5. Waldsteinia Willdenow, Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin Neue Schriften. 2: 105, plate 4, fig. 1. 1799.
[For Franz de Paula Adam von Waldstein, 1759–1823, Austrian soldier and botanist]
Barren-strawberry, waldsteinie
James B. Phipps
Herbs, perennial, ˂scapose˃, often mat-forming, 1–4 dm, strigose; rhizomatous. Stems 1–20+, ± erect. Leaves deciduous, basal, ˂sometimes clustered around scape˃, simple or compound; stipules adnate to petiole base, narrow, ˂scarious˃, margins entire; petiole present; blade ± rounded, deeply cordate, ˂ternate or 3–5(–7)-lobed˃, 3–5 cm, herbaceous, margins flat, when lobes usually shallow, dentate, ˂often with large teeth distally˃, venation palmate, surfaces strigose or hirsute. Inflorescences terminal, 3–8-flowered, panicles, open, ˂± as long as petioles, elongating somewhat in fruit˃; bracts present; bracteoles absent. Pedicels present. Flowers 8–20 mm diam.; epicalyx bractlets 0 [5, minute]; hypanthium broadly obconic to obcampanulate, slightly contracted at mouth, 2–4 mm, strigose or glabrous; sepals 5, spreading, triangular; petals 5, yellow, obovate to elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, or suborbiculate; stamens 50–70, ± equal to petals, ˂filaments persistent˃; torus not evident, ˂receptacle base villous˃; carpels 3–7, short-villous; ovule 1. Fruits aggregated achenes, 3–7, broadly crescent-shaped, 1.5–2.5 mm, short-villous; hypanthium persistent; sepals persistent, ± reflexed; styles deciduous, not hooked. x = 7.
Species 6 or 7 (4 in the flora): North America, Eurasia; temperate regions.
Plants of Waldsteinia are distinctive, small, rhizomatous, and often mat-forming herbs of woodlands with ternate or three- to five-lobed leaves, differing from Geum by their long, straight, deciduous styles. J. E. E. Smedmark (2006) showed that the type species of Waldsteinia is nested in Geum.
Selected reference Teppner, H. 1968. Zur Kenntniss der Gattung Waldsteinia. Graz.