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Podistera eastwoodiae
Apiaceae (Parsley Family)
Subalpine,
alpine. Meadows, woodlands, tundra. Summer.
Colorado Trail near Stony Pass, July 21, 2011.
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Podistera
eastwoodiae
can be mistaken for several members of the Oreoxis genus but a careful examination of both shows clear differences. Click for a discussion of these differences on the Oreoxis page.
See also the similar genera Lomatium and Cymopterus. |
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Podistera eastwoodiae Subalpine,
alpine. Meadows, woodlands, tundra. Summer. |
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Podistera eastwoodiae
Subalpine,
alpine. Meadows, woodlands, tundra. Summer. 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 renamed several times, finally to Podistera eastwoodiae by Mathias and Constance in 1942. (More biographical information.) |
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Podistera eastwoodiae
Subalpine,
alpine. Meadows, woodlands, tundra. Summer. Leaves are glossy, deeply serrated, and attached directly to and well-spaced along the leaf stem (the rachis) in a fan-shaped whorl. |
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Podistera eastwoodiae
Subalpine,
alpine. Meadows, woodlands, tundra. Summer. Flower heads are subtended by sharply toothed bractlets. Flower petals in the photograph at left are not quite open and are rolled inward; most flower petals in the photograph above are open; and most flower petals in the Podistera eastwoodiae photograph at the top of the page have dropped and seeds are beginning to develop. |
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Podistera eastwoodiae
Subalpine. Meadows, woodlands. Summer. Podistera eastwoodiae flowers range from golden and bright yellow (at left) to duller greenish-yellow (photographs above), but bright yellow at full maturity is most common. |
Range map © John Kartesz,
County Color Key
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Range map for Podistera eastwoodiae |
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