Gray's Biscuitroot, Gray's Lomatium, Milfoil Lomatium, Pungent Desert Parsley: Lomatium papilioniferum (Synonyms: Lomatium grayi, Lomatium grayi var. grayi)

As its name implies, pungent desert parsley has a definite pungent, sometimes malodorous smell when its herbage is lightly crushed. It is a perennial wildflower with several glabrous stems ascending from 15-50 cm high from a thick taproot topped by the remains of previous years' leaves. The herbage ranges from glabrous and glaucous to slightly rough to the touch. The leaves are 6-10 cm long with inflated petioles. They are largely basal and are ternate-pinnately compound, being dissected into numerous narrow linear acute segments up to 6 mm long and the segments oriented in many planes.

The inflorescence is an umbel, the unequal stems beneath each umbelet measuring from 3.5-10 cm long. The petals are yellow. The fruit are elliptic in shape, the lateral wings from 1/3-2/3 as wide as the body, and measuring 8-15 mm long.

Pungent desert parsley may be found in dry, open and rocky places from the lowlands to moderate elevations in the mountains.

Pungent desert parsley may be found from central Washington south to the east of the Cascade Mts. to central Oregon and east to northern Idaho, northeastern Nevada, southwestern Wyoming, Utah, and southwestern Colorado.

Pungent desert parsley beginning to bloom (left) high on steep slopes directly west and above the Cottonwood Canyon State Park campground.........February 22, 2015. The photo at right shows pungent desert parsley as seen on scablands atop Lookout Mt, Ochoco National Forest.........May 29, 2016.

Maturing fruits of pungent desert parsley as seen along Oak Creek Road in the Oak Creek Wildlife Area.......June 8, 2019.

Pungent desert parsley blooming on basalt outcrops above the Hard Stone Trail, west bank of the John Day River, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.........May 3, 2017.

Pungent desert parsley blooming on basalt outcrops above the Hard Stone Trail, west bank of the John Day River, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.........March 26, 2021.

Close-up images of the leaves of butterfly-loving desert parsley observed on a rocky wash along the Hardstone Trail about one and one-half miles south of the trailhead at Cottonwood Canyon State Park.....April 24, 2022. Note the blue-gray-green cast to the leaves due to numerous small glands on the leaf segments. The leaf segments of the similar Klickitat desert parsley (Lomatium klickitatense) are longer and a bright green, lacking the glands found on L. papilioniferum.

The photo above shows the outer part of the leaf of pungent desert parsley as seen along Washington State Rd. #14 at Horsethief Butte, Columbia River Gorge.........May 5, 2001.

Pungent desert parsley as seen at left on cliffs above the east bank of the Deschutes River about 2 miles upstream from its junction with the Columbia River. Note the glaucous gray-green foliage consisting of numerous short, thin segments oriented in many directions rather than in one plane..........March 6, 2005. The photo at right shows pungent desert parsley blooming on basalt outcrops above the Hard Stone Trail, west bank of the John Day River, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.........March 19, 2017.

Pungent desert parsley blooming at left on basalt outcrops above the Hard Stone Trail, west bank of the John Day River, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.........March 10, 2018. The photo at right shows pungent desert parsley in bloom along the Pallisades Trail on the west bank of the John Day River, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.......March 22, 2019.