CROWFOOT FAMILY 



ACT^A. WHITE BANEBERRY 



Act^a alba 



« 



Adaa, an ancient name of the Elder, transferred to this 

 plant by Linnaeus. 



Perennial. Open woods. Nova Scotia, west to Min- 

 nesota, south to Georgia and Louisiana. Common in 

 northern Ohio. April- June. 



Stem. — Erect, one to two feet high. 



Leaves. — Petioled, large, ternately compound, leaflets 

 ovate, deeply cut and sharply toothed, terminal one 

 obovate. 



Flowers. — Small, white, in oblong terminal racemes. 



Calyx. — Sepals three to five, petaloid, falling when the 

 flower expands. 



Corolla. — Petals four to ten, white, narrow, on slender 

 claws. 



Stamens. — Many; filaments white; anthers yellow. 



Pistil. — One; stigma sessile, two-lobed. 



Fruit. — Many-seeded berry, globular, white with a 

 black eye, borne on a thickened red pedicel. 



Pollinated by smafl bees. Not nectar-bearing. Stig- 

 mas mature before the anthers. 



In a damp, shaded ravine or on a wooded hillside 

 where the undergrowth is open one often finds in early- 

 May the compound leaves and fluffy flower-cluster of 

 the White Baneberry. 



Each tiny flower as it begins life has four to five 

 petal-like sepals, but drops them as the flower opens, 

 leaving as a residue from four to ten blunt, narrow, 

 white petals, which soon take themselves away, so 



64 



