[Biscuitroots and Desert Parsleys: The Genus Lomatium East of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington]
Canby's Biscuitroot, Canby's Desert-parsley, Canby's Desert Parsley, Canby's Lomatium, Chucklusa
Lomatium canbyi
Synonyms: Cogswellia canbyi, Peucedanum canbyi
The photo above shows the newly opening umbel of and basal leaves of Canby's desert parsley as seen atop the Dalles Mt. in the Columbia Hills in the eastern Columbia River Gorge.........February 12, 2006.
The photo at right shows a close-up of the powder grayish-green leaf of Canby's desert parsley as seen atop the Dalles Mt. in the Columbia Hills in the eastern Columbia River Gorge...........February 5, 2005. Note how the oblanceolate leaf segments overlap.
Characteristics:
The name given to Canby's desert parsley by the Spokane Indians was Chucklusa.
Canby's desert parsley is a small perennial wildflower with
a tuft of basal leaves and one to several, leafless, ascending or suberect scapes
from 10-20 cm high. The leaf petioles all attach near or below the groundlevel.
The surfaces of the leaves and stems are glabrous and somewhat glaucous. The
leaves range from 5-15 cm long, including the petioles. The leaves are pinnately
to ternate-pinnately dissected into many small, crowded, round or blunt segments
usually not greater than 5 mm long (See photo at right.).
The flowers are arranged in an umbel, the 5-16 stems supporting
the individual umbellets elongating unequally from 2.5-7 cm long. The pedicels
are 4-15 mm long in fruit. The flowers are white with purple cast due to the
purplish anthers. The bracts below the umbellets are minute, narrow, and measure
from 1-3 mm long. The glabrous fruits are broadly elliptic with wings about
one-half as wide as the body and measure 6-11 mm long.
Habitat:
Canby's desert parsley may be found in dry, open, rocky places
in the lowlands.
Range:
Canby's desert parsley may be found from Kittitas, Douglas,
and Lincoln Counties of central Washington south to northern Oregon and east
to Nez Perce County in Idaho.
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Canby's desert parsley as seen high on basalt outcrops above the Cottonwood Canyon State Park administrative offices.........February 22, 2015.
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Canby's desert parsley blooming in scablands on BLM lands along Box Canyon Road about one-half mile east of the gated trailhead at the BLM/Simcoe Mountains Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area, Klickitat County, WA......April 1, 2022.
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The photo above left shows a close-up of the very narrow, needle-like bracts which subtend the involucels of Canby's desert parsley. Photographed in the Columbia Hills to the north of The Dalles, OR..........February 12, 2006. The photo at right shows a close-up of the developing fruits of Canby's desert parsley as seen on slopes above the east side of the John Day River in Cottonwood Canyon State Park (or on adjacent BLM lands) about one mile downstream from Oregon Highway 206..........April 9, 2016.
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The photo at left shows Canby's desert parsley as seen in the Quilomene Wildlife Area along the Vantage Highway, several miles west of Vantage, WA..........March 29, 2007. The photo at right showsCanby's desert parsley as seen along Oregon Highway 218 about a mile or so south of Shaniko, Oregon..........March 10, 2015.
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The photo at left shows Canby's desert parsley as seen from from the sagebrush steppe at Upper Cowiche Canyon, a BLM site at the western outskirts of Yakima, WA.........March 28, 2007. The photo at right shows Canby's desert parsley as seen atop Tygh Ridge along US Highway 197..........March 10, 2015.
The photo above shows the fruits of Canby's
desert parsley as seen atop the Dalles Mt., Columbia River Gorge............May
1995.
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Canby's desert parsley as seen (left) on steep slopes above and to the northwest of the headquarters buildings at Cottonwood Canyon State Park.........March 18, 2016. The photo at right shows Canby's desert parsley blooming at the east end of the Bickleton Ridge Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area.........April 11, 2017.
Paul Slichter