There's a plant growing beneath a sugar maple on Main Street in
Concord, Massachusetts, and I haven't been able to figure out what it
is.

Here are some blurry cell phone photos.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/8/...8/840A0472.JPG
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/8/...8/840A0472.JPG

As you can see, it has compound umbels with tiny white flowers. The
leaves divide into three, and the leaflets are deeply lobed and
sometimes themselves divided into three. The stems are hairless and
greenish-purple. The tiny fruits are about 6mm long, have 5 ribs, are
hairy, oblong and narrowed at the base. The styles are about 2mm long
and extend beyond the petals.

So this plant looks something like Aniseroot (Osmorhiza longistylis),
but it doesn't have an odor as Osmorhiza has. Also, the stipules
aren't hairy, and the fruits seem too small.

The plant also looks like Honewort (Cryptotaenia canadensis), but it
has bracts beneath its umbels unlike the Honewort, its leaves seem too
small. It does seem that the rays (the branches of the umbel) are of
unequal length, as with the Honewort.

It also resembles Scotch Lovage (Ligusticum scotchicum), but there is
no sheath on the base of each leaf, and Scotch Lovage grows on sandy
and rocky soil.

So, I'm stumped, but maybe somebody out there knows the answer.

Paul

On Jun 10, 12:47 am, pcgallagher wrote:

So this plant looks something like Aniseroot (Osmorhiza longistylis),
but it doesn't have an odor as Osmorhiza has. Also, the stipules
aren't hairy, and the fruits seem too small.


It's Osmorhiza longistylis. Wikipedia's article on O. longistylis is
apparently mistaken in stating that O. longistylis' leaves have an
odor. The fruits are small in young plants,.

More information is available at www.botanicus.org
Lowry PP; Jones AG. 1984. Systematics of Osmorhiza.
Annals of Missouri Botanical Garden 71(4): 1128-1171.

Paul