[Taxacom] NE USA herbaceous plant ID request

[John Grehan]

My thanks to the respondents. I have sent photos to several and await
confirmation. At present I am pretty certain that the plant is a species of
Latavera.

John Grehan

On Thu, Jul 2, 2020 at 11:17 PM John Grehan <calabar.john at gmail.com> wrote:

> If I can be forgiven for making a trivial identification request, and
> hoping that there may be a botanist familiar with herbaceous plants in the
> northeastern US, I am curious about the identity of a herb growing at my
> home for which I have not been able to find anything comparable on the web.
> As I am not native to N America, most herbs are a bit of a mystery to me
> and don't have any other ready options.  The plant has the following
> features:
>
> About 30 cm in height
> Appears to be an annual (it turned up at the base of a tree two years ago,
> disappeared last year, but growing again under the same tree but in a
> different spot).
> Flowering now (starting about a week ago in June)
> Leaves each with a long petiole and in the form of about 4 main branches
> where the leaf area is reduced to a narrow rim along each main vein and 4-5
> secondary veins along each main vein (so it looks like a bunch of fingers
> each with subfingers).
> Flower is a pale lavender color, actinomorphic
> 5 short, wide, green sepals, each narrowing to a point
> Each sepal subtended by shorter and narrower sub-sepal
> 5 petals (petal length about 20 mm)
> Distal margin of each petal forming a very shallow V from each corner to
> the center
> Reproductive organs on a short 'stem', not quite sure what is what, a mass
> of short, soft tendrils for the lack of a better word, some ending in
> slightly enlarged blade like structures, rest lined with pale round
> objects. Sorry for the vagueness. If anyone was interested and in need for
> determination I could send a photo.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> John Grehan
>
>