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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Small Burnet
Sanguisorba minor Scop.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Rose (Rosaceae)
Flowering: May-July
Field Marks: This genus is unusual in the rose family by having flowers with 4 sepals, 0 petals, 12 stamens, and 2 pistils. Each leaf is pinnately compound with 7-21 nearly round, coarsely toothed leaflets.
Habitat: Often in moist, disturbed soil, including roadsides and fields.
Habit: Perennial herb with rhizomes.
Stems: Upright, branched, up to 2 feet tall, hairy.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound with 7-21 leaflets; leaflets nearly round, 1/2-1 inch long, smooth or sparsely hairy, coarsely toothed.
Flowers: Crowded into a dense, spherical to ovoid, greenish head, each flower subtended by a ciliate bract.
Sepals: 4, greenish to brown, united below to form a cup bearing small warts on the outer surface, the lobes up to 1/4 inch long.
Petals: 0.
Stamens: About 12.
Pistils: 2, free from each other, smooth.
Fruits: Several in an ovoid or spherical head, each achene enclosed by the persistent floral cup up to 1/4 inch long.
Notes: This species is a native of Europe and is frequently seen in cultivation.

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/6/sangmino.htm
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Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:26:43 EST
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