White avens, Geum canadense, is a common plant that’s easy to overlook. Its white, five-petaled flowers look like those of dewberries. Here in Arkansas, the basal leaves, those at the bottom of the plant, are evergreen during the winter. In the spring, the plant produces stems and cauline leaves, which are a lighter green and look very different.
Native bees, wasps, flies, and beetles are fed by its nectar, and bees collect its pollen. It hosts the caterpillars of at least one moth and one butterfly. It’s a native plant, but it’s fairly aggressive because it can spread by its roots as well as its burr-like seeds.
It makes a good groundcover if you don’t mind those seeds, which will cling to shoes, socks, jeans, dogs, etc.