Hairy Alumroot

Heuchera villosa Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 172. 1803
Heuchera caulescens Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 188. 1814. Heuchera acerifolia Raf. Med. Fl. 1 : 241. 1828. Heuchera squamosa Raf. Med. Fl. 1 : 244. 1828.
Flowering branches 2-6 dm. high, scapiform, bearing a few small bracts, villous-hirsute with brown hairs or rarely glabrous ; petioles of leaves 1-2 dm. long, more or less villous-hirsute (very rarely glabrous) as well as the veins of the lower surface of the blades ;
blades orbicular-cordate, deeply 5-7-lobed, 7-12 cm. wide; lobes triangular, acute, doubly
serrate; hypanthium sparingly ciliate and puberulent, together with the oblong-ovate
sepals about 2 mm, long; petals pinkish, linear-oblanceolate, long-clawed, fully twice as
long as the sepals ; filaments about three times as long as the sepals ; carpels ovoid, without the styles about 5 mm. long.
Type locality : Higher mountains of North Carolina.
Distribution : In rocky places, to an altitude of 1,600 meters, from Virginia and Kentucky to Georgia and Tennessee.

Heuchera villosa
Add to the illustrations: Britt. & Brown, 111. Fl. ed. 2. /. 2175; Lounsberry, S. Wild Fl. pi. 65.

Heuchera macrorhiza Small, Bull. Torrey Club 25 : 466. 1898
Flowering branches scapiform, or rarely leafy, 2-5 dm. high, villous-hirsute with
brown hairs, naked or with several scale-like bracts ; petioles of the basal leaves 1-3 dm. long,
densely villous ; blades suborbicular wnth cordate base, 8-20 cm. in diameter, pubescent
on both sides, sparingly so above, shallowly 5-9-lobed ; lobes very broadly triangular,
acute, coarsely toothed and ciliate ; hypanthium densely glandularvillous, together with the
sepals 2 mm. long in flower, 2.5 mm. in fruit ; sepals oblong or ovate-oblong, about as long
as the hypanthium ; petals linear with filiform claws, fully twice as long as the sepals.
Type locality : Along the Cumberland River at Nashville, Tennessee. Distribution : Bluffs and river-banks, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Heuchera crinita Rydb.; Britton, Man. 482. 1901
Flowering branches stout, 5-7 dm. high, either scapiform and bearing a few usually toothed bracts or sometimes 1-3-leaved, villous with brownish hairs; petioles of the basal leaves 2-3 dm. long, brownish-villous ; blades 10-22 cm. in diameter, glabrous or slightly hispidulous above, more or less hairy beneath, especially on the veins, broadly reniform in outline, 7-9-lobed ; lobes broadly rounded-ovate, toothed and ciliate ; teeth also very broadly ovate and mucronate ; hypanthium densely glandular-pubescent, together with the ovate sepals in flower about 3 mm. long; petals pinkish, oblanceolate or spatulate, longclawed, about half longer than the sepals.
Type locality : Kentucky.
Distribution : In rocky places, from Kentucky to Illinois and Virginia.

Heuchera villosa, the hairy alumroot, is a small evergreen perennial native to the Eastern United States. It is found only on rock outcrops, growing on cliffs and boulders.

Heuchera villosa is sometimes grown ornamentally, with some cultivars giving having a reddish leaf coloration.

There are two described varieties, which are sometimes considered distinct species. They are:

Heuchera villosa var. macrorhiza - On calcareous substrates, primarily west of the Appalachian Mountains Heuchera villosa var. villosa - On acidic substrates, primarily of the Appalachian Mountains and eastward Variety macrorhiza, with broad, shallow leaf lobes and oblong inflorescence bracts