Sanicula bipinnata

Poison sanicle

Family: Apiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Poison sanicle is a California native perennial found in the northern Coast Ranges, southern Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada Foothills, Sacramento Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, and northern and central Southwest regions in open grasslands and pine or oak woodlands at elevations of 20 to 1,000 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces small yellow flowers in delicate umbels with 3 to 10 bisexual flowers per cluster. Growing 12 to 60 centimeters tall with a slightly swollen taproot, it develops leafy stems with distinctive compound leaves. Its leaves are ternate and 1 to 2-pinnate, forming an intricate green blade 3 to 10 centimeters long with well-separated leaflets that have entire to lobed margins. The fruit is a small, ovate seed 2 to 3 millimeters wide, covered with short, hooked prickles that give the plant its distinctive texture.

Habitat: Open grassland or pine/oak woodland

Bloom period: Apr-May

Elevation: 20-1000 m

Bioregions: NCoR, s CaR, SNF, ScV, SnFrB, SCoR, n&ampc SW.

California counties: San Luis Obispo, Kern, Lake, Fresno, Alameda, Ventura, Santa Clara, San Benito, Los Angeles, Contra Costa, Santa Barbara, Orange, Merced, Tulare, Mariposa, Monterey, San Mateo, Mendocino, Butte, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Yolo, Napa, Riverside, Solano, Calaveras, Yuba, Tehama, Stanislaus, Sutter, Shasta, Amador, Colusa, El Dorado, Trinity, Humboldt, Tuolumne, Placer, San Diego

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