''Zizia aurea'' (golden alexanders, golden zizia) is a flowering herbaceous

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

of the carrot family

Apiaceae Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus '' Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plan ...

. It is native to eastern Canada and the United States, from the eastern Great Plains to the Atlantic Coast. It is named for

Johann Baptist Ziz Johann Baptist Ziz (1779–1829) was a German botanist, born in Mainz in the Rhineland on October 8, 1779. He died in Mainz on December 1, 1829. The genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of ...

, a German botanist.

Description

''Zizia aurea'' grows to tall but can sometimes grow taller. The leaves are long and wide. They are attached to the stems alternately. Each leaf is compound and odd-pinnate, with leaflets that are normally

lanceolate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular ...

ovate Ovate may refer to: * Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe *Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd *Vates In modern English, the nouns vates () and ova ...

with serrated edges. The root system consists of a dense cluster of coarse fibrous roots. It blooms from May to June. Its flowers are yellow and grow in a flat-topped

umbel In botany, an umbel is an inflorescence that consists of a number of short flower stalks (called pedicels) that spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs. The word was coined in botanical usage in the 1590s, from Latin ''umbella'' "p ...

at the top of the plant. Each flower is only long and has five sepals, five petals, and five stamens. Each flower produces a single long, oblong fruit (

schizocarp A schizocarp is a dry fruit that, when mature, splits up into mericarps. There are different definitions: * Any dry fruit composed of multiple carpels that separate. : Under this definition the mericarps can contain one or more seeds (the m ...

) containing two seeds. In the fall both the leaves and the fruit turn purple.

Distribution and habitat

Golden Alexanders is native to the United States and Canada. It grows from

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

, south to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, and west to

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

.USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheet for ''Z. aurea''
Retrieved 2010-03-08 It is found in a broad variety of habitats, such as moist black soil prairies, openings in moist to mesic woodlands, savannas, thickets, limestone glades and bluffs, power line clearings in woodland areas, abandoned fields, and wet meadows. It can tolerate dry summers even though it prefers wet habitats. It is hardy in

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

zones Zone or The Zone may refer to: Places Climate and altitude zones * Death zone (originally the lethal zone), altitudes above a certain point where the amount of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span * Frigid zone, ...

4–9.

Ecology

It is a host plant for the caterpillars of the

black swallowtail ''Papilio polyxenes'', the (eastern) black swallowtail, American swallowtail or parsnip swallowtail, is a butterfly found throughout much of North America. It is the state butterfly of Oklahoma and New Jersey New Jersey is a state in ...

(''Papilio polyxenes asterius'') and Ozark swallowtail (''Papilio joanae'') butterflies. Females of the

mining bee ''Andrena'' is a genus of bees in the family Andrenidae. With over 1,500 species, it is one of the largest genera of animals. It is a strongly monophyletic group that is difficult to split into more manageable divisions; currently, ''Andrena'' ...

species '' Andrena ziziae'' are

oligolectic The term oligolecty is used in pollination ecology to refer to bees that exhibit a narrow, specialized preference for pollen sources, typically to a single family or genus of flowering plants. The preference may occasionally extend broadly to mult ...

on ''Zizia aurea''—they eat only its pollen. Dozens of species of bees, flies, wasps, butterflies, and other insects visit the flowers of ''Zizia aurea'' for its nectar.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q926091

aurea Aurea, golden in Latin, may refer to: * Aurea (car), a former Italian automobile manufactured in Turin from 1921 to 1930 * Aurea (singer) (born 1987), Portuguese singer * Aurea Alexandrina, a kind of opiate or antidote * Áurea, a municipality ...

Flora of North America