This native shrub has purple stems with a white, powdery “bloom” and hooked prickles (A). The leaves have 3 or 5 lance-shaped leaflets, green above and silvery below (B). The flowers, each with 5 white petals, form clusters of 3-9 (C,D). The fruit, first red, is a black hemispheric berry when ripe (E).
Grows in open woods and hillsides, flowering from April through June. In Fontenelle Forest, uncommon along Marsh Trail. At Neale Woods, uncommon near the Krimlofski Tract entrance.
Edwin James, botanist of the Long Expedition, collected the original (type) specimen of this plant near Neale Woods in 1820.
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