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Carey's balsamroot

serrate balsam root, serrated balsamroot, serrrate balsamroot, tooth balsamroot

Habit Plants (15–)20–60 cm. Plants 10–20(–30) cm.
Basal leaves

blades green, rounded-deltate or deltate to triangular-deltate, 15–25 × 6–15 cm, bases cordate or hastate to truncate, margins usually entire, sometimes crenate (to dentate near bases), apices acute to attenuate, faces finely hispidulous to hirtellous (gland-dotted as well).

blades pale green to gray-green, lanceolate or lance-ovate, 5–15(–20+) × 2–5(–10) cm (earliest sometimes, later seldom, pinnately lobed, mostly toward tips), bases usually cuneate to subtruncate, sometimes cordate, margins usually dentate to serrate, apices acute, faces hirsutulous to scabrous.

Involucres

hemispheric to turbinate or campanulate, 12–20 mm diam.

campanulate, 15–25 mm diam.

Ray laminae

20–30(–40) mm (cypselae strigose or glabrous).

(20–)30–40.

Outer phyllaries

oblong to lanceolate or linear, 15–25 mm, usually surpassing inner, apices acute to attenuate.

lanceolate to lance-triangular, 10–22 mm, shorter than inner, apices acute to attenuate (margins ciliate).

Heads

usually (2–)3+, sometimes borne singly.

usually borne singly.

2n

= 38.

= 38.

Balsamorhiza careyana

Balsamorhiza serrata

Phenology Flowering (Mar–)May–Jun(–Jul). Flowering Apr–Jun.
Habitat Dry scablands, semi-desert soils, openings in pine forests Basaltic scablands, sagebrush scrub, openings in forests, meadow borders
Elevation 500–1000 m (1600–3300 ft) (1000–)1400–1500 m ((3300–)4600–4900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
OR; WA
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from FNA
CA; NV; OR; WA
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Discussion

Hybrids involving Balsamorhiza careyana and B. deltoidea occur near the Columbia River Gorge; intermediates are found to the east and south. In northern Oregon, plants in some populations have glabrous cypselae and some populations are mixed. The hairiness may come from B. rosea; B. rosea and B. careyana may hybridize profusely, producing mostly plants with the stature of B. careyana and with the relatively short, brick-red ray corollas of B. rosea. Hybridization also occurs, occasionally, between B. careyana and B. sagittata; B. careyana also hybridizes with any species of sect. Balsamorhiza with which it comes in contact. Plants called Balsamorhiza careyana var. intermedia usually have crenate leaf margins and glabrous cypselae.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Balsamorhiza serrata hybridizes with B. careyana. Leaves of the hybrids tend to be prostrate rather than erect. Most of the hybrids display the larger size of B. careyana and lack the pubescence of the heads; serrata-like plants never develop more than a single head nor do they have the pubescence of the cypselae.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 21, p. 95. FNA vol. 21, p. 96.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Ecliptinae > Balsamorhiza > subg. Artorhiza Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Ecliptinae > Balsamorhiza > subg. Balsamorhiza
Sibling taxa
B. deltoidea, B. hispidula, B. hookeri, B. incana, B. lanata, B. macrolepis, B. macrophylla, B. rosea, B. sagittata, B. sericea, B. serrata
B. careyana, B. deltoidea, B. hispidula, B. hookeri, B. incana, B. lanata, B. macrolepis, B. macrophylla, B. rosea, B. sagittata, B. sericea
Synonyms B. careyana var. intermedia
Name authority A. Gray: Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, n. s. 4: 81. (1849) A. Nelson & J. F. Macbride: Bot. Gaz. 56: 479. (1913)
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