''Osmorhiza brachypoda'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Apiaceae Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants ...

known by the common name California sweetcicely.

Description

''Osmorhiza brachypoda'' is a hairy, aromatic perennial herb growing tall. The green leaves have blades up to 20 centimeters long which are divided into toothed or lobed leaflets. The blade is borne on a long petiole. 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 a compound

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 greenish yellow flowers at the tip of a stemlike peduncle. The narrow, elongated fruit is ribbed and bristly, measuring up to 2 centimeters long.

Distribution and habitat

It is native to mountainous and wooded areas of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, at elevations from . Habitats include chaparral and woodlands and coniferous forests. It is found in the Southern

California Coast Ranges The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains. P ...

Transverse Ranges The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie within Santa B ...

Peninsular Ranges The Peninsular Ranges (also called the Lower California province) are a group of mountain ranges that stretch from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula; they are part of the North American Coast Ranges, which ...

, and the central and southern

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

foothills.

Ecology

This is the only known host plant for the California endemic moth '' Greya suffusca''.TolWeb: ''Greya suffusca''
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References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment of ''Osmorhiza brachypoda''USDA Plants Profile for ''Osmorhiza brachypoda'' (California sweet cicely)NatureServe Explorer''Osmorhiza brachypoda'' — CalPhotos photo gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7107219 brachypoda Flora of Arizona Flora of California Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area Natural history of the Transverse Ranges Butterfly food plants