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Prairie smoke leaves, stems, and the exterior of the flowers are densely hairy. Reddish-green or -purple flowering stalks arise from the center of the leaf rosette; they produce three buds at their apex which develop into three nodding flowers (as implied by the species name) with a pair of bracts at the base of the triplet that are divided into narrow strips as if cut with scissors. Each flower is 3/4-1" in both dimensions; five triangular red to reddish-purple sepals hide almost all the remainder of the flower, covering all of the five white or reddish petals except their tips, a ring of stamens, and a central cluster of pistils. The opening to the interior of the flower is highly constricted. A spreading, narrow floral bract identical in color to the sepals lies between each pair of sepals (for a total of five). After fertilization (by bumblebees), the flower peduncle straightens so the flower points straight up. A dense cluster of seeds attached to 2" long, feathery plumes (the "smoke") transform the appearance of the flower; the seeds are later dispersed by the wind. Frustrated bumblebees unable to force their way into flowers (and some wasps and beetles) may occasionally chew their way through the sepals and petals near the base of the flower to access the nectar. No other avens (Geum sp.) in Illinois produces seeds with feathery plumes; prairie smoke's closest relatives in Jackson Park, whte avens and rough avens, look nothing like it.

Geum

Geum triflorum

prairie smoke [Blooms: Apr-Jun]