Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Asterales

Family: Asteraceae (Compositae) -- sunflower

Common Name: arrowleaf balsamroot

Species Code: BASA3

Origin: Native to dry, open prairies and meadows and open coniferous woodlands of western North America east to Alberta and the Dakotas and south to Colorado and Arizona.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial from a woody taproot and caudex; plants 20-80 cm tall, white lanate throughout, especially upward.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: long-lived

Habitat Type: prairie, shrub thickets, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: mostly basal, petiolate, petioles 10-35 cm long, blades 7-27 cm long, 10-20 cm wide, deltoid to ovate and often cordate at the base, densely tomentulose; sometimes with greatly reduced, narrow cauline leaves.

Mature height: 8-32 inches

Flowers: usually solitary on a leafless scapiform stem; involucre densely white lanulate, hemispheric, outer bracts longest, tips spreading; ray flowers pistillate, yellow, 2-4 cm long; disc flowers perfect, tubular, yellow.

Flower color: yellow

Bloom: April, May, June

Bloom starts on: mid April

Bloom ends on: early June

Fruit: achene, 7-8 mm long, brown or grey, glabrous, pappus lacking.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Hybridizes with other species of Balsamorhiza (Ownbey & Weber 1943).
Clipping reduces plant vigor the following year (Blaisdell & Pechanec 1949).
61,630 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Pullman PMC 2005).
55,000-55,245 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
58,438 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Plants Database 2009).
Taprooted.
n=19 (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993, University of British Columbia 2003).
Pollinated by native bees, especially Osmia californica. Primarily xenogamous but geitonogamy often produces viable seed. Very little seed is produced autogamously (Cane 2005).
Ray flowers are pistillate, disc flowers are perfect.
All plant parts are edible. Native people also had medicinal uses for many of the plant parts.
Fruit is an achene.
Horses and ground squirrels eat the plants (St. John 1963). New growth is grazed by elk and deer, and livestock use the plants (Craighead et al 1963). A valuable forage for Rocky Mountain elk in winter and spring, less valuable in summer (Kufeld 1973). Green foliage is eaten by sheep and cattle (Roche & Roche 1991). Green leaves and flowers are eaten by livestock and big game (Stubbendieck et al 1997). Birds eat the seeds.
Puccinia balsamorhizae Peck, a rust fungus, will attack the plants, but they have developed tolerance (Roy et al 2000).
Seed insects are common.

Comments: Clipping reduces plant vigor the following year (Blaisdell & Pechanec 1949).

Sun requirement: full

Soil moisture: xeric to mesic

Precipitation: 8-25 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Fire: Regrows from the surviving caudex. Will survive even the most severe fire. Increases in frequency and density after fire (McWilliams undated).

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring or fall

Stratification: extended cold moist

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: 3+ years

Seed cleaning: medium difficulty

Planting duration: long

Seed insect problem: yes

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: large

Seed harvest date: early July

Seed comments: Plants are slow to flower, insect damaged seed is common, and birds eat the seed. The plants flower and ripen seed indeterminately.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: early perennial native upland forb

Propagation:
3 protocols in the Native Plant Network
University of Kentucky
Pullman WA Plant Materials Center
University of California, Davis

Other Propagation Information:
Seeds require 16 weeks prechill for maximum germination. Germination occurs at 1-3^oC. Seed is probably not stored in the seedbank (Mogensen et al 2001).
Needs 12 weeks stratification. Germination occurs at low temperatures (Young & Evans 1979).
Seed stores up to 4 years in unheated warehouse (Stevens et al 1981).
Not stored in the seedbank (Kitchen & Monsen 1996).
Exposing seeds to ethylene before stratification increases germination (Chambers et al 2006).
Irrigation will increase seed production in the following year (Collins & Weaver 1978).
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Balsamorhiza sagittata is very early flowering and attractive in bloom. The large leaves are interesting after flowering is completed. Commonly available both as seed and plants. Takes 4-6 years to flower from seed, but is very long-lived. Goes dormant with onset of warm, dry weather. Taprooted, can’t readily be moved once in place. Leaves are grey-green because they are covered with short hairs. The leaves are all basal. Sow seeds outdoors in deep pots and leave them out there. Does not grow in a warm greenhouse. Because they are taprooted, do not hold in pots too long. Plants are frequently available from native plant nurseries. Common name is arrowleaf balsamroot (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Blaisdell, James P., and Joseph F. Pechanec. 1949. Effects of Herbage Removal at Various Dates on Vigor of Bluebunch Wheatgrass and Arrowleaf Balsamroot. Ecology 30:298-305.

Cane, James H. 2005. Pollination Needs of Arrowleaf Balsamroot, Balsamorhiza sagittata (Heliantheae: Asteraceae). Western North American Naturalist 65(3):359-364.

Chambers, Kimberlee J., Pat Bowen, Nancy J. Turner, and Peter C. Keller. 2006. Ethylene Improves Germination of Arrow-leaved Balsamroot Seeds. Native Plants Journal 7:109-112.

Collins, D., and T. Weaver. 1978. Effects of Summer Weather Modification (Irrigation) in Festuca idahoensis-Agropyron spicatum Grassland. Journal of Range Management 31:264-269.

Craighead, John J., Frank C. Craighead, and Ray J. Davis. 1963. A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA.

Faust, Ernest Carroll. 1917. Resin Secretion in Balsamorhiza sagittata. Botanical Gazette 64:441-479.

Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/

Hassell, Wendell, W. Rocky Beavers, Steve Ouellette, and Thomas Mitchell. 1996. Seeding Rate Statistics for Native and Introduced Species. US Department of Interior and US Department of Agriculture, NRCS. Denver, CO.

Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.

Kitchen, Stanley G., and Stephen B. Monsen. 1996. Arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) Seed Germination and Establishment Success (Utah). Restoration and Management Notes 14:180-181.

Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.

McWilliams, Jack. Balsamorhiza sagittata. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2009, September 10].

Ownbey, Marion, and William A. Weber. 1943. Natural Hybridization in the Genus Balsamorhiza. American Journal of Botany 30:179-187.

Roche, Ben F., Jr., and Cindy Talbott Roche. 1991. Eastern Washington Range Plants. Extension Bulletin 1302, Washington State University Coop. Extension Service, Pullman WA. 66 pp.

St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. Characteristics and Uses of Native Palouse Forbs in Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

Stevens, Richard, Kent R. Jorgensen, and James N. Davis. 1981. Viability of Seed From Thirty-two Shrub and Forb Species Through Fifteen Years of Warehouse Storage. Great Basin Naturalist 41:274-277.

Stubbendieck, James, Stephan L. Hatch, and Charles H. Butterfield. 1997. North American Range Plants. 5th edition. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE. 501 pp.

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Online at http://www.bcflora.org/ Accessed 1/1/06.

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 10 September 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

USDA NRCS, Pullman Plant Materials Center. 2005. Seed Weights of Some Palouse Native Species. Pullman Plant Materials Center, Pullman, Washington. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/~pmc_nrcs/Docs/Seed_Weights_Palouse_Native_Species.pdf

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species account from the Fire Effects Information System
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium