| Author | (L.) Crantz | |
| Distribution | This is essentially a Piedmont species, barely ranging east into the western Coastal Plain (but only along a few brownwater river floodplains). Ranges west to Rockingham, Forsyth, Iredell, and Lincoln counties, and thus absent from the Mountains and Piedmont foothills.
This is a mostly Midwestern species, ranging from NY to eastern NE, and south to SC and OK, rarely to northern FL. Though it occurs in the Appalachians to the north of NC, it is scarce in the southern Appalachians.
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| Abundance | Uncommon in the Piedmont and along the upper portions of the Roanoke, Tar, and Cape Fear river floodplains in the upper Coastal Plain. | |
| Habitat | This is a species of rich hardwood forests, usually away from any disturbed ground. It grows in rich bottomlands and on lower adjacent slopes, typically there in Basic Mesic Forests. It also grows on natural levees of brownwater rivers, under a hardwood canopy. |
| Phenology | Blooms from late March to April, and fruits in April and May. | |
| Identification | This is a low-growing, leaning species with a weak stem, usually branched from the base, reaching to about 8-12 inches long at most. It has only a few alternate leaves, each one strongly bipinnately dissected into "lacy" segments, each lobe rounded and only 1/4-inch or less long and much narrower. In some leaf axils grow the small umbels on long stalks, with only 3-10 small white flowers in each umbel. In this species, the stem and leaves are glabrous or nearly so; the similar C. tainturieri is erect, much taller, has a quite hairy stem and leaves, and grows in disturbed soil of wooded margins, fields, and other similar places. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | There are several varieties named for this species, with Weakley (2018) indicating that only the nominate variety -- var. procumbens -- is present in the state.
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| Other Common Name(s) | Wild Chervil | |
| State Rank | S3 [S3S4] | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACW link |
| USACE-emp | FACW link |
