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low agrimony, slender groovebur, smallfruit agrimony

Habit Herbs, 3–11 dm.
Roots

tubers ± narrowly oblong, thickened.

Stems

with short-stipitate-glandular hairs and pubescent to villous and hirsute (hairs scattered, erect, 3–4 mm, stiff).

Leaves

mid cauline stipules ± falcate to ± 1/2-round, margins deeply incised;

major leaflets 3–9 (mid cauline 5–7), minor 0 or 1 pair;

major leaflet blades obovate to elliptic, terminal largest, largest of these 2.9–7 × 1.7–3.7 cm, margins serrate to dentate, apex obtuse to acute, abaxial surface rarely with glistening sessile-glandular hairs and pubescent to pilose and hirsute (hairs stiff, scattered, 1–2 mm, densest along major veins).

Inflorescences

axes pubescent to villous and hirsute (hairs stiff proximally, erect and 2 mm to ascending distally and 1 mm).

Flowers

usually ± alternate.

Fruiting

hypanthia turbinate to obconic, 2.2–4 × 3–4.6 mm, ± deeply sulcate, hooked bristles in 3 circumferential rows, proximal row spreading 45–90°, glandular-hairy (hairs short-stipitate), grooves strigose, ridges rarely sparsely hirsute (sepal bases rarely pubescent along rim).

Agrimonia microcarpa

Phenology Flowering late Jul–Sep.
Habitat Edges, open spaces and thickets, deciduous or mixed pine-deciduous woods
Elevation 0–600 m (0–2000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; NJ; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV
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Discussion

Of conservation concern.

The ranges of Agrimonia microcarpa and A. pubescens overlap from North Carolina through Arkansas. Only rarely do populations of either species occur in the range of the other species beyond that contact area. Plants occurring within the range of A. pubescens that resemble A. microcarpa but lack one or more of the above characteristics have been included in A. pubescens. Observations of plants of A. pubescens grown from seed in the garden at Northern Illinois University suggest that some, if not most, plants resembling A. microcarpa are young second-year plants or are under stress. Ambiguous identifications are most clearly resolved when mature fruits are present.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 9, p. 315.
Parent taxa Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Agrimonieae > Agrimonia
Sibling taxa
A. gryposepala, A. incisa, A. parviflora, A. pubescens, A. rostellata, A. striata
Synonyms A. pubescens var. microcarpa, A. pumila
Name authority Wallroth: Beitr. Bot. 1: 39, plate 1, fig. 3. (1842)
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