Aralia nudicaulis
 
Wild Sarsaparilla

Early Flower Top

Moose Mountain Provincial Park
30-May-2010

Nudicaulis: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species. 

plants scapose, leaves and peduncle arising from the rootstock; NOT [plants with leafy stems]

plants glabrous

 

Aralia: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. 

herb; NOT [shrub with thorny stems]

leaves compound; NOT [leaves simple]

leaf ternate and 3-5 foliolate; NOT [leaves lobed]

carpels 5; NOT [carpels 2]

fruit blackish at maturity; NOT [fruit red at maturity]

 

Umbelliferae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  leading to this family. 

herbs; NOT [shrubs or trees]

plants terrestrial or semiaquatic; NOT [plants aquatic, leaves submerged or floating]

plants NOT with colored milky juice

plants with more than one normal leaf

some or all leaves alternate; NOT [leaves opposite, whorled, or basal]

leaves without stipules, or having glands; NOT [leaves with stipules]

flowers in umbels

parts of flowers mostly in fives; NOT [parts of flowers in twos or fours]

flowers with two floral rings, and with each petal distinct from the others]

calyx regular; NOT [calyx irregular, some sepals smaller than others]

stamens 10 or fewer; NOT [stamens usually more than 10]

ovary inferior

styles 5; NOT [styles 2]

fruit fleshy