Yellow Avens (2)

When blooming Yellow Avens can be easily mistaken for Buttercups or Cinquefoils with their five bright yellow petals, but when they go to seed the difference is evident. Avens have a seed head that looks like a round pincushion densely packed with red, thread-like styles tipped with yellow hooks. The major difference between these two species is in their basal leaves and the hairiness of the seed heads. Both are slender plants growing amongst grasses (hard to photograph) and have flowers about 1/2" wide growing on long stalks at the tip of the stem branches.

Yellow Avens
Geum aleppicum

Family: Rose (Rosaceae)
AKA:
Photo taken on: July 26, 2021
Location: Almont, GV, CO
Life Zones: Foothills to montane
Habitat: Moist meadows, gravelly soil

Grows to 3 feet with short hairs on the stems. The basal leaves are divided into 2 to 6 pairs of toothed leaflets with the terminal leaflet, the uppermost leaflet, having three pointed lobes equal in size and a wedge-shaped base, see below left. Stem leaves are smaller, lobed and toothed. The base of the styles in the seed head are hairy.

Large-leaf Avens
Geum macrophyllum var. perincisum

Family: Rose (Rosaceae)
AKA:
Photo taken on: July 24, 2021
Location: Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery, GV, CO;
Life Zones: Foothills to montane
Habitat: Moist gravelly soils in woods and along streams

Grows erect from 1 to 3 feet tall from a dense rosette of basal leaves up to 12" long. The stems and leaves are covered in bristly hairs and feel like nettles. The basal leaves are divided into 5 to 9 toothed leaflets. The terminal leaflet has a rounded base and three to five lobes with the middle lobe being much larger than the others, see above right. Stem leaves are smaller, lobed and toothed.