Black snakeroot

Sanicula marilandica L. (Apiaceae), the black snakeroot, is an erect perennial herb of moist deciduous woods and clearings across much of temperate North America from Newfoundland and the Yukon south to Georgia and New Mexico, growing 40–120 cm tall from a thick, blackish, fibrous-rooted rhizome. Stems are smooth, ridged, and sparingly branched above. Basal leaves are long-petiolate and palmately compound with usually five (sometimes seven) leaflets that are obovate to oblanceolate, sharply doubly serrate, and 4–10 cm long; cauline leaves are similar but smaller and progressively reduced. The inflorescence is a compound umbel of three to four primary rays, each ending in a small globose head 6–10 mm wide of greenish-white staminate and bisexual flowers subtended by tiny narrow bracts. The fruit is an oblong-ovoid schizocarp 4–6 mm long densely covered with hooked bristles that promote epizoochorous dispersal.