''Perideridia gairdneri'' 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 plan ...

known by the common names common yampah, Gardner's yampah and Squaw root. It is native to western North America from southwestern Canada to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

, where it grows in many types of habitat. It is a perennial herb which grows to around . Its slender, erect stem grows from cylindrical

tuber Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growin ...

s measuring up to 8 centimeters long. Leaves near the base of the plant have blades up to 35 centimeters long which are divided into many narrow, subdivided lobes. Leaves higher on the plant are smaller and less divided. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

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 spherical clusters of small white flowers. These yield ribbed, rounded fruits each a few millimeters long. The entire plant is

edible An edible item is any item that is safe for humans to eat. "Edible" is differentiated from "eatable" because it does not indicate how an item tastes, only whether it is fit to be eaten. Nonpoisonous items found in nature – such as some mushroo ...

, but caution should be maintained as it has a similar appearance to the carrot family's deadly

water hemlock ''Cicuta'', commonly known as water hemlock, is a genus of four species of highly poisonous plants in the family Apiaceae. They are perennial herbaceous plants which grow up to tall, having distinctive small green or white flowers arranged in ...

and

poison hemlock ''Conium maculatum'', colloquially known as hemlock, poison hemlock or wild hemlock, is a highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, native to Europe and North Africa. A hardy plant capable of living in ...

. It was an important food plant, even a staple food, for many Native American groups, including the Blackfoot, Northern Paiute,

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...

and Comanche. It would seem certain that the term ''yampa'' would be a version on the Comanche name for the tuber, variously ''yap'', and ''yampa''. One of the main divisions of the Comanche, the Yapainuu, were named the ''yap'' eaters, whose chief was the famous

Ten Bears Ten Bears ( Comanche ''Pawʉʉrasʉmʉnurʉ''Anglicized as Parua-wasamen and Parry-wah-say-mer in treaties and older documents.) (ca. 1790-November 23, 1872) was the principal chief of the Yamparika or "Root Eater" division of the Comanche from ...

. More commonly referred to as the Yamparikas, this division roamed in the Northern Oklahoma area in historic times.Ethnobotany
/ref> The tuberous roots could be eaten like

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

es, roasted, steamed, eaten fresh or dried, made into mush or

pinole Pinole, also called pinol or pinolillo, is roasted ground maize, which is then mixed with a combination of cocoa, agave, cinnamon, chia seeds, vanilla, or other spices. The resulting powder is then used as a nutrient-dense ingredient to make d ...

, used as flour and flavoring, and were also used medicinally. Meriwether Lewis encountered the plant in 1805 and 1806, referring to it as a species of

fennel Fennel (''Foeniculum vulgare'') is a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It is a hardy, perennial herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. It is indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean but has become widely naturalized ...

. This food root is called ''cawíitx'' in

Nez Perce The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...

, ''sawítk'' in

Sahaptin The Sahaptin are a number of Native American tribes who speak dialects of the Sahaptin language. The Sahaptin tribes inhabited territory along the Columbia River and its tributaries in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Sahaptin-s ...

and ''yap'' in Comanche.

Blackfoot Indians The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'' or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bla ...

knew the root by the name ''nits-ik-opa'' ("double root") and by those tribes of the Pacific Northwest as either ''yampa'', ''ipo'', or ''sa'-hweet''.

References

* Kavanagh, Thomas W., Comanche Ethnography; U. of Nebraska Press, 2008. p. 45.

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfilePhoto gallery
gairdneri Edible Apiaceae Plants used in Native American cuisine Plants used in traditional Native American medicine Root vegetables Flora of British Columbia Flora of Alberta Flora of Saskatchewan Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Apiaceae-stub