''Tauschia howellii'' is a rare species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common names Howell's umbrellawort and Howell's tauschia. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the Klamath Mountains of far southern

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and far northern

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 ...

, where it is limited to nine occurrences in the

Siskiyou Mountains The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal subrange of the Klamath Mountains, and located in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. They extend in an arc for approximately from east of Crescent City, California, northea ...

.The Nature Conservancy
/ref> It grows in mountain forests on gravelly

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

soils, often among stands of Shasta red fir (''Abies magnifica'' var. ''shastensis''). Despite its rarity it is stable and not considered very endangered. It is a perennial herb growing 30 to 80 centimeters tall. It is hairless in texture. The thick leaves have blades which are divided into leaflets large, sharp teeth and edges curved up, and borne on long petioles. The short

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 yellow flowers on a few short rays. The fruit is oblong, ribbed, and just a few millimeters long.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto gallery
Apioideae Critically endangered flora of California Flora of Oregon {{Apiaceae-stub