Ontario Weeds: Small burnet
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Excerpt from Publication 505, Ontario Weeds,
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Table of Contents
- Name
- Other Names
- Family
- General Description
- Stems and Roots
- Leaves
- Flowers and Fruit
- Habitat
- Similar Species
- Related Links
Name: Small burnet, Sanguisorba minor
Scop.,
Other Names: Salad burnet, sanguisorbe
mineure, petite pimprenelle
Family: Rose Family (Rosaceae)
General Description: Perennial, reproducing
only by seed.
Small burnet.
Stems & Roots: Stems 20-70cm
(8-28in.) high, spreading or erect from the short, thick underground
rootstalk, slender, wiry, usually branched in the upper part; rosette.
Leaves: Numerous, pinnately compound
with up to 17 small oval leaflets, each with 3 to 7 prominent teeth
on each side, usually lighter green below than above; stem leaves
alternate (1 per node), scattered, shorter and have fewer leaflets;
stipules small and toothed on upper stem leaves but very small or
absent from rosette and lower stem leaves.
Flowers & Fruit: Flowers individually
very small but clustered together in dense, ovoid, greenish heads
on long leafless branches; each flower has 4 small, green or brown
sepals but no petals, the lower flowers in each head having no pistils
but many stamens with long drooping filaments; the upper flowers
having 2 pistils but no stamens, or being bisexual with both stamens
and pistils; each pistil producing a pair of semi-ovoid hard seeds.
Flowers from May to July.
Habitat: Small burnet occurs in several
scattered localities in southern Ontario, usually in coarse sandy
or gravelly soils, in pastures, meadows, waste areas, and roadsides.
Similar Species: It is distinguished by
its pinnately compound leaves with many, small, toothed leaflets,
and its greenish, ovoid heads of many densely packed small flowers.
Related Links
... on general Weed
topics
... on weed identification, order OMAFRA
Publication 505: Ontario Weeds
... on weed control, order OMAFRA
Publication 75: Guide To Weed Control
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