Northern Ontario Plant Database

Plant Description

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Anemone americana (DC.) H.Hara

En: roundlobed hepatica, American liverleaf
Fr: hépatique d'Amérique, anémone d'Amérique
Oj: animozid

Ranunculaceae (Buttercup or crowfoot Family)

General: A low perennial forb, to 1.5 dm tall; the long flower stalks and petioles bearing long, white, silky hairs.

Leaves: Basal, simple, evergreen and over-wintering, coriaceous, long-petiolate. Leaf blade broad, 3-lobed, smooth (glabrous) to slightly hairy; leaves dark green, deep purplish-brown, or mottled with both colours; base cordate; each lobe rounded at the apex and broader than long; margins entire; petioles long, very hairy. Current year's leaves appearing after the flowers.

Flowers: Bisexual, solitary, on hairy flower stalks (scapes), 5–15 cm long; flowers subtended by an involucre of 3 ovate, blunt-tipped bracts, hairy on the lower surface. Sepals 5–12, petal-like, oblong, rounded at the tip, 6–15 mm long, usually lavender, but purple, pink, or white flowers may also occur; true petals absent; stamens numerous, filament and anthers white; pistils numerous. Flowers bloom in early spring.

Fruit: A cluster of small achenes, 1–1.4 mm long, tapering at both ends (fusiform).

Habitat and Range: Dry rich often rocky woods, mainly on acidic soils. The roundlobe hepatica is native to eastern North America. In northern Ontario, it extends as far north as Thunder Bay and Timmins.

Nomenclatural Notes: Most botanists now include Hepatica within the genus Anemone. Anemone americana was previously known as Hepatica americana DC. or Hepatica nobilis Schreb. var. obtusa (Pursh) Steyermark.

Internet Images: The Anemone americana webpage from the Gallery of Connecticut Wildflowers, a website of the Connecticut Botanical Society.

Another image of Anemone americana from Missouriplants.com.

Similar Species: A similar species, Anemone acutiloba (sharplobe hepatica), can be differentiated by the pointed (acute) tips on the lobes of the leaf. Compare the Anemone acutiloba webpage from the Wisconsin State Herbarium, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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