Desert Biscuitroot 2018

These are the flowers of desert biscuitroot (Lomatium foeniculaceum) growing in my Topeka KS garden on April 19 2018. This plant has a variety of common names that add confusion to its identity. Other names it goes by are wild celery, carrot leaf lomatium, fennel leaf desert parsley. Maybe you know it by another name? Biscuitroots are members of the Parsley family (Apiaceae). Like other members of the Parsley family its inflorescence is an umbel, like an umbrella, made up of many individual flowers. Desert biscuit root is native to western and central North America. In Kansas it tends to grow on thin rocky soils with short vegetation. It is a prairie ephemeral only appearing in the spring. By summer it will be completely dormant with no trace of its existence. The leaves are finely dissected and taste just like celery. The root is a long starchy tap root that was used as a substitute for flour, hence the name biscuit root. WARNING: Never consume plants unless you are 100% positive on its identity as there are lookalike plants that are highly poisonous. Look for this plant on high quality native prairies in Kansas. It makes a great rock garden plant and is a host plant to the black swallowtail butterfly. Cattle readily graze it and it will disappear with early spring overgrazing.