Eastwood'S Podistera

Description

These dwarf plants of subalpine forests and alpine tundra can be so numerous as to appear a grassy ground cover. Closer inspection shows the finely cut, fan-shaped, parsley-like leaf and the umbel (umbrella-like) flower cluster. The photograph at left shows the plant at about maximum size. "Podistera" is Greek for "solid foot" probably referring to its tight, compact growth pattern. Podistera is a North American genus of only three members. "Eastwoodiae" is for Alice Eastwood, eminent Colorado and California botanist who first collected this plant for science in Colorado's La Plata Mountains in 1892. In 1895 John Coulter named the plant Ligusticum eastwoodae and it was subsequently renamed several times, finally to Podistera eastwoodiae by Mathias and Constance in 1942. (More biographical information about Eastwood.)