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| Life form: |
| Perennial |
| Stems: |
| Up to 80cm keight; straight, branching, pubescent. |
| Leaves: |
| Leaves on stem with 3 toothed leaflets. Lower leaves pinnately compound with more than 3 leaflets. Apical leaflet very large and broad relative to other leaflets. Opposite large pairs of leaflets intermixed with small pairs. |
| Flowers: |
| Flowers purple to red-purple. Sepals fused in a globular container with 5 projecting, sharp-pointed sepal lobes. Fruit without long, feathery hairs. Flowers usually in groups of 3. |
| Flowering Period: |
| May-July |
| Fruits: |
| Achene with hooked hairs, several together. |
| Habitat: |
| Woods, thickets, fresh water, bogs, marshes, pastureland and meadows |
Derivation of the botanical name:
Geum, from the Greek geno, "to yield an agreeable fragrance". When freshly dug, the root has a clove-like aroma. It was called "the Blessed Herb" in earlier times and the common name "Herb Bennet" is a possible corruption of that.
rivale, rival, "of or belonging to a stream."
- The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.
Pliny the Elder(23-79 CE), Natural History, Book XXVI:XXI: "Geum has little roots, slender, blackish and with a pleasant smell".
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