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Lomatium orientale

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Lomatium orientale
Lomatium orientale

Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Apiales
Family: Apiaceae
Genus: Lomatium
Species:
L. orientale
Binomial name
Lomatium orientale
Synonyms[1]
  • Cogswellia orientalis (J.M.Coult. & Rose) M.E.Jones
  • Peucedanum orientale (J.M.Coult. & Rose) Blank.

Lomatium orientale, commonly known as salt-and-pepper,[2] eastern cous, eastern desert-parsley, eastern lomatium, white-flowered desert-parsley, oriental desert parsley[3] or Northern Idaho biscuitroot,[4] is a small spring blooming ephemeral plant. It grows in open habitats from the plains to foothills in western North America. It is known as one of the earliest blooming native flowers in its habitat. The species name, "orientale", is botanical Latin meaning "eastern".[5]

Description

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Lomatium orientale can be hard to distinguish from other plants in either Lomatium or in Cymopterus.[6] Plants it may be confused with include Cymopterus montanus, Cymopterus glomeratus,[7] and Lomatium nevadense.[8] It is a fully herbaceous perennial plant with no woody tissue like all plants in Lomatium. Overall the plants are 10–40 cm in size and almost all to of its leaves arising from the base of the plant (basal leaves).[2] L. orientale has a long slender taproot.[9] The plants grow from early spring until the start of summer, April through June in Colorado.[2]

Its leaves are pinnate dissected, each leaf being completely divided all the way down to the central vein with wide spacing of the leaflets near the base and closer together and smaller near the tip. Each leaflet is also partially dissected making it a tripinate leaf. The leaves have a soft texture with fine downy hairs covering their surface and are 3–8 cm long.[2] The leaves are most often triangular in outline with an overall appearance resembling lace or a fern with a pale blue-green color.[10] Plants with shinier, greener, and more narrow leaves may instead be Cymopterus glomeratus.[7] Most of the leaves are basal, the stems coming directly from the crown of the plant, but sometimes there will be leaves associated with the flowering stem with a base that wraps completely around the flowering stem (cauline leaves wholly sheathing).[9]

Flowers

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The many flowers of Lomatium orientale grow together in a rounded head called an umbel. This umbrella shaped inflorescence is a compound umbel because each is formed out of three to fifteen smaller umbels called umbelets.[6] Each umbelet will have about 20 tiny flowers.[9] The small stems that support the flower are 1.2–5.5 cm long. Each flower has five tiny petals, which are white to pinkish in color with prominent dark red anthers.[7][2] The lack of red anthers in on the flowers of Cymopterus montanus help to distinguish between them.[7] The rounded ovary under the flower is glabrous, free of hairs.[9] This is an important characteristic to distinguish it from the very similar species such as Lomatium nevadense where their range overlaps New Mexico, Utah, or Arizona.[8]

Seeds of Lomatium orientale, photographed near the Gilla wilderness

The fruits are 5–10 mm long and 3–7 mm wide,[9] with papery wings 0.5–1 mm on the sides.[2] Like the ovary, the fruits are hairless. When fully ripe they are light and dry.

Taxonomy

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Lomatium orientale, An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions, 1913

The type specimen of Lomatium orientale was collected by E. Bethel on plains near Denver, CO in 1895.[11] The collected specimen held in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Department of Botany Collections as of 2023, is listed as "alleged type specimen examined".[12]

It was first scientifically described in Contributions from the United States National Herbarium in 1900 by John Merle Coulter and Joseph Nelson Rose.[1] In 1905 it was erroneously described as Peucedanum orientale, an illegal name as a different species by that name was described in 1834.[13][1] An alternate classification as Cogswellia orientalis was published by Marcus E. Jones in Contributions to Western Botany in 1908 as part of an argument against the creation of the genus Lomatium. Instead he proposed that Cogswellia named by Kurt Sprengel should be the accepted name for the genus.[14] This argument was initially accepted, including by Coulter and Rose.[15] However, the argument that Lomatium was synonymous the earlier Lomatia was held to be in error by James Francis Macbride in an article published in 1918. Subsequent articles about the genus tended to use Lomatium more often.[16] Though there is disagreement about the classification of species in Lomatium or in Cymopterus, as of 2023 Lomatium orientale is used as the species name by Plants of the World Online (POWO),[1] World Flora Online (WFO),[17] and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS database (PLANTS).[4]

Habitat and distribution

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Lomatium orientale grows in open habitats such as hillsides, rocky slopes, and sagebrush meadows.[7] It can be found on both plains and in lower foothills.[2] In mountain habitats it shows a moderate preference for seasonally moist slopes.[18]

Lomatium orientale is distributed across 17 US states and two Canadian provinces.[1] Most of the reported populations are on the great plains portions of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Kansas, and Colorado. There is an isolated population in southern New Mexico and also populations in small areas of the states of Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. In addition there are records of plants being observed in Washington state, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Missouri, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan with no precise location recorded.[4]

Ecology

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The flowers are sometimes visited by the butterfly Callophrys sheridanii, Sheridan's green hairstreak.[19]

Cultivation

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Though hardy and early blooming salt-and-pepper flowers are not commonly grown in gardens. Its flowers are not showy and both seeds and plants are rarely available in the horticulture trade. It is recommended by the City of Fort Collins for its very low water usage and for its value as a food source for insects.[20]

Traditional uses

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The Cheyenne people made use of an infusion of the roots and leaves for bowel pain, either fresh or dried roots. The Navajo people would sometimes rub the roots in hot ash to remove the strong flavor of the plant and then ate them raw or baked, but it was not a staple food source.[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e POWO (2023). "Lomatium orientale J.M.Coult. & Rose". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Ackerfield, Jennifer (2015). Flora of Colorado (First ed.). Fort Worth, Texas: Botanical Research Institute of Texas Press. pp. 85, 87. ISBN 978-1-889878-45-4.
  3. ^ Registry-Migration.Gbif.Org (2022). "Lomatium orientale J.M.Coult. & Rose". GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. doi:10.15468/39omei. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  4. ^ a b c USDA, NRCS (2023). "​Lomatium orientale J.M. Coult. & Rose​". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  5. ^ Holloway, Joel Ellis (2005). A Dictionary of Common Wildflowers of Texas & the Southern Great Plains. Fort Worth: TCU Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-0875653099. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  6. ^ a b Mitton, Jeff (16 April 2020). "Salt and pepper adds spice to spring". Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine. University of Colorado. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d e Denver Botanic Gardens (2018). Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountain Region. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. pp. 116, 199, 289. ISBN 978-1-60469-644-8.
  8. ^ a b "SEINet Portal Network - Lomatium orientale". swbiodiversity.org. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  9. ^ a b c d e Mathias, Mildred E.; Constance, Lincoln (1944). "Umbelliferae (Pars)". North American Flora. 28. New York Botanical Garden: 241–242.
  10. ^ "Lomatium orientale (Northern Idaho Biscuitroot)". Minnesota Wildflowers. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  11. ^ Coulter, John M.; Rose, J. N. (1900). "Monograph of the North American Umbelliferae". Contributions from the United States National Herbarium. 7 (1): 220. ISSN 0097-1618. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  12. ^ "Botany Collections Search". Museum Collection Records. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  13. ^ POWO (2023). "Peucedanum orientale G.Don". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  14. ^ Jones, Marcus E. (1908). "New Species and Notes". Contributions to Western Botany. 12. San Francisco, California: 29–33. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  15. ^ Coulter, John M.; Rose, J. N. (1909). "Supplement to the Monograph of the North American Umbelliferae". Contributions from the United States National Herbarium. 12 (10): 441–451. ISSN 0097-1618. JSTOR 23491829. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  16. ^ Mathias, Mildred E. (1938). "A Revision of the Genus Lomatium". Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 25 (1). Missouri Botanical Garden Press: 225–226. doi:10.2307/2394480. JSTOR 2394480. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  17. ^ WFO (2023). "Lomatium orientale J.M.Coult. & Rose". World Flora Online. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  18. ^ Nelson, Aven (1902). An analytical key to some of the common flowering plants of the Rocky Mountain Region. New York: D. Appleton and Company. p. 56. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  19. ^ "Eastern Lomatium". Encyclopedia of Life. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  20. ^ "Lomatium orientale (salt & pepper) - Recommended Plant List". www.fcgov.com. City of Fort Collins. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  21. ^ Moerman, Daniel E. (1998). Native American ethnobotany. Portland, Oregon. p. 316. ISBN 0-88192-453-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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