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deltoid balsam root, Puget balsamroot

Habit Plants 20–90 cm.
Basal leaves

blades green, deltate or rounded-deltate to triangular-deltate, 10–25+ × 7–15(–20) cm, bases cordate to sagittate, margins usually crenate to dentate (at least near bases), sometimes entire, apices acute, faces usually sparsely hirtellous to hispidulous, sometimes glabrous (usually gland-dotted, sometimes vernicose).

Involucres

campanulate to hemispheric 15–30+ mm diam.

Ray laminae

20–50 mm.

Outer phyllaries

oblong to lanceolate or lance-linear, (12–)30–40(–60) mm, usually much surpassing inner, apices acute.

Heads

usually borne singly, sometimes 2+.

2n

= 38.

Balsamorhiza deltoidea

Phenology Flowering (Mar–)Apr–Jun(–Jul).
Habitat Open hillsides, openings in chaparral or forests
Elevation 60–1800(–2400) m (200–5900(–7900) ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR; WA; BC
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Balsamorhiza deltoidea varies in the crenation of the leaf margins. The variability may stem from an old hybridization with B. hookeri or other species of Balsamorhiza. Otherwise, B. deltoidea shows little significant variability except where it hybridizes with B. careyana in the narrows of the Columbia River Gorge.

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

Source FNA vol. 21, p. 95.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Ecliptinae > Balsamorhiza > subg. Artorhiza
Sibling taxa
B. careyana, B. hispidula, B. hookeri, B. incana, B. lanata, B. macrolepis, B. macrophylla, B. rosea, B. sagittata, B. sericea, B. serrata
Synonyms B. glabrescens
Name authority Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 351. (1840)
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