Heuchera parviflora

Herbs acaulescent; caudex branched or unbranched. Flowering stems 9-45 cm, short to long stipitate-glandular, viscid. Leaves: petiole usually long stipitate-glandular, some-times short stipitate-glandular; blade (often purple abaxially), reniform to orbiculate, shallowly 5-7-lobed, 3-13 cm, base cordate, lobes rounded, margins crenate, apex obtuse, surfaces short or long stipitate-glandular abaxially, short stipitate-glandular adaxially, viscid. Inflorescences diffuse. Flowers: hypanthium radially symmetric, free to 0.3 mm, white or pink, obconic, 1.2-3.2 mm, short or moderately long stipitate-glandular; sepals erect, green-tipped, equal, 0.5-1.3 mm, apex rounded; petals reflexed, white or pink, narrowly oblanceolate, unlobed, 1.5-3.5 mm, margins entire; stamens exserted 1.2-3.2 mm; styles exserted 1-3 mm, 1.5-4 mm, to 0.1 mm diam. Capsules ovoid, 2-5.7 mm, (minutely stipitate-glandular or glabrous), beaks divergent, not papillose. Seeds dark brown, ovoid, 0.4-0.6 mm, smooth.

The specific epithet, parviflora, is similar to that of another species, Heuchera parvifolia, but these two species are distinct and have different legitimate names. The varieties of H. parviflora are not sympatric. The species merits phylogenetic study. The Blackfoot Indians applied a poultice of the pounded root to sores and swellings (D. E. Moerman 1998).

Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb Synonyms: None

Plants 1-4.5 dm; scape with a few small, scale-like bracts; lvs rounded, with shallow, broadly rounded lobes and with the teeth broadly rounded to a short mucro, more softly pubescent than in no. 1 [Heuchera villosa Michx.]; infl open, the pedicels 3-17 mm at anthesis; fls as in no. 1, but the white (pink) pet narrowly oblanceolate, reflexed, seldom coiled; seeds merely inconspicuously ridged; 2n=14. A rare plant on moist, shaded ledges and cliffs, on sandstone or limestone; W.Va. to N.C. and Ala., w. to s. Ind., s. Ill., Mo., and Ark. July-Sept. Most of our plants are var. parviflora, with spreading-villous stems and petioles and somewhat villous lvs (the upper surface often scantily so), and with the bracts subtending the floral branches toothed and often foliaceous. The Ozarkian var. puberula (Mack. & Bush) E. Wells, with shorter, denser, more glandular pubescence on the petioles, scapes, and lvs, and with the bracts subtending the floral branches entire and scale-like, extends e. occasionally to c. Ky. (H. puberula.)

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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