Inflorescence - Axillary panicles on long peduncles. Peduncles to 6cm long, dense pubescent, longer than subtending leaf. Panicle to 4cm long(tall), subcylindric. Pedicels white, glabrous, expanded at apex below calyx, to 6mm long.
Habitat - Prairies, glades, open woods, thickets, railroads.
Origin - Native to U.S.
Other info. - C. americanus is a popular medicinal plant. The roots and leaves were boiled into tea and used for treating everything from snake bites to whooping cough. The roots contain alkaloids which lower blood pressure.
Flowers - Petals 5, white, spreading, clawed. Claw to 1mm long. Limb cupped or folded, tuberculate externally, .8mm long. Stamens 5, opposite the petals, erect. Filaments to 1mm long, whitish with a purple tinge, glabrous. Anthers purplish. Style .2mm long, 3-lobed. Ovary surrounded by a purple nectary ring, 3-locular. Hypanthium 1mm long, white, persistent in fruit. Calyx lobes inflexed, acute, ciliate margined, 1mm long, deciduous. Fruit a 3-lobed capsule, deep purple to black, 4-5mm broad. Seeds 1 per carpel.