42 



WILD FLOWERS OF CALIFORNIA 



474. Coast Mountain 

 Mahogany 



475. Sierra Mountain 

 Mahogany 



Cercocarpus ledifolius 



476. Large-leaved Avens Geum macrophyllum 



Cercocarpus betulaefolius A shrub or small tree with 



spreading or recurved 

 branches. Leaves thick, 

 roundish and partially 

 serrate on the margins. 

 Conspicuous in fruit by 

 the feathery tail-like ap- 

 pendage. 

 Similar to the last, but with 

 narrow tapering leaves, 

 very hard wood and 

 prized as fuel. Excellent 

 windbreak. Abundant, 



high foothills, eastern Si- 

 erras. 

 Bristly, hairy herb with ly- 

 rate-pinnate leaves, the 

 terminal lobe conspicu- 

 ously large; margins all 

 toothed. Several yellow 

 flowers, and fruit prom- 

 inent by its numerous 

 strongly hooked bristles. 

 Eastern Sierras in moist 

 ravines at medium eleva- 

 tions. 



477. Purple Avens 



478. Wood Strawberry 



479. Sand Strawberry 



Geum ciliatum 



Fragaria Californica 



Fragaria Chilensis 



480. Sierra Strawberry 



481. Five Fingers 



Leaves pubescent and di- 

 vided into many small 

 dissected leaflets. Flowers 



. light purple, feathery 

 styles in fruit. Sierras 

 4000 to 9000 feet. 



The strawberry of the 

 woods of the Coast 

 ranges. 



Forming beds on the sand 

 banks near the ocean. 



Sierras. 



Fragaria virginiana 

 Potentilla 



Mostly herbs with compound leaves of three to five finger-like leaflets or 

 seven to fourteen pinnate ones. The stamens number from ten to many, and 

 are surrounded by conspicuous yellow or white petals. The genus is widely dis- 

 tributed in North America and Europe, with perhaps twenty species in California. 

 They are found in dry and wet places, in the shade or in the open, from the ocean 

 shore to the high mountains. Some of the species have been used medicinally. 

 The species are variable and not easily defined and one should consult the excellent 

 monographs of the genus for those not found in the local floras. 



The Silver W'eed, P. anserind is of unusual human interest because of its wide 

 distribution in this and other lands and its occurrence in the salty sands near the 

 ocean and the alkaline meadows of the mountains and deserts. It has a strong 

 perennial root and by means of its creeping and rooting stems, often forms a sod. 

 The leaves in their early stages have a silvery hue from the numerous silky hairs. 

 The flowers are large, yellow and soft like velvet. The country people in Scotland 

 eat the roots roasted or boiled, the taste of which somewhat resembles that of a 

 chestnut. The roots are also soaked in buttermilk for nine days and a face lotion 

 prepared that was considered to be able to make freckle-faced maidens fair and 

 beautiful. 



P. fruticosa is a truly shrubby species that commands our respect by with- 

 standing the strenuous and rigorous conditions on high mountain rocky ridges. 



482. Horkelia 



Similar to Potentilla, and bv main- authors included with it. 



