Flower:

Nodding clusters at the tips of branching stems, each with 2 to 5 stalked flower heads. Flower heads are 1/3 to ½ inch across typically with 5 to 8 white rays (petals) that are quite short and have 3 small lobes at the tip. Flowers in the center disk are creamy white to pale yellow. Occasionally the ray flowers are unlobed, or as long as or longer than the center disk, or absent altogether.

The bracts (phyllaries) surrounding the base of the flower are in 2 series. The outer are very narrow and curl back (recurved), the inner are broader and usually shorter than the outer. Phyllaries and flower stalks are densely hairy, often glandular.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are opposite, 4 to 10 inches long, up to 5 inches wide, broadly lance-oblong in outline, typically with 3 to 11 deep, irregular and angular lobes, though uppermost leaves may be smaller and unlobed. Edges are minutely to coarsely toothed and fringed with short hairs; surfaces are variably hairy, more so along major veins on the underside. The base of the blade sometimes extends down the leaf stalk, creating broad, irregular wings.

At the base of the leaf stalk is a pair of leafy appendages (stipules) that are hemispheric in outline, shallowly lobed, coarsely toothed and hairy. Leaf stalks are hairy and up to 4 inches long. Stems are erect, branched in the upper plant, densely hairy and often glandular.

Fruit:

Fruit is a dry seed without a tuft of hairs.

Notes:

Leafcup reaches the northwest tip of its range in Minnesota and is a plant of damp, shady woodlands and ravines. The leaves are somewhat similar to Appendaged Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum appendiculatum), which may be found in the same habitat, but has leaves with fewer and usually shallower lobes (lower leaves in particular), and 5-petaled saucer to bell-shaped lavender flowers.