Geum triflorum
Geum canadense
old man's beard, old-man's whiskers, prairie smoke, three-flower avens, three-sisters, torchflower
benoîte du Canada, white avens
10–45 cm, downy to pilose, hairs 0.1–3 mm, sometimes septate-glandular.
30–100 cm, glabrate to downy, hairs to 1.5 mm, sometimes glandular.
basal 4–30 cm, blade interruptedly pinnate, major leaflets 10–18, alternating with 6–16 minor ones gradually increasing in size distally, terminal leaflet slightly larger than major laterals;
cauline 1–5 cm, stipules adnate to leaf, indistinguishable from leaflets/lobes, blade bractlike, not resembling basal, opposite, pinnate-pinnatifid.
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.
(1–)3–5(–7)-flowered.
3–15-flowered.
densely woolly, sometimes glandular.
densely hairy, hairs of varying lengths, few long stiff ones, sometimes glandular.
nodding, erect in fruit;
epicalyx bractlets 6–15 mm;
hypanthium maroon, purple, or greenish mottled with purple, may turn pale brown in fruit;
sepals erect, 7–14 mm;
petals erect, cream to yellowish suffused with pink or purple, or purple-veined, elliptic, 7–13 mm, shorter to longer than sepals, apex rounded to obtuse.
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.
sessile, densely puberulent.
sessile, densely bristly, hairs 1–2.3 mm.
wholly persistent or distal 3–7 mm tardily deciduous, not or inconspicuously geniculate-jointed, 15–70 mm, apex not or occasionally ± hooked, pilose to apex or nearly so.
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.
= 42.
Geum triflorum
Geum canadense
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
At the beginning of the twentieth century, E. L. Greene described over a dozen species belonging to the Geum triflorum complex based on differences in leaf form and indument, the relative length and shape of the epicalyx bractlets and sepals, and petal length and shape. Most of these species were quickly reduced to synonymy by other botanists. When specimens are examined from across the continent, most of the characters used to separate species in the G. triflorum complex show nearly continuous variation. It seems best to treat these variants as belonging to one species. Whether and how to classify the variation within the species will remain controversial. Some character expressions correlate reasonably well with dividing the species into two varieties, as was first proposed by N. C. Fassett (1928). Variety triflorum occurs east of the Rocky Mountains and is typical of the grasslands covering the northern Great Plains; it also is the variety found in the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico. Variety ciliatum is common throughout the rest of the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and Cascade Range. Intermediate specimens occur here and there, particularly in Alberta and British Columbia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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.)
1. Basal leaves with larger leaflets toothed or cleft less than 1/2 their lengths; fruiting styles persistent, 28–70 mm. | var. triflorum |
1. Basal leaves with larger leaflets cleft more than 1/2 their lengths; fruiting styles: proximal segments persistent, 15–40 mm, distal segments tardily deciduous, 3–7 mm. | var. ciliatum |
- Local floras:
BC, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites:
CalFlora, CalPhotos, 
Flora NW, 
IL Wildflowers, 
MI Flora, 
MN Wildflowers, 
PNW Herbaria, 
SW CO Wildflowers, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
- Local Web sites:
Go Botany, IL Wildflowers, 
KS Wildflowers, 
LA Plants, 
MD Biodiversity, MI Flora, MN Wildflowers, 
MO Plants, PNW Herbaria - WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- USDA Plants Database
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
