Lomatium macrocarpum

Bigseed biscuitroot

Family: Apiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Bigseed biscuitroot is a California native perennial found in northern coastal, Klamath Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada Foothills, Tehachapi, San Francisco Bay, and Southern Coastal regions in serpentine rocky slopes within chaparral or woodland at elevations of 150 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces white, cream, or pale purple flowers in umbels with 5 to 25 spreading rays. Growing 10 to 50 centimeters tall with a short stem and grayish tomentose herbage, it has a distinctive taproot occasionally developing swollen tubers. Its finely dissected leaves are 2.5 to 15 centimeters long, with linear to oblong segments 1 to 7 millimeters wide, giving the plant a delicate, lacy appearance. The fruit is 9 to 20 millimeters long, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, with wings narrower than the central body.

Habitat: Generally serpentine rocky slopes in chaparral or woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 150-3000 m

Bioregions: NCo, KR, CaR, SNF, Teh, SnFrB, SCo

California counties: Mendocino, Colusa, Shasta, Lake, Modoc, Humboldt, Calaveras, Trinity, San Benito, San Mateo, Fresno, Plumas, Tehama, Del Norte, Kern, Lassen, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Butte, Monterey, Marin, Tuolumne, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, El Dorado, Glenn, Ventura, Solano, Yuba, Sutter, Sierra, Nevada, Napa, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Merced, Alameda, Stanislaus, Amador, Madera, Santa Barbara, Yolo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.