Sanicula liberta Cham. & Schltdl.

Bosques muy húmedos y áreas alteradas.

Distribucion en Costa Rica: Se encuentra en las Cordilleras de Guanacaste y Tilarán, Cordillera de Talamanca y estribaciones, PN Tapantí, Cerros de Tarrazú, Fila Bustamante, Cerros de Escazú y La Carpintera, Cerros de Turrubares. Elevaciones de 1.100 a 2.400 m.
Distribucion General: Del Norte de México a Perú y Bolivia.

Hierba.

Hierbas perennes hasta de 0.6 m de alto. Hojas de 3 a 9 cm de largo, basales, palmadamente compuestas, espinuloso-serradas. Inflorescencias en forma de umbelas compuestas, en cimas o racimos, de 7 a 16 flores; pedúnculo hasta de 55 cm de largo, brácteas del involucro inconspícuas, flores perfectas sésiles o estipitadas, estaminadas pediceladas, dientes del cáliz prominentes, pétalos de verde a verde-blanco, el ápice inflexo.Carpóforo ausente. Frutos comprimidos lateralmente, mericarpos densamente uncinados, costillas inconspicuas, cara de la semilla plana. Se reconoce por sus hojas palmadamente compuestas, basales, espinoso-serradas en el margen y por su distribución altitudinal.

Localidad del tipo: Venezuela
Depositario del tipo: Holotipo, P.
Recolector del tipo: Humboldt & Bonpland 275

Sanicula liberta Cham. & Schlecht. Linnaea 1: 353. 1826
Sanicula mexicana DC. Prodr. 4: 84. 1830.
Plants erect, 2-6 dm. high, perennial from a fleshy rhizome, glabrous, the stem usually solitary, dichasially branched above, the branches remote, divaricate, elongate; leaves broadly cordate-orbicular to suborbicular in general outline, excluding the petioles 2.5-8 cm. long, 3.5-10 cm. broad, palmately 5-parted, the primary divisions ovate-lanceolate to obovatecuneate, acuminate, petiolulate, trilobulate and irregularly incised above, entire to doubly serrate-crenate with setose teeth; petioles shortly sheathing below, 5-23 cm. long; cauline leaves reduced upward; involucre of small, leaflike bracts; involucel of inconspicuous, reflexed, linear, acute bractlets; fertile rays 1-3, 5-45 mm. long; sterile and fertile flowers in the same umbellet, the sterile pedicellate; fertile pedicels shorter than the fruit; flowers pale green; calyx deeply cleft, the lobes narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, equaling or exceeding the petals; anthers exserted; styles longer than the bristles, not conspicuously recurved; fruit usually 2-3 in each umbellet, subglobose, 2-4 mm. long, 2-4 mm. broad, distinctly pedicellate, densely bristly; oil-tubes small, several on the dorsal and lateral surfaces, 2 on the commissure; seed flattened dorsally in cross section, the commissural face plane.
Type locality: "In America meridionali prope Caripe, Venezuela, alt. 500 hexap.," Humboldt 275.
Distribution: Nuevo Le6n and Tatnaulipas to Panama; Colombia and Venezuela to Ecuador and Peru. (Heyde & Lux 3357, Pringle 13,003.)

Sanicula liberta là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Hoa tán. Loài này được Cham. & Schltdl. miêu tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1826.