Widewing Springparsley

Cymopterus purpurascens (A. Gray) M. E. Jones, Zoe 4: 277 1893. Not C. purpurascens M. EJones, 1895.
Cymopterus montanus var. purpurascens A. Gray, Colo. Expl. Exp. 4: 15. 1860. Cymopterus utahensis M. E. Jones, Proc. Calif. Acad. II. 5: 684. 1895. Cymopterus utahensis var. monocephalus M. E. Jones, Proc. Calif. Acad. II. 5: 685. 1895. Phellopterus purpurascens Coult. & Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 7: 168. 1900. Phellopterus utahensis Wooton & Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 16: 158. 1913.
Plants acaulescent or subcaulescent with the development of a pseudoscape, 3-15 cm. high, from long slender tap-roots crowned with persistent leaf -bases, glabrous; leaves ovate-oblong in general outline, excluding the petioles 1.2-5 cm. long, 1-4 cm. broad, bipinnate or pinnate or occasionally ternate-pinnate, pallid, somewhat fleshy, the leaflets entire to pinnately lobed, the lobes rounded to acute, mostly incurved, 1-8 mm. long, about 1 mm. broad, confluent; petioles 1-4 cm. long; peduncles solitary to few, equaling or exceeding the leaves, 1.5-7 cm. long; involucre of conspicuous white bracts, usually connate below the middle, sometimes lobed at the apex; involucel of conspicuous bractlets similar to the bracts, usually rounded, white with 1-5 conspicuous green or white nerves, equaling or exceeding the flowers; the umbels compact, densely globose, the fertile rays 3-5, 4-10 mm. long, the secondary rays short; pedicels 5-8 mm. long; flowers purplish; fruit usually broadly ovoid, 8— IS mm. long, 8-16 mm. broad, the wings thin, twice or thrice as broad as the body, narrow or slightly enlarged at the base, acute; oiltubes 3 or 4 in the intervals, 4-7 on the commissure.
TypB locality: Oryabe, New Mexico (Yampai Valley to San Francisco Mountains, Arizona), Newberry.
Distribution: Southern Idaho through Utah and Nevada to southeastern California and central Arizona (Pur pas 5866, Ward 25).

Vesper purpurascens, synonym Cymopterus purpurascens, is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, known by the common name widewing springparsley. It is native to much of the western United States, including the desert regions. It is a perennial herb, often stemless, producing leaves and inflorescence from ground level or from a fibrous basal stalk. The waxy, fleshy leaves have blades divided into multilobed leaflets and are borne on short petioles. The inflorescence is a rounded cluster of flowers held on a peduncle which may be erect and several centimeters tall or nearly nonexistent. The purple flowers are sheathed in dark-veined white bracts.