Sanicula marilandica

Snakeroot

Single Fruit and Old Male Flowers

Moose Mountain Provincial Park
22-Aug-2009

This type of fruit is a schizocarp.  The schizocarp will split into two sub-fruits known as mericarps.  This schizocarp is about to split and the split line can be seen in the photograph.

This plant is andromonoecious which means it has both perfect and male flowers.  The perfect flowers have the potential to become fertilized and develop fruit.  The male flowers simply produce pollen and die.  The perfect flowers are sessile and their ovaries are covered with uncinate, bulbous-based prickles.  The male flowers are pedicellate and do not possess ovaries.

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Sanicula: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora (BF)  and Flora of Alberta (FOA) leading to this genus. 
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NOT [plants with a bluish tinge; flowers in dense globose heads; bracts spiny] (FOA)

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foliage NOT spiny

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leaves palmate with 5-7 large leaflets; NOT [leaves pinnate, trifoliate, or simple]

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plants LACKING axillary bulblets

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inflorescence NOT bluish

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fruit covered with short, hooked spines

 

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Umbelliferae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora leading to this family.
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herbs; NOT [shrubs or trees]

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

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plants NOT with colored milky juice

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stems hollow

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plants with more than one normal leaf

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

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

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flowers in umbels

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

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parts of flowers mostly in fives; NOT [parts of flowers in twos or fours]

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

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stamens 10 or fewer; NOT [stamens usually more than 10]

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styles 2; NOT [styles 5]

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ovary inferior; NOT [ovary superior]