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Project Noah Nature School
Podophyllum peltatum
This plant has numerous names in English: hogapple, Indian apple, mayflower, umbrella plant, wild lemon, wild mandrake, American mandrake and devil's apple. Like many other spring ephemerals, it emerges from below ground before the canopy of the forest opens, and then slowly withers later in the summer; the foliage is, however, somewhat more long-lived than other spring ephemerals such as Trillium. The stems grow to 30–40 cm tall, with 2 or occasionally 3 palmately lobed leaves up to 20–30 cm diameter with 5-9 deeply cut lobes on reproductive individuals, or one peltate (umbrella-like) leaf on sterile individuals. The single secund white flower 3–5 cm diameter, with six (rarely up to nine) petals, is produced at the axil of the two leaves (the upper two in a three-leaved plant); the flower matures into a yellow-greenish fruit 2–5 cm long.
Neighborhood park
Spotted on Mar 22, 2013
Submitted on Mar 31, 2013
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