This plant is growing beneath a sugar maple in front of the Concord Public Library on Main Street in Concord, Massachusetts. I haven't been able to identify it. Here are some blurry cell phone photos. http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/8/25/185978/840A0472.JPG http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/8/25/185978/840A0472.JPG As you can see, it has compound umbels with tiny white flowers. The leaves divide into three, and the leaflets are deeply lobed and sometimes themselves divided into three. The stems are hairless and greenish-purple. The tiny fruits are about 6mm long, have 5 ribs, are hairy, oblong and narrowed at the base. The styles are about 2mm long and extend beyond the petals. So this plant looks something like Aniseroot (Osmorhiza longistylis), but it doesn't have an odor as Osmorhiza has. Also, the stipules aren't hairy, and the fruits seem a little too small. The plant also looks like Honewort (Cryptotaenia canadensis), but it has bracts beneath its umbels unlike the Honewort, and its leaves seem too small. It does seem that the rays (the branches of the umbel) are of unequal length, as with the Honewort. It also resembles Scotch Lovage (Ligusticum scotchicum), but there is no sheath on the base of each leaf, and Scotch Lovage grows on sandy and rocky soil. So, I'm stumped, but maybe somebody out there knows the answer. Paul
Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carrota), perhaps? The other thing that came to mind was Angelica (Angelica spp) but this plant seems to short for that genus.
Not Wild Carrot Daucus carota (note correct spelling and English name!), that has much more finely divided leaves. The leaves show some similarity to Scots Lovage Levisticum scoticum (also note correct spellings!), but the flowers don't match well. The flowers match Corn Parsley Petroselinum segetum better, but the leaves are too broadly bipinnate; it could perhaps be some other species of Petroselinum.
Thanks for the replies! I now think it's likely to be an Aniseroot (Osmorhiza longistylis). I went to look at the plant again. The fruits have grown - they're now about 12mm or more in length. They are the right size and shape for Aniseroot. (However, they're green, and Wikipedia states the "seeds" (maybe meaning the fruits?) of Osmorhiza are black.) Also, the base of the petiole of one leaf is covered with fine soft hairs (pilose). Either I had missed that earlier, or the hairs are newly grown. Gray's Manual states that O. longistylis has pilose stipules. The base of the petiole is just slightly more fleshy than the rest of the petiole - I suppose that it's a stipule, but it's not what I normally think of as a stipule. However, since it's pilose, it does make me think it's Aniseroot. However, the leaves don't have the strong anise odor that Wikipedia indicates the plant has. I could check the roots, and find out if they show the thickened rhizomes and strong odor of Aniseroot, but I don't want to damage the plant. One person has suggested that it's goutweed, but the fruit is narrow at its base, and not as oval as goutweed. http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/5/29/40784/Aegopodium Osmorhiza.jpg I'm going to get a book on the "Flora of Concord" that Richard Eaton wrote back in 1974. That should narrow down the range of possibilities. Paul
I e-mailed an expert, and he thought it was either Osmorhiza longistylis or O. claytonii. He recommended "Systematics of Osmorhiza" (1984) by Porter Lowry II and Almut Jones (Annals of Missouri Botanical Garden 71:1128-1171), available online at http://www.botanicus.org. According to Eaton's "A Flora of Concord," as of 1974, O. longistylis had not been seen in Concord for many years, but O. claytonii had never been seen in Concord. Lowry and Jones state that stylus length can be used to distinguish the two species. Since this plant had 2mm long styles, it seems to have been O. longistylis. However, I'm still concerned that some online sites (Wikipeida, http://www.missouriplants.com/Whitealt/Osmorhiza_longistylis_page.html )indicate that the leaves of O. longistylis have a strong anise-like odor, but this plant did not. The green, rather than black, fruits can be explained because the plant was young.
