Copy permalink to share
Ranunculaceae
Actaea

not marked as a favorite taxon Actaea Linnaeus. Common name: Baneberry.

Key to Actaea

A genus of about 28 species, perennial herbs, of temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Compton, Culham, & Jury (1998) support the inclusion of Cimicifuga in Actaea, based on morphologic and molecular analyses.

Glossary (beta!)

Subfamily: Ranunculoideae. Tribe: Cimicifugeae.

ID notes: In rich coves and other mesic Appalachian forests, Actaea often grows with a number of other herbs with similarly compound leaves, including Astilbe (Saxifragaceae), Aruncus (Rosaceae), Caulophyllum (Berberidaceae), Angelica, Thaspium, Osmorrhiza, and Ligusticum (Apiaceae), Aralia (Araliaceae), Thalictrum (Ranunculaceae), and others. The curious evolutionary convergence of leaf morphology (to a 2-3-ternately compound form) of a large number of unrelated genera of Appalachian cove forests is interesting.

References: Compton, Culham, & Jury (1998); Ford (1997c) In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (1997); Park & Lee (1996); Ramsey (1987); Ramsey (1988); Ramsey (1997) In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (1997); Tamura (1993) In Kubitzki, Rohwer, & Bittrich (1993). Show full citations.

Show in key(s)

Show parent family | Show parent in key(s)

Show species in Actaea

Your browser does not support SVGs

Hover over a shape, letter, icon, or arrow on the map for definition or see the legend. Data for arrows not developed for genera and families which may have species only occurring outside the flora area.

image #1 of Actaea© Will Stuart | Actaea pachypoda | Original Image ⭷
image #2 of Actaea© Joey Shaw | Actaea pachypoda source
image #3 of Actaea© Bruce A. Sorrie | Actaea pachypoda
image #4 of Actaea© Erik Danielson | Actaea rubra source | Original Image ⭷

Feedback

See something missing or incorrect about Actaea? Let us know here:
  1. Please include your name and if possible, email in case when need to clarify what you wrote.
  2. If you opt out of including email, please be as specific as possible (e.g., which photo is incorrect?)
  3. Please do not submit questions asking to identify plants or about horticultural topics (e.g., how do I control an invasive plant in my garden?). Instead, those questions can be submitted here for the Carolinas region only.
  4. Please do not send us feedback about unkeyed species as this work is ongoing.
  5. Please allow time for flora edits to show in our next data release. We greatly appreciate your feedback but may require extra time to research complicated taxonomic issues.