Golden alexanders

Appearance

This native North American flower usually ranges in height from forty centimeters to seventy five centimeters tall but can sometimes grow taller. The leaves of the Golden Alexanders can grow up to eight centimeters long and five centimeters wide. They are normally lanceolate or ovate. Other distinguishing factors of the leaves are that they have serrated edges as well as two or three lobes in the leaf.

Golden Alexanders blooms from May to June. Its flowers are yellow and bunched at the top of the plant. Each flower is only three millimeters long and has five sepals, five petals, and five stamens. Each flower produces a single three to four millimeter long, oblong, green fruit capsule. These fruits change color as the year goes on. Each one contains a brown seed. In the fall both the leaves and the fruit turn purple.

Habitat

It is most often found in habitats such as moist black soil prairies, openings in moist to mesic woodlands, savannas, thickets, limestone glades and bluffs, power line clearings in woodland areas, abandoned fields, and wet meadows. Golden Alexanders is known for its ability to survive dry summers even though it prefers wet habitats.