Agrimonia striata has small yellow petals on flowers in an elongate raceme. The leaves are compound with serrate, oval to elliptic leaflets that are acute and strongly veined. Agrimonia striata is found in moist upper elevation mixed conifer forests.

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Perennial with leafy stems 50-100 cm tall, spreading hirsute to glandular.

Leaves: Alternate, odd pinnately compound leaves with principal leaflets 4-10 cm long, 7-13 leaflets per leaf, hispid on upper surface, copiously pubescent to glandular beneath, coarsely serrate dentate margins, other leaflets smaller and numerous, bearing conspicuous stipules.

Flowers: Small, borne in a slender raceme, the rachis of the inflorescence appressed-pilose, flower with a hypanthium 4-5 mm long in fruit, bearing a ring of hooked prickles at the summit, 5 sepals and petals, the petals yellow, 3 mm long, 5-15 stamens, with a superior ovary.

Fruits: Achene, usually 1-2.

Ecology: Found in moist soils, often in thick woods from 6,500-9,000 ft (1981-2743 m); flowers June-August.

Notes: Distinctive because of the generally large plants you-ll see in moist areas, the leaves will make you think Potentilla initially, but the raceme of small yellow flowers is key. When only vegetative parts are found, the serrate leaf margins, odd-pinnate leaves, and the way the leaflets alternate in size can all help.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Agrimonia is of uncertain origins, while striata means striped.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010

Roots fibrous; stems stout, to 1 m or more, hirsute below, pubescent and glandular above; stipules lanceolate to semi-ovate, 1-2 cm; principal lfls of the larger lvs 7-11, the upper 5 commonly directed forwards, lance-ovate, coarsely serrate, glabrous or nearly so above, gland-dotted beneath and sparsely hairy, especially on the veins; axis of the infl densely pubescent with ascending hairs, commonly also with some long flexuous hairs; fls densely crowded; pedicels short, the 3-cleft bractlet commonly surpassing the hypanthium; mature hypanthium reflexed, turbinate, 4-5 mm, minutely strigose in the deep furrows; 2n=56. Dry or moist woods; Que. and N.S. to e. B.C., s. to R.I., N.Y., Mich., Io., and S.D., and in the mts. to W.Va. and Ariz.

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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