Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Wild Sarsaparilla
Aralia nudicaulis
Ivy/Pennywort/Devil's Club family (Araliaceae)

Wild Sarsaparilla enjoys open but shady forested ground. Plants consist of one tall leaf and one shorter leafless flowering stem that grow from a . The leaf divides into three sections well above the ground and each of these sections has three . Aralia is an old French-Canadian name and nudicaulis means "bare-stemmed." Linnaeus named this species in 1753.


© Sue Carnahan, downloaded from SEINet

Description

Stemless, with male and female flowers on separate plants (""). Compound leaves with up to 15" long. Margins finely . 20-50 flowers per . 5 petals, , and . White to green petals overlapping. a -like , tipped with .

Field Marks

and ball-head flowers in shady forests.

© Al Schneider

stamen -- the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower; The stamen consists of an anther supported by a filament.

An umbel is a collection of flowers on short stalks which spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs. The arrangement can vary from being flat-topped to almost spherical.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

carpel -- the basic female reproductive organ in flowering plants, consisting of the stigma, style, and ovary.

serrate -- toothed with asymmetrical teeth pointing forward; like the cutting edge of a saw.

style -- This is a long and thread-like structure that connects the stigma with the ovary. A flower may have a single style, or several of them.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

The botanical term "berry" is different from common usage. Strawberries and raspberries are not berries. But a tomatoe is. A true berry is a fruit with the seeds immersed in the pulp.

drupe -- A fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a hardened shell containing a seed. A peach is a drupe. A raspberry is composed of drupelets.

petiole -- the stalk of a leaf.

whorled -- The leaves are arranged in whorls of 3 or more leaves along the stems of a plant.

dioecious -- When male and female reproductive structures are on separate plants.

leaflets -- Each little leaf-like thing in a compound leaf is a leaflet.

rhizome -- root-like stems that may either grow horizontally at the soil surface or in other orientations underground.