I don't know how or when the golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) planted themselves here, but they did, and have since thrived. At home in the woods as well as the roadsides, this flower can grow to the height of three or four feet. Here in my garden it is two feet tall, the same as the crane's-bill. Its branched flower stalk has alternate leaves that are compounded into three leaflets, each leaflet deeply cleft into two or three lobes. The long petioled basal leaves are the same. The golden yellow blossoms, each in itself very tiny, bloom in a somewhat flat topped or slightly rounded umbel consisting of a dozen more or less major rays or spokes each bearing a dozen or more miniature five-petaled golden flowers with green sepals and yellow stamens. It takes a lot of little flowers to make this somewhat humble display, but it is nonetheless a rather attractive plant of the parsley family.