Sanicula tuberosa

Tuberous sanicle

Family: Apiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Tuberous sanicle is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Sutter Buttes, San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges in open gravelly meadows, chaparral, woodland, and pine forest at elevations of 30 to 2,700 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces yellow flowers in small clusters with delicate, fused bracts. Growing with slender stems 5 to 80 centimeters tall and a spherical underground tuber 5 to 15 millimeters wide, it develops a distinctive branching structure. Its compound leaves are triangular to ovate, divided into intricate leaflets that can range from entire to deeply pinnately lobed, typically green or slightly purple in coloration. The small fruits are ovate to nearly round with rounded, unarmed tubercles, each measuring 1.5 to 2 millimeters long.

Habitat: Open gravelly meadows, chaparral, woodland, pine forest

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: 30-2700 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN, ScV (Sutter Buttes), SnFrB, SCoR, TR, PR

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

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