Geum triflorum, commonly known as prairie smoke, old man’s whiskers, torchflower, three-sisters, long-plumed purple avens, lion's beard, or three-flowered avens, is a spring-blooming perennial herbaceous plant of the Rosaceae family. It is a hemiboreal continental climate species that is widespread in colder and drier environments of western North America, although it does occur in isolated populations as far east as New York and Ontario. It is particularly known for the long feathery plumes on the seed heads that have inspired many of the regional common names and aid in wind dispersal of its seeds. Description Geum triflorum is a perennial herb with short, spreading rhizomes, which form colonies of stemless rosettes. The roots are fiberous and have a sassafras-like flavor. The leaves grow from a caudex and are 4–30 cm long. They are divided into leaflets with deep divisions that makes the leaves resemble the leaves of a fern. The leaflets are arranged pinnately along a common leaf stem with smaller leaflets mixed in with 7–18 larger ones and single larger leaflet at the end of the leaf. The leaves are covered with extremely small downy hairs. Early in the spring, the leaves often lay flat to the ground and are in poor condition, but they soon become more upright in response to the warmer days and lack of snow cover. In the heat of a dry summer, the leaves also will lay down closer to the earth. The plants resume growth in the fall as other plants are starting to go dormant, developing a mound of deep grey-green leaves. The leaves are evergreen in areas without severe cold or there is protective snow cover, though they often turn purple, orange, or reddish. The flowers of G. triflorum appear from mid-spring to early summer. The flowering stalks stand well above the leaves on red-purple-maroon stems 10–45 cm in height. The flowering stem is almost bare with a few very small leaves called bractlets on the main stem and where the arching flower stalks (pedicels) attach to the main stem. Each flower hangs upside down by itself from a separate pedicle. There are usually three flowers on each flower stalk, but sometimes one, five, or even seven per stalk. The sepals are strongly closed and pink to maroon in color, covered in fine downy hairs, with five narrow pointed bracts radiating outward toward the base of the flower. The flowers contain