Vascular Plants of North Carolina

Account for Hairy Alumroot - Heuchera villosa Michaux

Section 6 » Order Rosales » Family Saxifragaceae

Author	Michaux
Distribution	Throughout the Mountains, and also ranges into the outlier northwestern Piedmont ranges -- the Sauratowns and Brushies, and perhaps also the South Mountains. Ranges as far east of Forsyth County, where there are no such Mountains. This is a species of the east-central states, ranging north to WV and MO and south to northern GA, northern AL, and AR.
Abundance	Common across most of the Mountains; rare to uncommon in the western Piedmont ranges.
Habitat	This is one of the most widespread flowering plants of exposed rock outcrops in the higher and middle elevations. It occurs on rocks of many types and is not limited to circumneutral soils; in fact, it is often found on felsic rocks. It occurs on cliffs, margins of outcrops, and other typically sunny to only partly shaded rock crevices and exposures.
Phenology	Blooms in late summer and early fall, from late June into October; fruits shortly after flowering.
Identification	This Heuchera is very different from the others, not only just with a differing habitat. It has several basal leaves, but in this species the large blades are dissected into 5-7 lobes, with quite serrated margins. Other species may have remote lobes, but in this species the clefts in the leaves extend about 1/3 of the leaf width, so that the lobes are somewhat triangular in shape. The flowering stalk grows about 2 feet tall, being a narrow panicle near the top that looks much like in other alumroots. Most biologists are quite familiar with this easily found species, as long as they are willing to do a slight bit of upward hiking onto rocky slopes and exposures.
Taxonomic Comments	None
Other Common Name(s)	Rock Alumroot, Mapleleaf Alumroot, Crag-jangle. Note that the recently split out H. aceroides now uses the common name of Mapleleaf Alumroot, as the specific epithet aceroides means "maple-like".
State Rank	S4
Global Rank	G5
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp

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