Plant Species: Lomatium triternatum, nine-leaf lomatium
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons
Order: Apiales
Family: Apiaceae -- carrot
Genus: Lomatium
Species: triternatum
Variety: The Palouse phase is mostly var. triternatum.
Common Name: nine-leaf lomatium, nine-leaf biscuitroot or desert parsley
Species Code: LOTR2, LOTRT, LOTRA
Origin: Native to dry to mesic open areas of western North America from southern British Columbia to northern California and east to Utah, Wyoming, and Montana.
Rare: no
Form: forb, perennial from a slender taproot surmounted by a caudex; stems few or solitary, erect, 20-80 cm tall, puberulent.
Mature height: 8-32 inches
Duration: perennial
Longevity: medium lifespan
Habitat Type: prairie
Wetland Indicator Status: not listed
Leaves: mostly basal or nearly basal with 1 or more reduced cauline leaves; petiole 2-20 cm long, sheathing at base; blade ternately to ternately-pinnately 2-3 times cleft into narrow leaflets 1-10 cm long and usually less than 5 mm wide, puberulent or sometimes glabrous.
Flowers: borne in a compound umbel; rays unequal, 2-10 cm long; involucels present but inconspicuous; flowers yellow, rarely white.
Flower color: yellow
Bloom: April, May, June
Bloom starts on: mid April
Bloom ends on: mid June
Fruit: schizocarp, oblong to elliptic, usually glabrous, narrowly to broadly winged, 7-15 mm long.
Vegetation type:
Characteristics:
Cogswellia triternata in Piper & Beattie 1914.
Reproduces sexually by seed.
63,812 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Pullman PMC 2005).
Perennating organ is a taproot from a short caudex.
2n=22, 44 for var. triternatum (Baldwin et al 2004).
n=11 (Hitchcock et al 1969).
Tetraploids are known in var. triternatum.
Plants are andromonoecious, having both perfect and staminate flowers.
Perfect flowers are protogynous (Schlessman & Barrie 2004).
Fruit is a schizocarp, separating into two mericarps (seeds) at maturity.
Seeds are probably windborne for short distances.
The roots of Lomatium triternatum were eaten by the Nez Perce and other Columbia Plateau people (Mastrogiuseppe 2000).
Roots were dried and ground into flour by native peoples and early settlers (Patterson et al 1985).
Dispersed seeds are consumed by ground beetles and small mammals. However, they prefer L. dissectum seeds over those of L. triternatum (Thompson 1985).
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: While the Palouse phase is mostly var. triternatum, there is a specimen of var. anomalum from the
top of the Coyote Grade (Nez Perce County, Idaho) in the University of Washington Herbarium. This is probably the westernmost extension of the range of the variety.
Sun requirement: full sun
Soil moisture: xeric
Precipitation: 8-20 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
Fire: The taproot and caudex probably survive most fires.
Hazards:
Sowing time: fall
Transplant time: fall or early spring
Stratification: cold moist plus cool incubation
Seed yield: high
Seed harvest: easy
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
Key words: native perennial upland forb
Alternate Genus: Cogswellia
Alternate Species: triternata
Alternate Variety:
Notes: Grows readily from seed after long stratification. Takes 2 years to grow to transplant size and another to flower. Blooms in May. Common names include nine-leaf desert parsley, narrow-leaf desert parsley, nine-leaf lomatium, narrow-leaf lomatium, Lewis 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 11/15/09 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.
Mastrogiuseppe, Joy. 2000. Nez Perce Ethnobotany: a Synthetic Review. Report to the Nez Perce National Historical Park, Spalding, ID Project PX9370-97-024.
Patterson, Patricia A., Kenneth E. Neiman, and Jonalea R. Tonn. 1985. Field Guide to Forest Plants of Northern Idaho. USDA Forest Service Intermountain Research Station. General Technical Report INT-180. Ogden, Utah.
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. 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
Thompson, John N. 1985. Postdispersal Seed Predation in Lomatium spp. (Umbelliferae): Variation Among Individuals and Species. Ecology 66: 1608-1616.
USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 15 November 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