RANUNCULACEAE 



CROWFOOT FAMILY 



WHITE BANEBERRY. WHITE COHOSH 



Actea alha (L.) Mill. 



The White Baneberry or White Cohosh has a more striking 

 appearance in fruit in September than in bloom from late April 

 to early June, but it is to be considered among our common 

 spring flowers. It is found 

 in woods from Nova Scotia 

 to Georgia and west to 

 Minnesota and Missouri. 



The underground stem 

 is perennial. The upper 

 part of the plant is bushy 

 and 1-3 feet high. The 

 upper leaves may be sessile 

 and the lower are large, 

 petioled and 2 or 3 times 

 ternate. The leaflets are 

 sharply cleft and toothed. 



The white flowers are 

 produced in a short and 

 thick terminal raceme. The 

 4 or 5 sepals fall off as the 

 flower opens, exposing the 

 4-10 small narrow petals. 

 The numerous stamens have 

 slender filaments. There is 

 I pistil consisting of an 

 ovary and a broad sessile 

 stigma. The fruit is a 

 white poisonous berry on 

 a stout red pedicel. It is these red pedicels and white berries 

 that make the plant so conspicuous in autumn. 



The Red Baneberry, Actea rubra (Ait.) Willd., is also tound in 

 Illinois woods but is less common. The leaves ot this species are 

 somewhat less sharply toothed, and it is easily recognized in truit 

 because the berries are red and the pedicels are slender. These fruits 

 are very poisonous. 



ContiniKuis as the stars that sliino 



And twinkle on the Milky Way, 

 They strotchod in never endinj; line 



Along the margins of the bay : 

 Ten thousand saw I, at a glance. 

 Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 



Daffodils — William Woudswouth 



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