Lomatium piperi

Indian biscuitroot

Family: Apiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Indian biscuitroot is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada, and Modoc Plateau in rocky slopes, sagebrush, and pine woodland at elevations of 1,000 to 1,500 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces white flowers with purple anthers in delicate umbels. Growing with a compact form reaching 5 to 25 centimeters tall, it emerges from a small spherical tuber and lacks a true stem. Its intricate leaves are finely dissected into narrow 2 to 40 millimeter segments, forming a triangular-ovate blade that is two-times ternately pinnate. The fruit is an ovate to oblong structure 5 to 9 millimeters long with wings approximately half the body width.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, sagebrush, pine woodland

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: 1000-1500 m

Bioregions: KR, n SNH, MP

California counties: Modoc, Siskiyou, Lassen, Plumas

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