Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Small Enchanters Nightshade
Circaea alpina
Evening-Primrose family (Onagraceae)

This is a delicate plant with tiny flowers in a cluster. The is covered with tiny hooked . This is a very inconspicuous plant not often encountered in moist woods, but put it in your garden and it may very well take over. Circe was the Greek goddess of magic, an enchantress.


©2009 Keir Morse

Description

plants from , growing from 2-20" tall, often with branched stems. Leaves with , about 2" long by 1 1/2" wide, oval to heart-shaped, to nearly . Minute flowers in clusters, each flower petal only 1/16" long, white to pink, notched to near the middle. a covered with hooked hairs.

Field Marks

Widely spreading low plant with minute white flowers and numerous leaves.

© Al Schneider

An entire leaf has smooth edges. Not toothed or lobed.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

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

capsule -- a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. In most cases the capsule splits apart to release seeds.

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

bristle -- A straight, stiff hair.

petiole -- the stalk of a leaf.

blade -- Just the flat part of a leaf. Not the stem.

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