Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Sanguisorba minor Scop.
- Family: Rose (Rosaceae)
- Flowering: May-July
- Field Marks: This genus is unusual in the rose family by having flowers with 4 sepals, 0 petals, 12 stamens, and 2 pistils. Each leaf is pinnately compound with 7-21 nearly round, coarsely toothed leaflets.
- Habitat: Often in moist, disturbed soil, including roadsides and fields.
- Habit: Perennial herb with rhizomes.
- Stems: Upright, branched, up to 2 feet tall, hairy.
- Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound with 7-21 leaflets; leaflets nearly round, 1/2-1 inch long, smooth or sparsely hairy, coarsely toothed.
- Flowers: Crowded into a dense, spherical to ovoid, greenish head, each flower subtended by a ciliate bract.
- Sepals: 4, greenish to brown, united below to form a cup bearing small warts on the outer surface, the lobes up to 1/4 inch long.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: About 12.
- Pistils: 2, free from each other, smooth.
- Fruits: Several in an ovoid or spherical head, each achene enclosed by the persistent floral cup up to 1/4 inch long.
- Notes: This species is a native of Europe and is frequently seen in cultivation.
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