn.
- Family: Carrot (Umbelliferae)
- Flowering: April-August
- Field Marks: The distinguishing features of this black-snakeroot are the styles longer than the bristles of the fruit and the stalked fruits up to 1/2 inch long.
- Habitat: Rich woods, floodplain woods.
- Habit: Perennial herb from slender rhizomes.
- Stems: Upright, branched, slender, smooth, up to 2 1/2 feet tall.
- Leaves: Basal and alternate, deeply divided into 3-5 segments, the segments obovate to elliptic, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, sharply toothed, smooth, the upper leaves similar but smaller; leaf stalks greatly dilated.
- Flowers: Several at the tips of unequal, forked rays, greenish yellow, on short stalks, some flowers with only stamens, others with both stamens and pistils.
- Sepals: 5, green, attached below, about 1/24 inch long.
- Petals: 5, greenish yellow, free from each other, about 1/16 inch long.
- Stamens: 5.
- Pistils: 2, the ovaries inferior, covered with hooked prickles.
- Fruits: In pairs, covered by hooked prickles, up to 1/6 inch long.
- Notes: The hooked prickles of the fruits often become entangled in the fur of animals and are dispersed in this manner.
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