Queen Of The Forest

Description

Plants weakly rhizomatous, 7-15 dm. Rhizomes horizontal, stout, 10-15 mm wide, internodes 1-4 cm; root tubers absent. Stems finely puberulent distally. Leaves: basal 1 or 2, deciduous by flowering; stipules round, 1-1.5 cm diam., base not auriculate; lateral leaflets in 1-3 pairs or lacking, remote, ovate to elliptic, to 1 cm, margins serrate; terminal leaflets round, 6-16 cm diam., palmately 5-7-lobed, lobes ovate to oblong-lanceolate, margins doubly serrate, apex acute to acuminate, surfaces short-appressed hairy at least on veins. Inflorescences 100+-flowered; branches and pedicels densely short-appressed hairy, hairs straight. Flowers: hypanthium nearly flat, saucer-shaped; sepals (4-)5(-6), green, narrowly triangular, 4-6 mm, margins -often serrate-, usually with midrib, abaxially puberulent, adaxially glabrous; petals (4-)5(-6), white, in buds sometimes marginally pink, oblanceolate, 10-15 mm, not clawed, base broad, margins entire; stamens white, about equal to petals. Achenes 7-12, flattened, lanceolate, straight, 6-7.5 mm, sutures densely ciliate, faces sparsely hairy; stipes 1-2 mm; styles 1.5-2 mm. Flowering summer (Jun-Aug). Wet, mossy rock along forest streams, at or slightly above water level, wet rock on mountain slopes, riverbanks, rocky summits; of conservation concern; 30-1000 m; Oreg., Wash.