Water Avens
Scientific name: Geum rivale L.
Diagnostic features
Stems to 50cm, erect.
Stipules mostly less than1cm.
Flowers pendent, with erect, creamy-pink to pinkish-purple petals 8-15mm.
Achenes in globose head stalked above sepals, with style with long hairs and short glands near base.
Receptacle with dense long hairs.
Chromosome number: 2n=42.
Habitat
Native; marshes, streamsides, mountain rock-ledges and open woodland.
Distribution
Throughout Britain and Ireland but very local in S and absent from large areas, also garden escape in non-native areas.
This species is keyed out on Page 2282: Geum in the Text Key.
Note
Dwarf plants with large flowers and more deeply and roughly incised leaves from North Scotland have been called ssp. islandicum Á. & D. Löve, but all intermediates occur.
Hybrids
- Geum x intermedium Ehrh. (= Geum rivale x Geum urbanum) is common wherever the parents meet. It is intermediate in all respects and highly fertile, forming a complete spectrum between the parents. |
