Uniquely identifiable characteristics

Distinguishing Feature : The deeply cut palmately shaped lower leaves and the small tight, hemispherical fuzzy heads of very clustered white flowers.

The only member (at least in the UK) of Genus Sanicula. It grows in deciduous woodland, often on chalk or in limestone areas, and can blanket the ground. It is an atypical umbellifer, with the umbels being very small and compacted. The fruits have hooked spines to catch in animals fur aiding propagation.

Of all the plants that are hard to photograph, this one surely must win the prize, for it likes to hide in dark deciduous woods whilst enjoying being bathed in dappled sunshine streaking through the canopy. The brilliant whiteness of its small flowers against the darkest of backgrounds is sure to fool even the most advanced automatic exposure camera (mainly because the smallness of the flowers, which fall far short of filling the frame). The manually set negative exposure compensation required is often in excess of the -2 or -3 stops stops that most digital cameras can offer, resulting in over-exposure of the white flowers.

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