Ligusticum filicinum / fern-leaf licorice root
- found at higher altitudes in moister, forest areas
- compound umbel with white flowers in comparatively widely spaced umbellets
- large, very finely divided leaves; leaflets long and thin – “fern-like”
Also known as: fern-leaf biscuitroot, fern-leaf lovage, osha
Fern-leaf licorice root is a member of the Apiaceae/Umbelliferae found in a variety of moist-ish forest settings in montane and subalpine zones, i.e. at “higher” altitudes.
The inflorescence is a compound umbel with 12 to 20 umbellets (component umbels) supported by stems/rays between 1 and 3 inches long. Each umbellet contains a dozen or so very small, white (or “dirty” white) flowers, each with five petals or lobes. There are no bracts at the base of the umbel or bractlets associated with the umbellets. Compared with the other Apiaceae on this site (other than, perhaps, Gairdner’s yampa), the umbel is rather open and the umbellets more widely spaced than most.
The leaves are perhaps most useful for distinguishing this from other white flowered members of the family as they are very finely divided (hence the name, fern-leaf). They are also large but that isn’t necessarily obvious in a mass of leaves like the one in the gallery; if you went to the effort of isolating a single leaf, you could find it to be as much as 10 inches long and divided 3 times. The individual lobes or leaflets are linear in outline and less than 1/10 inch wide. Leaves are particularly dense at the base of the plant, and more widely spaced up the stem, often just one leaf on each stem. The stem leaves are also smaller with fewer leaflets. None of the leaves has a sheath surrounding the stem.
If you are hiking at higher elevation, you may see entire fields of this plant. When all else is drying in the summer, they may well be still green.
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