| Author | (L.) Salisbury | |
| Distribution | Known for certain only at a single site in Alleghany County, where first discovered in 1989, and seen on several more recent occasions. A report in Ashe County in recent years from a vegetation plot, with no other details (photos, collection, etc.), cannot be considered as valid. This species had been reported (without documentation) from NC far back into the 20th Century, but it wasn't until late in the century that it was finally confirmed with a specimen.
This is a Far North species ranging across Canada, and throughout the Northern states south over most of PA and MI, and then south to MD, WV, and disjunct (over VA) to northwestern NC. | |
| Abundance | Extremely rare, found only in one very small population in Alleghany County. This is a State Threatened species. | |
| Habitat | The NC habitat is a Swamp Forest-Bog Complex natural community -- a heavily shaded area along a small stream, with Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) among several species present. | |
| Phenology | Blooms in May into early June in NC; fruits shortly after flowering. | |
| Identification | This is a tiny species, with the several leaves divided into 3 leaflets, reaching only about 4 inches tall -- with the petioles being the lower 3 inchesof the leaf. Each leaflet blade is rhombic to fan-shaped, like with some hawthorn (Crataegus) leaves, very serrated on the margins, shiny, dark green, and evergreen -- only about 1-inch long and wide. One or two flowers emerge on naked stalks from the base, ranging up to 4-6 inches high (higher than the leaves), with the solitary flower having 5-6 white sepals; each sepal is elliptic in shape, but the spread flower is only about 1/2-inch wide. This species can be confused with one to several unrelated species, particularly Rubus hispidus, which can grow in the same habitat. That species has evergreen and 3-parted leaves (3 leaflets), but those leaflets are elliptical (rounded) in shape, and though serrated, the leaflets are longer than wide, with strongly parallel veins. Coptis leaflets have branching veins on the upper surface, and the distal end of the leaflet is quite jagged and almost lobed; also, the leaflets are as wide as or wider than the length. Needless to say, you must look very closely for this species, maybe even on hands and knees, to examine small evergreen-looking species with tri-foliate leaves. As it is so tiny, it could certainly "hide" along other shaded damp sites in the northern mountains. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | It was known as Coptis groenlandica in some older references.
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| Other Common Name(s) | Gold-thread, Goldenroot | |
| State Rank | S1 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | T | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACW link |
| USACE-emp | FACW link |
