Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Gray's Lomatium
Lomatium grayi
Carrot family (Apiaceae)

This is a wide-spread and abundant Lomatium blooming in the early spring. Leaves are divided into numerous, fine segments that turn in different planes, giving the plant a very thick, fern-like appearance. Flower stalks often lean outward, commonly almost on the ground. The plant has a strong and pleasant parsley smell. The first specimen of this plant was collected by Sereno Watson on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake in Utah around 1868. Asa Gray was a student of the great John Torrey, and Watson was Gray's student. The three dominated 19th century American botany.


©2023 Rachel Barnett

Description

plant 5 to 15" tall (often in a mat spread along the ground), strongly aromatic, , often with shredded old leaf bases present. to 5" long or lacking, 3-6" long, very finely and completely dissected, in outline. 4-16" tall. Petals and yellow when fresh but soon fading white when dried. about 1/4" long with .

Field Marks

Fern-like mound of bright green leaves surmounted by large spray clusters of many small yellow flowers.

© Al Schneider

stamen -- the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower; The stamen consists of an anther supported by a filament.

A peduncle is a common stalk of a cluster of flowers.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

wing -- A maple seed has wings.

lateral -- attached to the side of an organ, for instance leaves or branches on a stem.

ovate -- Oval, egg-shaped, with a tapering point.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

petiole -- the stalk of a leaf.

blade -- Just the flat part of a leaf. Not the stem.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.