Chamaerhodos erecta
 
Chamaerhodos

First Year Plant, Bottom

Oro Lake Regional Park
23-June-2011

The first year plants appear to consist of just a basal rosette. The stem appears to develop in the second year.  Marcescent leaves are those that remain attached to the plant after withering.

Note that the key to the genera in Flora of Alberta requires that calyx-bractlets be present.  In fact, this species does not have calyx-bractlets.

Chamaerhodos: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. 

plant entirely herbaceous; NOT [plant a half-shrub, with trailing woody stems], NOT [shrubs or trees]

plant with dense rosettes

leaves 2-4 ternately divided into linear lobes; NOT [leaves 3-foliolate, the leaflets wedge-shaped], NOT [leaves simple, usually toothed]

hypanthium lacking hooked prickles; NOT [hypanthium with hooked prickles]

petals small, little if any longer than the sepals; NOT [petals usually longer than the sepals]

petals white; NOT [petals yellow]

stamens 5; NOT [stamens 10-many]

carpels 5-20; NOT [carpels 10-many], NOT [carpels 2]

carpels becoming achenes (sometimes on a fleshy receptacle]; NOT [carpels becoming drupelets (raspberry-like)]

 

Rosaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  leading to this family. 

herbs; NOT [shrubs or trees]

plants terrestrial or semiaquatic; NOT [plants aquatic, leaves submerged or floating]

plants NOT with colored milky juice

plants with more than one normal leaf

some or all leaves alternate; NOT [leaves opposite, whorled, or basal]

leaves with stipules; NOT [leaves without stipules, or having glands]

flowers with two floral rings, and with each petal distinct from the others

flowers regular in shape; NOT [flowers irregular in shape]

calyx regular; NOT [calyx irregular, some sepals smaller than others]

stamens usually separate or partly so, not in a column; NOT [stamens numerous, united into a column]

ovary of one or more carpels, either separate or enclosed by a fleshy receptacle; NOT [ovary of 5 united carpels]