Stems 10-40 cm, weakly rhizomatous; roots fibrous. Leaves: leaflets irregularly 2-3-lobed, lobes sometimes with 1-3 secondary lobes, apex rounded, glandular-apiculate; surfaces abaxially glabrous. Inflorescences axillary, flowers solitary or loosely grouped in 2-4-flowered leafy racemes; peduncle not strongly clavate. Flowers: sepals 5.5-13.5 × 3.5-8.5 mm; stamens 25-50; filaments filiform to club-shaped, 1.8-5.8 mm. Follicles sessile, upright to widely divergent; body widely elliptic to widely obovate, 3.5-6.5 mm, gradually contracted into style beak; beak 1.7-3 mm. Seeds 2.1-2.7 mm, minutely pubescent. 2 n = 14.

Flowering spring. Moist deciduous woods of valleys, flood plains, and ravine bottoms, occasionally in open pastures, often on limey soils; 25-1000 m; Ont.; Ala., Ark., Fla., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Enemion biternatum has been mistaken for the superficially similar Thalictrum thalictroides because of its white flowers and compound Thalictrum -like leaves. Enemion biternatum is easily distinguished, however, by its few-seeded follicles and deeply lobed leaves with glandular-apiculate apices. Thalictrum thalictroides , on the other hand, is characterized by having achenes and somewhat crenate leaves with notched apices.

Infrequent to common in moist, rich woods throughout the state. Probably absent from a few of the northwestern counties. It prefers the beech and sugar maple type of woods.

Roots with many small, tuber-like thickenings; stems slender, 1-4 dm; basal lvs long-petioled, 2-3-ternate; cauline lvs smaller, less petiolate and less dissected; lfls broadly obovate, 3-lobed; fls white, 1.5-2 cm wide; follicles mostly 4, semi-ovoid, compressed, divergent; 2n=14. Moist woods; w. N.Y. and s. Ont. to Minn., s. to the piedmont of Va. and the Carolinas, and to w. Fla. and Ark. Apr., May. (Enemion b.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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