Spider Biscuitroot

Description

Lomatium tarantuloides Darrach & Hinchliff, sp. nov., is a narrow endemic of conservation concern growing primarily in shallow, gravelly, serpentine-derived soils in a small area of the Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests in Grant County of northeastern Oregon. The species is distinguished from other members of the genus by leaf morphology, prostrate inflorescences and infructescences, fruit shape, and pedicel length. The presently recognized populations are primarily confined to small patches within a several km2 area in the higher elevations of the Greenhorn Mountains in the Blue Mountain physiographic province. Populations are of densely clustered plants in sites often characterized by persistent rodent-perpetuated disturbance where the new species tends to display the highest biomass of any single vascular plant species present.