Plants usually stoloniferous. Flowering stems (2-)6-20(-25) cm. Leaves: petiole 1.2-8(-10) cm, short stipitate-glandular, longer hairs usually retrorse, sometimes spreading, white; blade cordate to reniform, ± as long as wide, (0.4-)1.1-4.7(-8) × (0.4-)1.2-4.8(-7.5) cm, margins unlobed or shallowly 3-lobed, singly crenate, irregularly ciliate, apex of terminal lobe obtuse to rounded, surfaces sparsely glandular-puberulent and glandular-hirsute; cauline leaves absent or 1, proximal, sessile or subsessile, blade 0.4-1.6(-2.8) × 0.8-2.6 cm. Inflorescences 1-3(-6), remotely (1-)2-15-flowered, 1 flower per node, not secund, long stipitate-glandular proximally, short stipitate-glandular distally. Pedicels 1-6 mm, short stipitate-glandular. Flowers: hypanthium broadly campanulate, 1.5-2.5 × 2.5-3.5 mm; sepals spreading or recurved, greenish white, ovate to triangular-ovate, 1.5-2.4 × 1-1.8 mm; petals greenish yellow or greenish white, 9-11-lobed, (2-)3.5-5 mm, lobes linear, lateral lobes spreading; stamens 10, opposite and alternate with sepals; filaments white or greenish white, 0.3-0.5 mm; anthers 0.2-0.3 × 0.2-0.3 mm; ovary 1/3-1/2 inferior; styles erect or spreading, cylindric, 0.4-0.6 mm; stigmas unlobed. Seeds dark reddish brown or blackish, 0.8-1.2 mm, nearly smooth. 2n = 14, 28.
Flowering May-Aug. Moist to wet woods, damp coniferous woods, northern hardwood forests, thickets, swamps, stream banks, bogs; 0-3500 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Conn., Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., N.H., N.Y., N.Dak., Pa., Vt., Wash., Wis.; e Asia.
D. E. Moerman (1998) reported that the Cree Indians of Saskatchewan used the crushed leaves of Mitella nuda to treat earaches.
Perennial herb 5 - 20 cm tall Leaves: basal, nearly round to kidney-shaped with a heart-shaped base, shallowly lobed, toothed, hairy above, slightly hairy beneath. Flowers: borne two to thirteen on an inflorescence (raceme), yellowish green, 1.5 - 12.5 cm long, with 1 - 5 mm individual flower stalks, five pinnately fringed petals 3 - 5 mm long, and ten stamens. Fruit: a two-beaked capsule splitting open at maturity, containing a few smooth, shiny black seeds 1 mm long. Flowering stem: very slender, glandular, hairy near base, having zero or one stalkless, egg-shaped, and few-toothed leaves.
Similar species: Mitella diphylla has a pair of opposite leaves on the flowering stem and white flowers with petals 2 mm long. i>Sullivantia sullivantii, Tiarella cordifolia, Heuchera americana, and Heuchera richardsonii lack fringed petals.
Flowering: May to June
Habitat and ecology: Bogs.
Occurence in the Chicago region: native
Etymology: Mitella is the diminutive of the Greek word Mitra, meaning cap, referring to the form of the young fruit. Nuda means naked, referring to the usually leafless flowering stalks.
Stems 0.5-2 dm, hairy below and glandular throughout; basal lvs rotund to reniform with cordate base, obscurely lobed, crenate, hairy; cauline lf 1 or none, ovate, sessile, few-toothed; racemes 2-10 cm; pedicels 1-5 mm; fls yellowish-green; pet 3-5 mm, very deeply pectinate- fimbriate, with divergent segments; seeds few, black, shining, 1 mm; 2n=28. Bogs and wet woods, usually in moss; Lab. to Mack., s. to Pa., Mich., Minn., and Mont.; e. Asia. May, June.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.