Maybe one of these is a Zizia aurea seedling?

Well, the gardeners at the Dave's Garden Plant Identification Forum confirmed my suspicion that the first crop of seedlings that came up in the pot I planted my golden Alexanders (zizias d'oré) in were actually Oxalis. Looks like I didn't clean the pot out properly before planting in it.

So I weeded out the oxalis, and ended up with these three plants. There seem to be two species—the plant on the left has smoother narrower leaves than the other two.

Could either of these be Zizia?

Probably not Zizia aurea seedlings

After putting my stratified native seeds under the grow lights, I was thrilled to see a lush crop of seedings of Zizia aurea (golden Alexanders, zizia d'oré) springing up in only a couple of days. Now that they are getting true leaves, however, they look suspiciously to me like Oxalis (wood sorrel, oxalide). I discovered a nifty resource, Central Region Seedling ID Guide for Native Prairie Plants (PDF), published by USDA, which seems to confirm that these are not Zizia aurea.

I'm going to keep them around a bit longer; maybe they'll look different with age, or maybe more seedlings will come up later? I'm not expecting much though. What a disappointment.

Zizia aurea: seeds

Zizia aurea, known in English as golden Alexander and in French as zizia d'oré, is a perennial native to eastern and central North America. It has delicate umbels of tiny yellow flowers in the spring.

This is my first attempt at growing golden Alexanders. I got these seeds from the North American Native Plant Society at Seedy Saturday. (If you're thinking of collecting seed or plants from the wild, please see Alberta Native Plant Council Plant Collection Guidelines for Horticultural Use of Native Plants.) I sowed them in a recycled margarine tub full of moistened Home Gardener Organic Starter Mix which I got at the Home Hardware at Danforth and Pape. They'll spend 6-8 weeks in the fridge to simulate winter before being planted outside.