Stems few or several from a perennial fibrous root, erect or ascending, often slightly fleshy but weak, from a few inches to 2 feet long. Lower leaves long-stalked; upper ones short-stalked or sessile; blades 3 to 5 inches broad, parted into five to seven wedge-shaped, cleft or toothed segments, the blades small at flowering time, much enlarged later. Flowers 1 to 1 ½ inches broad, with five to seven spreading, yellowish green, petallike sepals; true petals minute, fifteen to twenty-five in number and much shorter than the numerous yellow stamens. Fruit about 1 inch broad, consisting of several small pods (follicles) each about one-fourth of an inch long and tipped with a straight, slender beak of about one-fourth its length.

A rare or local plant of low or swampy woodlands, New England to Delaware, central and western New York to Michigan. Flowering from April to June.

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 61

American Globeflower - Trollius laxus