Lomatium piperi
Indian biscuitroot, Piper's biscuit-root, Piper's desert-parsley, Piper's lomatium, salt-and-pepper
arising at slightly different heights, not forming just 1 rosette, green, 1–2(–3)-ternate-(0–)1–2-pinnate-0–2-pinnatifid, basal leaves with petiole sheathing basally;
blade triangular to ovate, 3–7.5 × 1.5–5.5 cm, surfaces glabrous;
leaflets not overlapping, penultimate segments narrow, usually less than 2 mm wide, ultimate segments 10–80, linear, 2–30(–40) × 0.5–2 mm, larger ones longer than 6 mm, margins entire, usually not reflexed, apex acute to obtuse or rounded, callus tips 0–0.3 mm, firm but not spinelike, terminal segment 3–20 mm;
cauline leaves 1(–2), distal ones much reduced with 1–3 ultimate segments.
subterranean.
1–3 per plant, 1–2 per stem, decumbent to erect, not inflated, 2–8 cm, exceeding leaves, 0.5–2.5 mm wide 1 cm below umbel, glabrous.
0.6–3.1 cm wide in flower, 1.5–4.4 cm and ± congested in fruit, rays 3–20, spreading, (1–)1.5–3.5(–5) cm in fruit, unequal, glabrous or sparsely scaberulous;
involucel bractlets (0 or)2–6, distinct, linear or lanceolate, 0.5–2.2 mm, shorter than flowers, margins broadly scarious, not ciliate, entire, glabrous.
petals white, glabrous;
anthers purple;
ovary and young fruit glabrous.
0.5–2.5 mm, shorter than fruit, spreading to erect when fruit is mature.
dorsiventrally compressed, oblong, broadly elliptic, elliptic, or ovate, 4–9 × 1.9–4.5 mm, length/width ratio 1.4–2.5;
wings 0.7–1.5 mm wide, 40–70% of body width, paler than body, well developed, not corky-thickened, spreading, flat;
abaxial ribs slightly raised;
apex obtuse to rounded;
oil ducts 1–8 in intervals, 2–7 on commissure.
= 22.
Lomatium piperi
White petals and purple anthers give tiny Lomatium piperi the common name of pepper-and-salt, a name shared with the similar L. geyeri and L. gormanii. Lomatium piperi plants are usually caulescent, unlike the similar species, although sometimes the only evidence of that is a reduced, bractlike, cauline leaf. In addition, roots of L. geyeri usually have 2+ tuberlike swellings, whereas L. piperi and L. gormanii have one. Ovaries and young fruits of L. gormanii are roughened with as many as 200 papillae per mm2, whereas in L. piperi and L. geyeri, they are glabrous or occasionally sparsely roughened with up to 5 papillae per mm2. Fruits of all three species are usually glabrous when fully mature. Flowering L. linearifolium is nearly impossible to distinguish from flowering L. piperi, unless the habitat and location are known. In fruit, they are easily distinguished because the mature fruit of L. linearifolium is more or less round in cross section, whereas that of L. piperi is dorsiventrally compressed. Furthermore, the immature fruits of L. piperi have smooth abaxial surfaces, whereas those of L. linearifolium have slightly raised abaxial ribs; this can aid in identification when the fruits are not fully mature. L. piperi grows in usually seasonally wet rocky soils on scablands, basins, and open slopes in California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. In contrast, L. linearifolium grows in usually moist sandy or loamy soil near vernal snowbanks, the plants blooming as soon as snow melts. Its range is in Washington and northern Oregon east of the Cascade Range, as well as Idaho, southern Montana, and northwestern Wyoming.
Lomatium piperi is a culturally significant food plant for members of the Paiute and Sahaptin Native nations (D. E. Moerman 1998).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
OR
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
