Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Apiales

Family: Apiaceae -- carrot

Common Name: mountain sweet-cicely, sweetcicely

Species Code: OSCH, OSBE

Origin: Native to moist, shady to partly shady coniferous forest over much of western North America.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial from a taproot; hirsute or sometimes glabrous; stems 1-3, slender, branched above, 30-100 cm tall.

Mature height: 12-40 inches

Duration: perennial

Habitat Type: forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: biternate, the leaflets thin, serrate to irregularly cut, narrowly to broadly ovate, 2-9 cm long; basal leaves long petiolate, cauline leaves 1-3, short-petiolate or subsessile.

Flowers: andromonoecious; inflorescence of loose compound umbels with the peduncles arising from the leaf axils and terminally, peduncles 5-25 cm long; rays 3-8, ascending-spreading; corolla small and inconspicuous, greenish-white.

Flower color: white

Bloom: May, June

Bloom starts on: late May

Bloom ends on: mid June

Fruit: schizocarp, green drying to black, hispid at the base and sometimes on the ribs, concavely narrowed toward the top, linear-oblong, 12-22 mm long, with a beak-like apex.

Characteristics:
Osmorhiza berteroi DC is the correct name. It was published about three months before O. chilensis and has priority (Kartesz & Gandhi 1993).
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Taprooted, may have a caudex.
2n=22 (Baldwin 2003).
Plants are andromonoecious, having both perfect and staminate flowers.
Perfect flowers of other Osmorhiza species are protandrous (Schlessman & Barrie 2004).
Roots are edible raw or cooked.
Fruit is a schizocarp, separating into 2 mericarps.
Rodents eat the taproot (Skinner, personal observation).
Seeds stick to fur or clothing and are dispersed by animals.

Sun requirement: full shade to partial sun

Soil moisture: mesic

Fire: The taproot survives most fires. Usually little change in cover following a fire. Recolonizes from the surviving taproots and animal borne seed (Crane & Fischer 1986).

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: extended cold moist

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: no information available

Seed cleaning: no information available

Planting duration: moderate

Seed insect problem: no information available

Seed shatter: low

Seed size: large

Seed harvest date: no information available

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

Keywords: native perennial upland forest forb

Propagation:
3 protocols in the Native Plant Network
Glacier National Park, Montana
Golden Gate National Parks, California
University of Kentucky

Other Propagation Information:
Dormancy is classified as deep complex morphophysiological dormancy. Stratify at 1^oC, 5^oC, or alternating temperatures of 5/1^oC. Gibberellic acid does not substitute for stratification. Germination occurs during stratification (Baskin et al 1995).
O. occidentalis needs 120 days cold moist stratification (Hoffman 1985).
O. occidentalis should be leached for 4 hours in running tap water, then given 16 weeks stratification at 2^oC. Grow at alternating temperatures of 22/17^oC. Germination occurs during stratification (McDonough 1969).
Reproduces sexually by seed.

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 12/8/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Baskin, Carol, Susan Meyer, and Jerry M. Baskin. 1995. Two Types of Morphophysiological Dormancy in Seeds of Two Genera (Osmorhiza and Erythronium) with an Arcto-Tertiary Distribution Pattern. American Journal of Botany 82:293-298.

Crane, M.F., and William C. Fischer. 1986. Fire Ecology of the Forest Habitat Types of Central Idaho. UDSA Forest Service Intermountain Research Station General Technical Report INT-218.

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.

Hoffman, George R. 1985. Germination of Herbaceous Plants Common to Aspen Forests of Western Colorado. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 112:409-413.

Kartesz, John T., and Kancheepuram N. Gandhi. 1993. Osmorhiza berteroi (Apiaceae): The Correct Name for Mountain Sweet-Cicely. Brittonia 45:181-182.

McDonough, Walter T. 1969. Effective Treatments for the Induction of Germination in Mountain Rangeland Species. Northwest Science 43:18-22.

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. Personal observation. Database editor and formerly with the USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center (retired).

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