Luther College Associate Professor Beth Lynch took all the photos featured in her latest essay.
This post is about two closely related plant species that can be confusing for the novice to identify. Both of them grow in the forests of Iowa, though red baneberry (Actaea rubra) is far more common.
Red baneberry is one of those forest wildflowers that is never abundant, but I can pretty well count on finding it when I walk through shady hardwood forests of Iowa. The plants are about 1 to 2 1/2 feet tall and have compound leaves that are divided into 3 to 5 leaflets; each leaflet is then divided again into more leaflets that have coarse teeth along the margins and are pointed at the tip.
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