Flora of North America species comparison

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Actaea

actée, baneberry, bugbane, cohosh, necklaceweed
Habit Herbs, perennial, from caudices ca. 1 cm thick.
Leaves

blade 1-3-ternately or -pinnately compound;

leaflets ovate to narrowly elliptic, unlobed to 3-lobed, margins sharply cleft, irregularly dentate.
Inflorescences

terminal or axillary, 25(-more)-flowered racemes, 2-17 cm;

bracts leaflike, sometimes present between leaves and inflorescence, bracteoles 1-2, at base of each pedicel, not forming involucre.
Flowers

bisexual, radially symmetric;

sepals not persistent in fruit, 3-5, whitish green, plane, orbiculate, 2-4.5 mm;

petals 4-10, distinct, cream colored, plane, spatulate to obovate, clawed, 2-4.5 mm;

nectary absent;

stamens 15-50;

filaments filiform;

staminodes absent between stamens and pistils;

pistil 1, simple;

ovules many per pistil;

style very short or absent.
Fruits

berries, solitary, sessile, broadly ellipsoid to nearly globose, sides smooth;

beak a wart, terminal, to 1 mm.
Seeds

dark brown to reddish brown, obconic to wedge-shaped, rugulose.
x

= 8.

Actaea
Distribution
map from USDA
Temperate to cool forests throughout Northern Hemisphere
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species ca. 8 (2 in the flora).

The two species in North America are similar to each other vegetatively and differ primarily in flower and fruit characteristics.

Etymology: Greek, aktea, ancient name for the elder, probably for leaf similarity

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Parent taxa Ranunculaceae
Subordinate taxa
A. pachypoda, A. rubra
Key
1. Pedicel in fruit bright red, stout, (0.7–)0.9–2.2(–3) mm diam., ± as thick as axis of raceme; stigma at anthesis as broad as or broader than ovary, 1.5–2.8 mm diam. in flower and fruit; petals truncate or cleft, often antherlike at apex; berries white, very rarely red.
A. pachypoda
1. Pedicel in fruit dull green or brown, slender, 0.3–0.7 mm diam., thinner than axis of raceme; stigma at anthesis narrower than ovary, 0.7–1.2 mm diam. in flower and fruit; petals acute or obtuse, not cleft or antherlike at apex; berries red or white.
A. rubra
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 504. 175: Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 222. (1754)
Source FNA vol. 3. Treatment author: Bruce A. Ford.
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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