Modiola caroliniana

Mostly perennial, often rooting from lower nodes. Leaves petiolate; lamina broadly ovate to orbicular, usually cordate at base, c. 1.5–5 cm long and wide, usually shallowly to deeply 3–7-lobed, margins crenate to dentate, surfaces glabrescent or with scattered stellate and/or simple hairs; stipules ovate-triangular, 2–4 mm long. Pedicels 1–4 cm long, elongating in fruit; epicalyx lobes 3–5 mm long (to 8 mm in fruit); calyx c. 5 mm long at anthesis, lobes obtuse to broadly acute; petals orange-red, slightly exceeding calyx. Ripe mericarps resembling a horse's head, c. 4 mm long, bristly along the dorsal and apical crest, glabrous and transversely wrinkled near base; seeds reniform, c. 1.5 mm long, separated by an incomplete transverse partition. Flowers Sep.–Mar.