Sium suave
 
Water-Parsnip

Early Leaf

Ruby Lake, Near Hudson Bay
19-July-2019

There are two types of leaves.  The first appears early in the spring, often grows under water, and is twice or three times pinnate.  The second, later growing type is singly pinnate with narrow, serrate leaflets 2-10 cm long.  

Pictured here is the distal portion of an early leaf.

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

NOT [plants with a bluish tinge; flowers in dense globose heads; bracts spiny]

NOT [leaves usually trifoliolate; leaflets palmate, 10-30 cm wide]

foliage not spiny

leaves (including lowest) divided into a few well-developed leaflets; NOT [leaves much divided, with leaflets or segments numerous];  NOT [leaves simple]

leaves once pinnately divided, with more than 3 leaflets per leaf; NOT [leaves 2 or more times pinnate], NOT [foliage digitately compound]

leaflets more than 2 mm wide; NOT [leaflets mostly 1-2 mm wide]

leaflets linear to lanceolate, much longer than broad; NOT [leaflets elliptic to ovate to oblong in outline, twice as long as broad or less]

leaflets serrate; NOT [leaflets entire]

plants lacking axillary bulblets; NOT [plants with axillary bulblets largely replacing flowers]

flowers white; NOT [flowers yellow]

inflorescence not bluish

fruit 2-3 mm long; NOT [fruit about 2 mm long], NOT [fruit 5-6 mm long]

fruit generally 3 times as long as broad or less; NOT [fruit several times longer than broad]

fruit oblong to elliptical; NOT [fruit linear to clavate]

fruit not spiny; NOT [fruit covered with short, hooked spines]

 

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

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

herbs; NOT [shrubs or trees]

plants not with colored milky juice

stems hollow

plants with more than one normal leaf

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

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

flowers in umbels

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

flowers with two floral rings

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

each petal distinct from the others

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

styles 2; NOT [styles 5]

ovary inferior; NOT [ovary superior]