Sium suave
 
Water-Parsnip

Primary Bracts

Ruby Lake, Near Hudson Bay
20-July-2019

Each inflorescence is a compound umbel. Each compound umbel is composed of multiple umbellets.  Each umbellet is found at the end of a ray and all the rays arise from a single point at the end of the peduncle.  Each umbellet is composed of multiple pedicellate flowers where all the pedicels arise from a single point at the end of the ray.  Primary bracts are found at base of the rays and secondary bracts are found at the base of the pedicels.

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]