About Triadenum fraseri (Spach) Gleason
Triadenum fraseri (Spach) Gleason is a perennial forb that grows between 1 foot (0.30 meters) and 2 feet (0.61 meters) tall. Its leaves are blue-green, sometimes tinged with purple, stalkless, elliptical, and arranged oppositely along the stem. Leaves typically reach 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) long and up to 1.75 inches (4.4 cm) wide. The plant has prominent stems and veins that are often red. Clusters containing a few to several flowers grow from leaf axils, at the ends of branching stems. The flowers are pink with five petals, and have green or purplish sepals. When fully open, flowers measure 0.25 in (0.64 cm) to 0.75 in (1.9 cm) wide, but they rarely open, and usually stay closed in a bud-like shape. Each flower has 9 to 12 yellow stamens. The fruit of this plant is a three-sectioned, pointed capsule that is dark-red or orange, and 0.25 in (0.64 cm) to 0.5 in (1.3 cm) long. Triadenum fraseri typically flowers from July through September each year. This species grows and thrives in wetland habitats including bogs, marshes, swales, sedgy meadows, moist sandy (even marly) shores, conifer swamps, and alder thickets. The United States Department of Agriculture lists Triadenum fraseri as a native species. In the United States, it is native to Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska (rare), New Hampshire, New Jersey (rare), New York, North Carolina (rare), Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee (rare), Vermont, Virginia (rare), Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. In Canada, it is native to British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan (rare). It is also native to the French overseas territories of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers categorizes Triadenum fraseri as an obligate wetland plant across the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain, Eastern Mountains and Piedmont, Great Plains, Midwest, Northcentral and Northeast, and Western Mountains, Valleys, and Coast regions.
