Osmorhiza claytonii is a herbaceousperennial 45–90 centimetres (1–3 ft) tall and pubescent. Leaves are large, compound, deeply divided, and dentate. Flowers are small 1.5 millimetres (0.059 in), white, and clustered with others on a long-stalked umbel. Its native habitats include rich woods and wooded slopes.[8]
The leaves are yellowish green. There are white hairs on the stem and to a lesser extent on the leaves as well. It is ternately branched, having three-leafed branches. When broken it has an anise like smell or flavor.
The seeds of this plant have barbs on the end allowing them to stick to clothing, fur, or feathers.
Ecology
Small to medium-sized bees, wasps, flies, and beetles feed on the nectar and pollen of the flowers. The caterpillars of the butterfly Papilio polyxenes (Black Swallowtail) feed on the foliage.[9]
Similar species
O. claytonii is very similar in appearance to Osmorhiza longistylis (long-styled sweet-cicely) with a similar geographic range. The roots of O. longistylis have a stronger anise smell than those of O. claytonii, and the styles of the flowers protrude beyond the petals, while the styles of O. claytonii are shorter than the petals.[10]
^Denison, Edgar (2017). Missouri Wildflowers (Sixth ed.). Conservation Commission of the State of Missouri. p. 19. ISBN978-1-887247-59-7.
^Gleason, H. A. 1968. The Choripetalous Dicotyledoneae. vol. 2. 655 pp. In H. A. Gleason: New Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. New York Botanical Garden, New York
^Radford, A. E., H. E. Ahles & C. R. Bell. 1968. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas i–lxi, 1–1183. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill
^Voss, E. G. 1985. Michigan Flora. Part II Dicots (Saururaceae-Cornaceae). Bulletin of the Cranbrook Institute of Science 59. xix + 724.
