Geum vernum(Raf.) Torr. & A.Gray

spring avens

WFO wfo-0001013004 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Geum vernum, photographed by Howard Williams
fig. a Howard Williams, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-23 / obs. 200078737
Geum vernum, photographed by rashcollector
fig. b rashcollector, CC0 1.0 / obs. 195931422
Geum vernum, photographed by adam busey
fig. c adam busey, CC0 1.0 / obs. 194549240
Geum vernum, photographed by Tom Field
fig. d Tom Field, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193577039
Geum vernum, photographed by Will Kuhn
fig. e Will Kuhn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 192610530
Geum vernum, photographed by John Abrams
fig. f John Abrams, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191363090
Geum vernum, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. g Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191024571
Geum vernum, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. h Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191024095

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 27 botanical countries

Regions where Geum vernum is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaArkansasGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMissouriNebraskaNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaTennesseeVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin DelawareDistrict of Columbia
Native distribution of Geum vernum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Missouri MSO
Nebraska NEB
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Tennessee TEN
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 157 in flower of 196 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Geum vernum observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 157 of 196 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 10 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 5 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Stilopus vernus Hook.
  • Stylipus vernus Raf.
  • Stylopus vernus Hook.
  • Stylypus vernus Raf.
  • Stypostylis vernus Raf.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.