4. Trautvetteria Fischer & C. A. Meyer, Index Sem. Hort. Petrop. 1: 22. 1835.
False bugbane, tassel-rue [for Ernst Rudolph von Trautvetter (1809-1889), Russian botanist]
Bruce D. Parfitt
Herbs , perennial, from short, slender rhizomes. Leaves basal and cauline, simple, proximal leaves petiolate, distal leaves sessile; cauline leaves alternate. Leaf blade palmately 5-11-lobed; segments broadly cuneate, margins lacerate to serrate. Inflorescences terminal, ±many-flowered corymbs, 2.5-43 cm; bracts inconspicuous, linear-lanceolate, not forming involucre. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; sepals not persistent in fruit, 3-5(-7), greenish white, concave-cupped, broadly ovate to obovate, clawed, 3-6 mm; petals absent; stamens ca. 50-100; outer filaments 15-20, spatulate, often distally wider than anthers, inner filaments not dilated; staminodes absent between stamens and pistils; pistils ca. 15, simple; ovule 1 per pistil; style present. Fruits utricles, aggregate, sessile, ellipsoid to obovoid, 4-angled in cross section, sides prominently veined; beak terminal, curved to hooked, 0.4-0.8 mm. x =8.
Species 1 (1 in the flora): North America, e Asia.