southern chervil, Chaerophyllum tainturieri

Southern or hairy chervil demonstrates a type of germination ecophysiology previously undescribed in botany. That's a mouthful! And it's only the beginning for Baskin and Baskin in their paper for the Journal of Ecology. They go on to discuss southern chervil's version of morphophysiological dormancy. This all means that when seeds drop in the summer, the embryos have not matured. They go dormant at that stage through summer. In early autumn temperatures, they are stimulated to develop mature embryos, then germinate. The plants are then dormant , depending on latitude, until spring. This process gets the delicate embryos through the hottest and dryest part of summer.
Southern chervil mostly grows in open areas in AL, AR, AZ, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MO, MS, NC, NE, NM, OH, OK, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, and WV. Morton Co GA, 3/15/16. Celery family, Apiaceae.