Flower:

1 to a few flowers are at the end of branching stems at the top of the plant. Individual flowers are about ½ inch across with 5 yellow round to oval petals that may have a dull point or a small notch at the tip. There are numerous yellow-tipped stamens, that turn reddish brown with age, covering the greenish center. The 5 sharply pointed green sepals under the flower bend back away from the flower.

Leaves and stem:

There are a few to several long stalked compound basal leaves with a large kidney-shaped leaflet, sometimes round or 3-lobed, at the end with several smaller leaflets along the stalk. Basal leaves can be 18 inches long, with the end leaflet to 7 inches long and wide.

The compound stem leaves are alternately attached, with the end leaflet divided into 3 coarsely toothed lobes. The end leaflet is to 4½ inches long and 3½ inches wide and 3-lobed. The pair of leafy appendages (stipules) attached at the base of the stalk are conspicuous with large sharp teeth. Stem leaves near the base of the plant have 1 or more additional pairs of smaller leaflets. All leaves are very hairy, and become progressively smaller and shorter stalked as they ascend the stem, stalkless in the flowering branches. Stems are covered in stiff hairs.

Fruit:

Fruit is a dry oval seed; the seed head is covered in hooks

Notes:

The flowers, stem leaves and stipules are very much like Yellow Avens (Geum aleppicum), but its basal leaves do not have the big round end leaflet. There are 2 recognized varieties of Large-leaf Avens: var. macrophyllum is found in northwest and northeast North America, var. perincisum, found in Minnesota, is more widespread and has more deeply dissected stem leaves than its cousin.