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Lomatium dissectum (Giant
Lomatium) Semi-desert, foothills.
Shrublands, woodlands, openings. Spring. Lomatium dissectum,sometimes called "Fernleaf Lomatium", has large, handsome, leaves that are usually pinnately dissected but they are infrequently (as shown here) more broadly dissected. Flowers surmount a stalk that is up to 40 inches tall. Flowers start in a tight circle and spread in a golden wheel formation over six inches in diameter. (See photographs below.) The plant is often found on open rocky slopes and dry meadows. Thomas Nuttall named this species Leptotaenia dissecta from a specimen he collected in Oregon in the mid-1830s. Mathias and Constance renamed it Lomatium dissectum in 1942. |
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Lomatium dissectum (Giant
Lomatium) Semi-desert, foothills.
Shrublands, woodlands, openings. Spring. |
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Lomatium dissectum (Giant
Lomatium) Semi-desert, foothills.
Shrublands, woodlands, openings. Spring. Leaves are very similar to those of Ligusticum porteri but are generally more glossy and not mottled as those of Ligusticum commonly are. Lomatium dissectum has yellow flowers in the spring; Ligusticum porteri has white flowers in the summer. The ranges overlap in the lower mesas but only L. porteri is found in the higher mountains. |
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Lomatium
grayi (Biscuitroot) Semi-desert, foothills.
Shrublands, woodlands, openings. Spring. This is a wide-spread and abundant Lomatium blooming in the early spring in the Four Corners area of Colorado and Utah. It is rare in New Mexico and absent from Arizona. Leaves are subdivided into numerous, fine segments that turn in different planes, giving the plant a very thick, fern-like appearance. Flower stalks often lean. The first specimen of this plant was collected by Sereno Watson on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake in Utah around 1868 and was named Peucedanum milleflium by Watson. It was renamed several times until in 1900 John Merle Coulter and Joseph Rose gave the present name. Asa Gray was a student of the great John Torrey, and Watson was Gray's student. The three dominated 19th century American botany. (More biographical information about Gray.) |
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Lomatium grayi ( Biscuitroot) Semi-desert, foothills.
Shrublands, woodlands, openings. Spring. |
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Lomatium grayi ( Biscuitroot) Semi-desert, foothills.
Shrublands, woodlands, openings. Spring. |
Range map © John Kartesz,
County Color Key
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Range map for Lomatium dissectum
Range map for Lomatium grayi |
Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state
Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Eradicated
Questionable presence
