Gray's biscuitroot

Description

Lomatium grayi, commonly known as Gray's biscuitroot, Gray's desert parsley, or pungent desert parsley, is a perennial herb of the family Apiaceae. It is native to Western Canada in British Columbia, and the Western United States, including from the Eastern Cascades and northeastern California to the Rocky Mountains. It is a perennial herb found growing in dry rocky banks and slopes. It grows throughout the sagebrush steppe and also in pinyon–juniper woodland. It has a lifespan of 5–7 years. Lomatium grayi has glabrous stems that split at the ground, and a long, thick taproot. The dark-green leaves are numerously divided. It flowers from March to July with 1–20 compound umbels, each with hundreds of yellow flowers, upon leafless stalks. The fruit is glabrous, elliptic, 8–15 mm long, with the lateral wings about half as wide as the body. The plant has a strong odor resembling parsley.