Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Apiales

Family: Apiaceae -- carrot

Common Name: grey lomatium, big seed lomatium, large-fruited lomatium. The lomatiums are also know as desert parsley or biscuitroot.

Species Code: LOMA1

Origin: Native to dry, open, often rocky places of western North America east of the Cascade Mountains of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon eastward to Manitoba and south to the Dakotas, Colorado, and California.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial from a taproot, puberulent to pilose overall; stem branched near the base, spreading to ascending, 10-30 cm tall.

Mature height: 4-12 inches

Duration: perennial

Longevity: medium lifespan

Habitat Type: prairie

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: basal, sparsely to densely pubescent, gray-green; pinnately or ternate-pinnately dissected into small, narrow segments up to 9 mm long: petiole bases membranous, sheathing.

Flowers: andromonoecious, borne in a compound umbel; rays unequal, 2-6 cm long, involucel bractlets narrow, green, linear, well-developed; petals white, rarely yellow, oblanceolate.

Flower color: white

Bloom: April, May, into June in protected locations

Bloom starts on: early April

Bloom ends on: mid June

Fruit: schizocarp, oblong to elliptic,10-20 mm long, glabrous to puberulent, wings narrow to wide.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
L. macrocarpum is common and variable. The variability has led some taxonomists to propose infraspecific taxa, but the proposals are not widely supported.
Cogswellia macrocarpa in Piper & Beattie 1914.
100,000 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
Taprooted.
2n=22 (Hitchcock et al 1969, Baldwin 2004).
Plants are andromonoecious, having both perfect and staminate flowers.
Fruit is a schizocarp, separating into two mericarps (seeds) at maturity.
Perfect flowers are protogynous (Schlessman & Barrie 2004).
Seeds are probably windborne for short distances.
The roots of Lomatium macrocarpum were eaten by the Nez Perce and other Columbia Plateau people (Mastrogiuseppe 2000).
Lomatium species are a host for the larva of the indra swallowtail butterfly, Papilo indra, and for the larva of the anise swallowtail, Papilio zelicaon (Pocewicz 2005).

Comments: a common species on lithosolic sites of the Palouse

Sun requirement: full

Soil moisture: xeric

Precipitation: Precipitation: 8-16 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Fire: Increases after fire (Wikeem & Strang 1983).

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: late fall or early spring

Stratification: cold moist

Seed yield: high

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: 3rd season

Seed cleaning: easy

Planting duration: medium

Seed insect problem: yes

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: large

Seed harvest date: late June

Seed comments: seed insects common

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

Key words: native upland perennial forb

Propagation:
Only 8% germination at 15^oC in dark (Maguire & Overland 1959).
Preliminary data from the USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center indicates 90+ days of cool moist stratification is required for seed germination.
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Lomatium macrocarpum has grey-green foliage and white flowers which make it an interesting plant. Likes dry, rocky places where it flowers in April. Grows readily from seed after long stratification. Common names include grey lomatium, bigseed lomatium, large-fruited lomatium or biscuitroot (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 11/14/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

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.

Maguire, James D., and Alvin Overland. 1959. Laboratory Germination of Seeds of Weedy and Native Plants. Washington State Agricultural Experiment Station Circular 349, Pullman, WA. 15 p.

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.

Pocewicz, Amy. 2005. Host Plants of Palouse Butterfly Species. 2 page handout to accompany the April 2005 presentation to the Palouse Prairie Foundation.

Schlessman, M.A., and F.R. Barrie. 2004. Protogyny in Apiaceae, subfamily Apioideae: Systematic and Geographic Distributions, Associated Traits, and Evolutionary Hypotheses. South African Journal of Botany 70:475-487.

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

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 14 November 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Wikeem, Brian M., and R.M. Strang. 1983. Prescribed Burning on B.C. Rangelands: the State of the Art. Journal of Range Management 36:3-8.

Links:

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