Geum canadense
Geum virginianum
benoîte du Canada, white avens
cream avens, cream or Virginia or pale avens, cream-color avens
30–100 cm, glabrate to downy, hairs to 1.5 mm, sometimes glandular.
25–110 cm, puberulent and hirsute to densely hirsute, some hairs 2–2.5 mm.
basal 10–25 cm, blade simple or pinnate, major leaflets 3–5, plus 0–4 minor basal ones, terminal leaflet larger than major laterals;
cauline 3–8 cm, stipules ± free, 4–13 × 1–7 mm, blade 3-foliolate or simple and 3-lobed to unlobed.
basal 12–25 cm, blade simple or pinnate, major leaflets 3–5, plus 0–4 minor basal ones, terminal leaflet slightly larger than major laterals;
cauline 4–15(–23) cm, stipules ± free, 11–48 × 6–35 mm, blade 3-foliolate or simple and 3-lobed to unlobed.
3–15-flowered.
3–14-flowered.
densely hairy, hairs of varying lengths, few long stiff ones, sometimes glandular.
puberulent, sometimes with scattered hairs, eglandular.
erect;
epicalyx bractlets 0.5–1.5 mm;
hypanthium green;
sepals spreading but soon reflexed, 3–6 mm;
petals spreading, white, obovate to oblong, (3–)4–8 mm, ± equal to or slightly longer than sepals, apex rounded.
erect;
epicalyx bractlets 1–1.5 mm;
hypanthium green;
sepals spreading but soon reflexed, 3–6 mm;
petals spreading, cream, oblong to elliptic, (1.5–)2–3.5 mm, shorter than sepals, apex rounded.
sessile, densely bristly, hairs 1–2.3 mm.
sessile, densely bristly, hairs 1–2.3 mm.
geniculate-jointed, proximal segment persistent, 2–8 mm, apex hooked, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely hairy or stipitate-glandular, distal segment deciduous, 1–2 mm, pilose in basal 1/2, hairs much longer than diam. of style.
geniculate-jointed, proximal segment persistent, (3–)4.5–7 mm, apex hooked, glabrate, distal segment deciduous, 1–2 mm, pilose in basal 1/2, hairs much longer than diam. of style.
= 42.
Geum canadense
Geum virginianum
Varieties and forms have been described in an effort to classify the variation encompassed in Geum canadense. In the eastern half of the United States, it is by far the most common, widespread, and variable of the Geum species. Nearly all writers of recent floras have not found it worthwhile to apply names to the variants. Perhaps the most distinctive and worthy of further consideration are plants from the southwestern corner of the range in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. These plants, some of which fit Fernald and Weatherby’s description of var. texanum, bloom from late March through May, significantly earlier than the rest of the species, which typically flowers after June first, even in the other southern states.
Geum canadense hybridizes with G. urbanum (= G. ×catlingii J.-P. Bernard & R. Gauthier); see discussion under 15. G. urbanum.
Geum album J. F. Gmelin is a superfluous name that pertains here.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Geum virginianum has been confused nomenclaturally with G. laciniatum. B. L. Robinson and M. L. Fernald (1908) and J. K. Small (1933) misapplied the name G. virginianum to the species correctly named G. laciniatum, and they used the names G. flavum (Robinson and Fernald) and G. hirsutum (Small) for what is correctly named G. virginianum. Much of what is named G. virginianum in older herbarium collections is actually G. laciniatum.
In habit and leaf form, Geum virginianum is similar to G. canadense. Geum virginianum differs in having cream petals shorter than the sepals (versus white and usually equal to or longer), the largest stipules of the cauline leaves 20–48 × 10–35 mm (versus smaller), and the stems hirsute to densely hirsute (versus glabrate to downy with only scattered longer hairs). The variability within G. canadense is so great that for some specimens it is difficult to determine whether they belong to G. canadense or G. virginianum.
L. A. Raynor (1952) believed Geum virginianum to be an F1 hybrid between G. aleppicum and G. canadense. K. R. Robertson (1974) acknowledged that some herbarium specimens assignable to G. virginianum from the area where G. aleppicum and G. canadense are sympatric have mostly aborted pollen and may represent natural hybrids. He pointed out that farther south, where G. aleppicum is absent, specimens of G. virginianum appear fully fertile and seem to represent a valid species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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