Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
28. Fabaceae, the Bean Family
3. Glycyrrhiza L. -- Licorice
1. Glycyrrhiza lepidota Pursh -- Wild licorice
Perennial herb 3-10 dm tall, from long creeping rhizomes, often forming patches,
puberulent or glabrous, glandular-punctate with yellowish or brownish translucent
glands; stem simple below, woody at the base, usually with short lateral
branches above. Leaves pinnate, mostly 8-18 cm long including the rather
short petiole; leaflets 7-21, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate or seldom
elliptic, 1.5-5 cm long, 5-16 mm wide, often smaller on later developed leaves,
apiculate, glandular-punctate on both surfaces; petiolules mostly 1-2 mm long;
stipules brownish, lanceolate, 3-7 mm long, deciduous. Racemes
axillary, spikelike, many-flowered, on peduncles 1-7 cm long; bracts
deciduous, breaking off to leave the cupulate base; pedicels 1 mm or
less long. Calyx tubular-campanulate in the lower half, 5-6 mm long,
glandular-stipitate on the outside, the upper 2 lobes united for 1/2 or more
of their length; petals cream or creamy white, the standard 10-14 mm
long, wings and keel shorter; stamens 10, diadelphous in a 9 + 1 arrangement.
Fruits brown, indehiscent, ellipsoid, 1-2 cm long, densely covered with
hooked bristles, the style usually persistent as a terminal beak ca. 3 mm long.
Flowering Jul--Aug, fruiting late Jul--Sep., the fruits commonly persisting
into late fall. Shores, stream banks, wet meadows, floodplains, moist prairies,
ditches and drier habitats; common; (MN to Alta. and WA, s to AR, TX and CA).