Geum triflorum var. ciliatum, prairie smoke, old man's whiskers

9/29/2014 2:03 AM

Geum triflorum var. ciliatum, prairie smoke, old man’s whiskers; Rosaceae family

Native

Perennial

Distribution, all of the western states, all of the northern tier states, Washington to New York, similar east-west in southern Canada.

Another very interesting plant and another plant with a flower that doesn’t look like a flower.

Lauri Garden, Chicago, says “Geum triflorum, is the latin name for prairie smoke, and comes from the Greek word geno, which means giving perfume or to give an agreeable flavour. All Geum species have pleasantly scented roots and some species were used in cooking. A popular drink called Indian choclolate was made by combining Geum roots and leaves with water, wine, and sugar.”

Triflorum is simply 3 flowers.

 010

020

Sometimes the flower stalk [peduncle] is branched rather high. The three flower theme fails us in this photo.

The inflorescence is called a cyme. Taking about inflorescences is difficult but it seems that there is a major division. Cymes are determinate inflorescences, racemes are indeterminate inflorescences.

If this were a raceme leading buds would succeed each other climbing toward the sky. The leading bud of cymes stop, blossom, and lateral buds blossom to the side.

G. triflorum in this photo has primary leading bud in flower at the top of the main flower stalk, the peduncle with two clusters of three on lateral secondary flower-stalks.

030

The drawing below, taken from E-FLORA BC, is not of our variety of Geum triflorum. But Close enough. It shows the thick root that is its perenating organ, the organ that lets it persist from growing season to growing season, that makes it a perennial.

040

Jepson Herbarium says:  “Herbaceous perennial from thick, scaly rhizomes,

forming clumps 3 dm. or more broad …”

E-FORA BC says: “Perennial herb, soft- to coarse-hairy throughout, from a short thick rhizome and stout stem-base covered in old leaf bases …”

The FDA Fire Effects people say: “Prairie smoke has a thick scaly caudex [36,70]. It also produces short, thick rhizomes …”

Later in the same article: “Prairie smoke regenerates from seeds, rhizomes, and probably by sprouting from the caudex. However, as of this writing (2006) there is very little published information describing prairie smoke regeneration processes.”

The Missouri Botanical Garden says you can make a nice ground cover with the rhizomes.

The Wisconsin Master Gardener says they spread very gradually by rhizomes. They make a mound of foliage six to ten inches deep.

Whatever, the rhizome process results in thick patches of Geum triflorum at various places in Drumheller Springs park.

050

The Wisconsin Master Gardener says the sepals are fused so they cannot open completely. Bees have to force their way in to pollinate the flower.

The sepals look welded in the photo below.

060

These sepals look like they are opening and petals are showing through.

080

I’ve never seen Geum triflorum petals flared, opened, displayed and I’ve seen no photos taken by botanists with G. triflorum petals flaring but there must be a moment when it happens. How else do we get from there to here?

The whiter looking structures must have been petals.

090

100

But perhaps they never flare. The fruit, here, are developing their plumes and it looks like there are dried and broken petals that could never have flared.

110

Perhaps this image is explanatory. The dry petals are still contained in the opening sepals. They are not yet broken by expanding plumes.

This image doesn’t fit perfectly with the shorter, more contained plumes of the previous image but maybe that’s how it goes. Maybe the dry petals of the previous image were broken early by wind or rain.

120

I opened this flower long ago. Long before I had done reading on the plant. I think I was only curious about animals getting in to fertilize the flower. The cutaway isn’t as useful as it needs to be.

130

I don’t know what the white ‘hairs’ are. They are apparently concealing the ovaries. We can see the ‘hairy’ pink sepals containing the light yellow petals. The receptacle, the swelling of the stem from which the flower parts rise, seems evident. This is a rose family plant so it should have an hypanthium. I don’t see an hypanthium.

One source says the ovary is superior. That seems inconsistent with an hypanthium. But another source, Jepson herbarium, says the hypanthium is shallow. 

140

The yellow-gray strands rising above the white hairs in the base are styles. They are topped by darker yellow stigmas. The styles will lengthen and expand into plumes to carry the seeds away. They apparently expand with enough force to break away dried petals. The sepals probably peel back from drying … contracting while drying.

The plumes may be nearly 3 inches long.

As I said above, the Wisconsin Master Gardner thinks bees force their way into the flower for pollen and/or nectar. It seems to me that it must be small insects that pollinate the flower. Any animal that enters will touch the stigmas before they get to the anthers so cross pollination is probable.

150

Jepson is the only source I used that mentions an hypanthium. It says of the Geum genus that their hypanthium is shallow and says of Geum triflorum species ‘… hypanthium bractlets 5-15 mm, linear-oblanceolate, outcurved …”, less than a quarter inch to a little more than a half inch.

The hypanthium and its bractlets are, sad to say, out of focus in this photo. But we seem to be looking at an hypanthium in this image. It is considerably less distinctive than a rose hip.

160

These hypanthium are a little clearer. Not much

162

Most of the leaves are basal but there are a couple of cauline leaves, often, if not always.

165

Stipules at the base of cauline leaves is another characteristic of the rose family.

170

180

190

192

Most of the leaves are basal.

195

200

Note the channeled look of the leaf stem.

220

230

Note the ‘keeled’ look of the leaves.

240

250

I’ve complained in the past about the many names for bracts. Now I can complain about the names not being helpful.

There are bracts that seem to rise from the sepals. They may be a single spike and they may be cleft.

260

The bracts here are distinctly channeled or, perhaps ‘keeled’ is the term. We need to see the back. The clefts are minimal.

270

Bract branches are deeply cleft.
275

What seem to be involucre bracts look messy. And at least some of them look so much like leaves that perhaps they are cauline leaves at the top of the flower-stalk. They seem to rise from what I suppose is the receptacle of the stem.

Cauline leaves on the pedicles of the flowers contribute to the messy look.

The E-FLORA BC drawing, even though it is a drawing of a different variety of G. triflorum, var. triflorum, displays the pattern of leaves and bracts better then my photos.

The flower-stalk of our species variety, var. ciliatum is not branched in the same way. It does have cauline leaves at the node that develops a branch in var. triflorum. 

280

290

300

The involucre bracts and/or leaves rising from the receptacle. The flowers are ‘nodding’, ‘pendant’; they are facing downward. They will rise up to a vertical position above the receptacle and the involucre as they ‘go to seed’. Other flowers in the park start from vertical leading buds, bend down and rise up when they go to seed, as G. triflorum does. I wonder if there is some advantage in that behavior.

310

The Wisconsin Master Gardiner says these seed heads can be harvested and dried for use in flower arrangements. Pick the entire stem and hang it to dry.

320

I have no photos of the fruit. Next year.

Miscellaneous comments:

The fruit is an achene. Achenes are indehiscent, they do not open and dump their seeds on maturity. The protective covering must rot away.

The fire people had this to say about fruits and seeds, “…Seed production: Stevens [116] collected 142 seeds from a single "mature" prairie smoke plant "of average size," "growing where competition was low."
Seed dispersal: Fruits are wind-dispersed [123]. Zimmerman [130] noted that "seed heads do not all ripen together...., yet suddenly and individually fall off, especially during rainstorms."”

First Americans made medicinal tea of the roots.

The Wisconsin Master Gardener on the leaves:

“The deeply cut, almost ferny leaves are semi-evergreen, with the foliage often turning red, purple and orange from late fall through winter. The leaves often look poor during the heat of the summer, but resume growth in late summer and fall to become a deep grey-green as other perennials are senescing for the season. When dry or during winter the leaves tend to lay flat on the ground, but perk up quickly when conditions improve.

Prairie smoke is among the earliest bloomers on the prairie.”

He/she says G. triflorum is a poor competitor and is easily out-competed by other more aggressive plants, native or introduced. That seems strange to me, the patches of G. triflorum in Drumheller Springs Park look aggressive, like they can take over any area from anything. But the patches do seem to be restricted to a few feet a cross.