Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Family: Apiaceae -- carrot family

Common Name: salt and pepper, Gorman’s lomatium, biscuitroot, desert parsley

Species Code: LOGO

Origin: Native to dry, open, often rocky places east of the Cascade Mountains in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and adjacent parts of Idaho.

Rare: no

Form: forb, glabrous perennial from a short and globose taproot, stems ascending to erect or sometimes prostrate, up to 15 cm tall.

Duration: perennial

Habitat Type: prairie

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: petioles sheathing and attached at or below the ground; blades glaucous to puberulent, ternately then bipinnately dissected into small, narrow linear segments 0.5-1.5 cm long.

Mature height: 2-6 inches

Flowers: borne in a compact umbel; petals 1-1.5 mm long, oblanceolate, white with purple anthers.

Flower color: white

Bloom: December, January, February, March, April

Bloom starts on: January

Bloom ends on: April

Fruit: schizocarp, ovate, 4.5-8 mm long, wings well developed.

Characteristics:
Lomatium gormanii favors rocky outcrops with very thin soils. Because this niche has very little soil to store moisture, L. gormanii has adapted by completing its life cycle during the wet part of the year. It is remarkably cold tolerant and will often bloom during a warm spell in January and occasionally even in December. It also grows on sites with enough soil to support xeric grasses, where it flowers somewhat later.
Reproduces sexually by seed.
L. Gormani in St. John 1963 and in Davis 1953. Cogswellia gormanii in Piper & Beattie 1914.
Perennating organ is a short, thick taproot.
Flowers of the tuberous lomatiums are visited by Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Coleoptera (Schlessman 1982).
Fruit is a schizocarp, separating into two mericarps (seeds) at maturity.
Perfect flowers are protogynous. This, combined with the sequence of flowering within and between umbels, promotes xenogamy or geitonogamy and reduces autogamy, although flowers are capable of self pollination (Schlessman 1982).
Seeds are probably windborne for short distances.
The roots of Lomatium gormanii were an important food of the Nez Perce people (Mastrogiuseppe 2000).

Sun requirement: full

Soil moisture: xeric

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: fall

Stratification: cold moist

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: medium difficulty by hand

Seed first harvest: no information available

Seed cleaning: easy

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: large

Seed harvest date: late April/early May

Seed comments: the short stature and the early ripening would likely make machine harvest of large seed increase plantings difficult

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

Key words: lithosol upland xeric

Propagation:
Preliminary data from the USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center indicates long stratification and cool growing conditions are required for seed germination.
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Lomatium gormanii has brilliant white flowers with purple anthers that give it the common name “salt and pepper.” It thrives in rocky areas by growing during the winter. During a mild spell in December or January it will often bloom. Should be a great rock garden plant (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Davis, Ray J. 1952. Flora of Idaho. Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa. 827 pp.

Mastrogiuseppe, Joy. 2000. Nez Perce Ethnobotany: a Synthetic Review. Report to the Nez Perce National Historical Park, Spalding, ID Project PX9370-97-024.

Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Lancaster, PA: Press of the New Era Printing Company. 296 pp.

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

Schlessman, Mark A. 1982. Expression of Andromonoecy and Pollination of Tuberous Lomatiums (Umbelliferae). Systematic Botany 7:134-149.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

Links:

Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium