Canada sanicle

Sanicula canadensis, commonly known as Canada sanicle or Canada black-snakeroot, is a slender herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial in the family Apiaceae native to eastern and central North America, where it grows in moist rich deciduous and mixed forests and along shaded streambanks. Plants reach 0.3 to 1 meter tall from a short fibrous-rooted base. The basal and lower stem leaves are palmately divided into three to five sharply toothed segments, the lateral pair often deeply cleft so that the leaf appears to have five to seven divisions. Small greenish-white flowers are borne in compact terminal compound umbels with few rays; only a few central flowers in each cluster are perfect and develop into fruit, the rest being staminate. The fruit is a small bristly bur covered in hooked prickles that readily catch on fur and clothing, an effective animal-dispersal mechanism. It flowers in early to midsummer.