White Avens

Geum canadense

White avens is not a showy plant, but it is certainly pretty.  It has small flowers with five white, wide-spreading petals and five somewhat smaller green sepals between the petals.  The leaves are coarsely toothed.  The upper ones are long and narrow, but lower ones may have three lobes, and the lowest are divided into three major leaflets, with some small leaflets along the leafstalk.  The fruit is a bristly ball.

White avens likes woodlands, dry or moist, that are somewhat open.  You can find it along trails and fences, and along streams.   You can find it in Wildwood, in woody areas along the bikeway, along trails on the west side of the Park, and along Connelly's Run, where the plant at left was found.  Outside of Wildwood, it can be found from Nova Scotia to Minnesota and South Dakota, south to Georgia and Texas.

There are about 60 species of avens, with flowers varying from white to yellow to purple.  They are found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, including both the Old and New Worlds.  Interestingly, none of the species found in eastern North America are weeds introduced from Europe, although some species occur naturally all around the Northern Hemisphere.  Perhaps the genus simply does not do well in disturbed areas.
 

White Avens is the first Species of the Week in one of the largest families of flowering plants, the Rosaceae or Rose Family.  This family contains around 3000 species in nearly 100 genera and is nearly worldwide in distribution.  Five-petaled flowers are characteristic of the family, and if you find a flower with five petals, there is a good chance it is in the Rose Family.  Besides the many species and varieties of roses, the family also includes ornamental firethorns (Pyracantha), cotoneasters and bridal veils (Spiraea).  The family also contributes heavily to our dining table, as apples, pears, quinces, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, wineberries, loquats, medlars, cherries, plums, peaches, apricots, hawthorns and elderberries are all in this family.

 There are a number of Rose Family members in Wildwood, besides white avens.  The showiest are the invasive exotic multiflora rose, a species of blackberry, one of raspberry, wineberry, and a wild cherry.  You may also find the luscious-looking, but tasteless barren strawberry.  Undoubtedly we will again visit the Rose Family as we continue to examine a Species of the Week.

A European species of avens (Geum urbanum), a yellow-flowered species, was used medicinally to treat diarrhea, gum diseases, and bad breath, and generally as a tonic to promote healing.  Some have attributed almost miraculous powers to it in treating any disease.  Supposedly the Devil feared this plant and would flee from it.  Hence anywhere this avens was found, you were safe from the Devil's clutches.  If this Devil repellant property is shared by other members of the genus we can be sure that anyone entering Wildwood now is safe from the Devil's snares, because white avens is growing just about everywhere in the park.

GGC