''Lomatium latilobum'' is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common names Canyonlands lomatium and Canyonlands biscuitroot. It is native to an area straddling the border between

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

and

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

in the United States, where several of its few occurrences are within

Arches National Park Arches National Park is a national park in eastern Utah, United States. The park is adjacent to the Colorado River, north of Moab, Utah. More than 2,000 natural sandstone arches are located in the park, including the well-known Delicate Arch, a ...

and

Colorado National Monument Colorado National Monument is a National Park Service unit near the city of Grand Junction, Colorado. Sheer-walled canyons cut deep into sandstone and granite–gneiss–schist rock formations. This is an area of desert land high on the Colorado ...

.''Lomatium''.
Southwest Colorado Wildflowers.''Lomatium latifolium''.
The Nature Conservancy. This perennial herb grows 10 to 30 centimeters tall from a

caudex A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is m ...

covered in the withered remains of previous seasons' leaves. The leaves are divided into a few pairs of lance-shaped or oval leaflets up to 1.2 centimeters wide. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is an

umbel In botany, an umbel is an inflorescence that consists of a number of short flower stalks (called pedicels) that spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs. The word was coined in botanical usage in the 1590s, from Latin ''umbella'' "p ...

of many tiny yellow flowers. Blooming occurs in April through June. The plant has a strong scent reminiscent of

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

and

licorice Liquorice (British English) or licorice (American English) ( ; also ) is the common name of ''Glycyrrhiza glabra'', a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring can be extracted. The liq ...

. This plant grows in sandy crevices in

Navajo Sandstone The Navajo Sandstone is a geological formation in the Glen Canyon Group that is spread across the U.S. states of southern Nevada, northern Arizona, northwest Colorado, and Utah as part of the Colorado Plateau province of the United States.Anonymou ...

and other

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

s. The habitat is pinyon-juniper woodland, desert scrub, and other types of

plant communities A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant co ...

. There are an estimated 12 to 17 occurrences of this plant, but some are based on historical collections which might not be extant. Some are officially protected within national park and national monument territory, but still face threats from people engaging in recreational activity such as hiking; the plants do not tolerate disturbance and are easily uprooted.

References

External links

''Lomatium latilobum'' in Arches National Park.
latilobum Flora of Colorado Flora of Utah Flora of the Colorado Plateau and Canyonlands region Endemic flora of the United States Taxa named by Mildred Esther Mathias Plants described in 1937 {{Apiaceae-stub