''Perideridia'' is a genus of plants 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 ...

. Plants in this genus are known generally as yampah or yampa. They are native to western North America. Similar in appearance to other plants of the family

, they have

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 ...

s of white flowers.

Name

The genus is based on the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word ''perideri'', meaning 'necklace'.

Description

The plants have a unique appearance for members of the parsley family, and are tall (1–3 feet) and grasslike, with threadlike leaves 1–6 inches long that resemble blades of grass. The plants effectively mimic tall grass and are virtually invisible until they flower, since they tend to grow in grassy meadows, and prefer full sunlight. Like most members of the parsley family, yampah produces umbels of white flowers. The small roots of yampah are about the size of a large unshelled peanut.

Distribution and habitat

The plants are widely distributed in moist open meadows and hillsides up to across Western North America.

Uses

Plains Indians named the plant 'Yampah' and consumed its starchy bulbs, some of which taste like carrots. ''

Perideridia gairdneri ''Perideridia gairdneri'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae 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 to New Mexico, ...

'' was an important staple crop of Native Americans in Western North America. The nutlike roots of the plant are crunchy and mildly sweet, and resemble

water chestnuts Water chestnut may refer to either of two plants (both sometimes used in Chinese cuisine): * The Chinese water chestnut ('' Eleocharis dulcis''), eaten for its crisp corm * The water caltrop The water caltrop is any of three extant species of th ...

in texture and flavor. Yampah roots were either baked or steamed, and were reported to have excellent flavor and nutritional qualities. The seeds of yampah were used as a seasoning and resemble caraway seeds in flavor. Yampah roots contain rapidly assimilatable carbohydrates, and were used by hunters and runners as a high energy food to enhance physical endurance. Uncooked yampah roots are a gentle laxative if consumed in excess and were used medicinally for this purpose. It resembles the highly toxic

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 ...

and

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 ...

Species

References

External links

USDA Plants ProfileJepson Manual Treatment
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7168437 Apioideae genera Edible Apiaceae