Silvercrown, Silver Crown Luina: Cacaliopsis nardosmia (Synonyms: Cacalia nardosmia, Cacaliopsis nardosmia ssp. glabrata, Luina nardosmia var. glabrata, Luina nardosmia)

Silvercrown is an attractive perennial with erect stems arising from 40-100 cm high from woody rhizomes. Most leaves are basal, with those on the stem scattered and becoming much reduced in size upwards on the stem. The basal leaves are long-petiolate with wide palmately cleft blades up to 20 cm long and 25 cm wide. The margins are deeply parted with the segments again coarsely toothed or lobed. The leaves are green above and thinly white tomentose below.

The inflorescence is racemiform or narrowly corymbiform and consists of up to a dozen flower heads. The involucre of individual heads is 10-17 mm high with the disk ranging from 12-30 mm wide.

Silvercrown may be found in open woods and meadows. In the Columbia River Gorge it is often associated with open oak woods.

Silvercrown may be found from the summit and eastern slopes of the Washington Cascades. It may be found just to the south of the Columbia River in Oregon, roughly between The Dalles, OR, Hood River, OR and Mt. Hood. It is also found in the Klamath area and adjacent southern Willamette Valley in southwestern Oregon and hence southward in the California Coast Range to Sonoma County.

Close-up views of the discoid flower heads of silvercrown as seen on Wedge Mt., Wenatchee National Forest...........June 8, 2009.

Tall silvercrown blooming at left under conifers along the South Tieton Trail #1120, Wenatchee National Forest............June 27, 2013. The photo at right shows tall silvercrown in bloom under oaks at Brooks Memorial State Park off US 97 near Satus Pass........May 13, 2019.

Silvercrown blooming (left) in coniferous forest at Brooks Memorial State Park in south-central Washington............May 30, 2010. The photo at right shows a basal leaf of silvercrown as seen along the main east-west access road through the Bickleton Ridge Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area........May 7, 2017.

Silvercrown as seen blooming at left along forest edges atop Bickleton Ridge in the Bickleton Ridge Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area........June 17, 2017. The photo at right shows blooming silvercrown along the main east-west access road through theBickleton Ridge in the Bickleton Ridge Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area........May 28, 2017.

The broad palmate leaves of silvercrown are shown at left. Photographed at the Simcoe Mountain Unit (Bickleton Ridge), Klickitat Wildlife Area............April 11, 2017. The photo at right shows a close-up of the inflorescence of tall silvercrown as seen in the Oak Creek Wildlife Area, Yakima County, WA......June 8, 2019.

Tall silvercrown blooming along the Boulder Lake Trail #463 at the northeast corner of Boulder Lake, Mount Hood National Forest..........June 28, 2014.

Tall silvercrown just beginning to bloom in open oak forest along the Lady Slipper Loop Trail at Brooks Memorial State Park.......Jamy 11, 2020.