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Common Name: Goat's Beard
Scientific Name: Aruncus dioicus
Family: Rosaceae
Blue Ridge Parkway
North Carolina
June 1, 2002
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As the species name implies, these tall perennials with large bipinnately or tripinnately compound leaves are dioecious, having the male and female flowers on separate plants; the male plant is shown here. The ovate to lanceolate, serrate leaflets may be 2 -5 inches long. A species of the northern and central U.S. found growing in the rich, moist woods of our mountains and piedmont. May - June [Justice, William S. and Bell, C. Ritchie, Wild Flowers of North Carolina. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1968]
This robust plant can be easily mistaken for false goat's beard (Astilbe biternata), a member of the Saxifrage family. Both plants have compound leaves with toothed leaflets. However, the terminal (end) leaflet of goat's beard has no lobes while false goat's beard has three lobes. True goat's beard flowers have 15 or more stamens; false goat's beard flowers have 10 stamens. Goat's beard is dioecious; having separate male and female plants. The male flower, with its five white petals and 15 - 20 white stamens, is the more showy. The female flower has three pistils at its center. Interestingly, it also has tiny, non-functional stamens as well, perhaps indicating a perfect (having both male and female parts) ancestry. May - June [White, Peter, Wildflowers of the Smokies. Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association, Gatlinburg, 1996]
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Alphabetical Listings -- A B C D, E F G H I, J, K L M N, O P Q, R S T U, V W X, Y, Z
Family Listings -- A B C D, E F G H I, J, K L M N, O P Q, R S T U, V W X, Y, Z
Genus Listings -- A B C D, E F G H I, J, K L M N, O P Q, R S T U, V W X, Y, Z