Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


Home	About NPWRC	Our Science	Staff	Employment	Contacts	Common Questions	About the Site

Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Cut-leaf Water Parsnip
Berula erecta (Huds.) Coville

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Parsley (Umbelliferae)
Flowering: May-October
Field Marks: The distinguishing features of this species are the white flowers borne in compound umbels, and its pinnately compound leaves with 9-23 oblong leaflets up to 3/4 inch wide with at least the uppermost deeply jagged lobed.
Habitat: Swamps, springs, bogs, sometimes in shallow water.
Habit: Upright or reclining perennial herb with clusters of thickened roots.
Stems: Upright or reclining, branched, up to 3 feet long, smooth.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound with 9-23 leaflets, each leaflet oblong, up to 3/4 inch wide, with or without teeth, but those of the upper leaves deeply jagged lobed, smooth.
Flowers: Many borne in compound umbels up to 3 inches across, the umbels with as many as 20 rays; bracts 4-8, linear; flower stalks up to 1/4 inch long.
Sepals: 5, green, minute.
Petals: 5, free from each other, white, up to 1/16 inch long.
Stamens: 5.
Pistils: Ovary inferior.
Fruits: Ovoid, flattened laterally, up to 1/10 inch long, smooth.
Notes: This species in the past has been called Berula pusilla.

Previous Species -- American Winter-cress (Barbarea orthoceras)
Return to Species List -- Group 6
Next Species -- Brewer's Bitter-cress (Cardamine breweri)

Accessibility FOIA Privacy Policies and Notices

U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/6/beruerec.htm
Page Contact Information: Webmaster
Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:26:12 EST
Menlo Park, CA [caww54]