Piper's Desert Parsley, Piper's Lomatium, Salt-and-pepper: Lomatium piperi (Synonym: Cogswellia piperi)

As noted below, Piper's desert parsley is similar to both Gorman's and Geyer's desert parsleys. Many text have previously lumped both Gorman's and Piper's desert parsleys as Lomatium gormanii. The information presented here tries to differentiate L. piperi from the other two plants.

Piper's desert parsley, also known as salt and pepper, is a small perennial wildflower with one to a few stems ascending from 7-25 cm high from a rounded tuber from 1-2 cm in diameter. Its herbage is glabrous or covered with some fine, short hairs. The one to several leaves are all attached to the stem at or below the ground. The leaves are ternate and then pinnately to bipinnately comound with blades from 3-7.5 cm long and petioles from 3.5-10 cm long. The leaflets are parted into linear, obtuse segments from 5-30 mm long and 1-2 mm wide.

The inflorescence is an umbel with 3-20 spreading stems from 1-6 cm long, each subtending an umbelet. Their may be some minute, linear bracts less than 2 mm long beneath the umbelets or these may be absent. The umbelets contain 6-13 white flowers with purple anthers. The fruits are narrowly to broadly elliptic or ovate in shape with wings about one-half as wide as the body. They are 5-8 mm long and the surfaces are glabrous.

Geyer's Desert Parsley: Lomatium geyeri - Plants from 15-40 cm tall at maturity. The glabrous fruits are 7-12 mm long and the bracts of the umbellets are 2-3 mm long.

Salt and Pepper, Gorman's Desert Parsley: Lomatium gormanii - Plants up to 15 cm tall. Fruits minutely pubescent. The minutely pubescent fruits are 5-7 mm long and the bracts of the umbellets are typically less than 2 mm long.

Salt and Pepper, Piper's Desert Parsley: Lomatium piperi - Plants up to 15 cm tall. The glabrous fruits are 5-7 mm long with the bracts of the umbellets typically less than 2 mm long.

Salt and pepper may be found on arid, open slopes and scablands in the foothills and on the plains.

Salt and pepper may be found east of the Cascade Mts. from central Washington, central Oregon, and Idaho and California.

Gorman's salt and pepper beginning to bloom under oaks along service roads east of Canyon Creek, Klickitat Wildlife Area.......March 31, 2019. Note the lack of a leafy bract on the floral scape which helps identify this from the similar Piper's salt and pepper (Lomatium piperi).

Gorman's salt and pepper as seen at left near 4100' atop the ridge dividing Cougar and Dairy Creeks on the eastern slopes of Mt. Adams........May 6, 2006. Note the salt crystal affect of the petals contrasting with the pepper affect of the dark anthers, which lend this plant one of its common names. The images at center and left show close-up views of the inflorescence of salt and pepper as seen near 2800' along K6000 on the eastern slopes of Mt. Adams........May 6, 2006.

The photo at left shows salt and pepper near 4100' atop the ridge between Cougar and Dairy Creeks on the eastern slopes of Mt. Adams........May 14, 2005. The image at right shows Piper's salt and pepper from near 2800' along K6000........May 6, 2006.

Two photos showing a dorsal and ventral view of the tight umbel of salt and pepper as seen near the Klickitat Canyon NRCA in southern Yakima County, WA...........April 11, 2008. Note that this species has one to several narrow bracts subtending the umbel.

The photo above shows a side-view of the umbel of salt-and-pepper as seen near the Klickitat Canyon NRCA in southern Yakima County, WA............April 11, 2008.

Salt and pepper as seen near the Klickitat Breaks, Soda Springs Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area..........March 31, 2021.

Piper's salt and pepper observed in bloom in the Klickitat Wildlife Area about two-thirds of a mile east of Canyon Creek.......March 12, 2020. Note the prominent leaf -like bract on the stem which helps identify this from the similar Lomatium gormanii.

Piper's salt and pepper blooming along an old farm road between Little Bowman Creek and Canyon Creek, Soda Springs Unit, Klickitat Wildlife Area......March 12, 2021.

The photo above shows salt and pepper as seen in the Columbia Hills several miles north of The Dalles, OR...........February 16, 2007.