Lomatium utriculatum
bladder desert-parsley, common biscuit-root, common lomatium, fine-leaf desert-parsley, fine-leaf lomatium, hog fennel, pomo-celery lomatium, spring-gold, spring-gold parsley
arising at slightly different heights, not forming just 1 rosette, blue-green or green, ternate-1–2-pinnate-pinnatifid;
petiole conspicuously sheathing basally to entire length;
blade broadly ovate, 4–16 × 2–5.6 cm, surfaces glabrous or discontinuously moderately scabrous; ultimate segments 92–400, linear, 0.2–25(–48) × 0.5–1(–3) mm, margins entire, usually not reflexed, apex acute or acuminate, callus tips 0–0.1 mm, firm but not spinelike, terminal segment 2–25(–48) mm;
cauline leaves 2–4.
absent.
(1–)2–6 per plant, (1–)2–4(–6) per stem, ascending or erect, not inflated, 5–32 cm, exceeding leaves, 0.8–1.5 mm wide 1 cm below umbel, glabrous, scabrous, or hairy.
0.5–3.2 cm wide in flower, 6–10(–15) cm wide in fruit, rays 5–20, spreading to ascending, 1–12 cm in fruit, unequal, glabrous or scabrous;
involucel bractlets 3–12, present on most umbellets, distinct, obovate, oblanceolate, or elliptic, 2–6 mm, subequal to flowers, margins narrowly scarious, not ciliate, entire, lobed, or toothed, glabrous or villosulous.
petals yellow, glabrous;
anthers yellow;
ovary and young fruit ± granular-roughened or puberulent when young, usually glabrescent.
2–8(–9) mm, shorter than fruit.
dorsiventrally compressed, elliptic or oblong, 7.4–15 × 3.8–8.5(–10) mm, length/width ratio 1.4–2.7;
wings 1–2.6 mm wide, 90–155% of body width, paler than body;
abaxial ribs slightly or prominately raised;
apex rounded to obtuse;
oil ducts 1–4 in intervals, 2–6 on commissure, sometimes obscure.
= 22.
Lomatium utriculatum
Lomatium utriculatum is called spring gold because it blooms very early. It is similar to L. cous and L. vaginatum. Lomatium utriculatum, a caulescent plant with broad, often fused, involucel bractlets, grows in and west of the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada, whereas L. cous is found to the east of the Cascade Range. Lomatium cous usually has elliptic ultimate leaf segments and globose to fusiform tuberlike root swellings, whereas L. utriculatum has linear ultimate leaf segments and slender roots. The conspicuously expanded petiole bases resemble those of L. vaginatum, which grows both east and west of the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada, but in that species the ultimate leaf segments are elliptic to oblong with usually obtuse apices, rather than linear with acute to acuminate apices.
Variation within L. utriculatum is confusing. Plants vary from glabrous or hairy. Central and southern California plants can have leaves with unusually long ultimate leaf segments, sometimes much longer than 10 mm, but this character is inconsistent. In contrast, L. utriculatum from northern California to British Columbia have ultimate leaf segments consistently shorter than 10 mm.
Lomatium utriculatum also resembles L. caruifolium var. caruifolium. Many specimens are misidentified. It is possible that all the reported L. caruifolium from south of San Luis Obispo are L. utriculatum, but more study is needed.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
