Serrate Balsamroot, Toothed Balsamroot: Balsamorhiza serrata

Serrate balsamroot is a smaller balsamroot with serrate to deeply pinnatifid leaves, often on the same plant. Ray flowers are permanently yellow, surrounding a yellow-orange central disk. The leaves are mostly basal with green, rough surfaces to the deltoid-ovate blades. The leaves are long petiolate with the blades measuring from 4-20 cm long and from 2-8 cm wide. The flower stems measure from 10-40 cm high , often with a pair of much-reduced leaves near the base.

The flower heads are solitary atop the stems. The bracts of the involucre are nearly linear to lanceolate in shape and may be glabrous to strongly woolly. The 10-16 ray flowers are 2-4 cm long and surround a central disk. Serrate balsamroot flowers in May and early June.

Serrate balsamroot may be found on dry, rocky knolls and outcrops, up to 2000 m in elevation.

Serrate balsamroot is found from southern Washington south through Oregon east of the Cascades to Northwest Nevada.

Additional photos of serrate balsamroot from the summit of Bakeoven Road to the northwest of Shaniko, OR............May 14, 2010.

Serrate balsamroot blooming at a bald about two miles uphill from the trailhead along the Canyon Mountain Trail #218, Strawberry Mountain Wilderness.........May 29, 2014.

Serrate balsamroot blooming along the Ponderosa Loop Trail (north of the rest area along US 26 near Ochoco Summit), Ochoco National Forest......June 1, 2018. This would be an unusual habitat to find this species since it is blooming in the middle of an old, gravel road through ponderosa pine forest rather than the typical open scabland habitat it normally is found in.

Serrate balsamroot seen in bloom at the Lawrence Memorial Grasslands Preserve near Shaniko, OR..........May 15, 2010. Note the deer-browsed leaf tips.

Additional examples of serrate balsamroot as seen atop Baldy Mountain, Strawberry Mountains Wilderness........July 1, 2010. The photo at upper right was taken at the northern trailhead for Baldy Mt. Note the variability of the basal leaves.

Serrate balsamroot observed along the Fremont National Recreation Trail #160 on the scabland saddle between Mcdowell and Twelvemile Peaks, Fremont-Winema National Forest......July 16, 2022.