Northern Sanicle

Sanicula nevadensis S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 11: 139. 1876
Sanicula septentrionalis Greene, Erythea 1: 6. 1893.
Sanicula divaricala Greene, Erythea 3: 64. 1895.
Sanicula apiifolia Greene, Leaflets 2: 46. 1910.
Sanicula nevadensis var. glauca Jepson, Madrono 1: 113. 1923.
Sanicula nevadensis var. septentrionalis Mathias, Brittonia 2: 241. 1936.
Sanicula septentrionalis var. nemoralis Jepson, Fl. Calif. 2: 667. 1936. Plants erect, 1-4.5 dm. high, perennial from a long, slender, sometimes tuber-like taproot, usually glabrous, the main stem obsolete, short or elongate, the several spreading peduncles thus arising basally or separately along the stem, purplish-tinged; leaves oblong-ovate in general outline, excluding the petioles 1.5-4 cm. long, 2-3.5 cm. broad, ternate, the primary divisions usually oblong-ovate, petiolulate, 3-5-lobed, the segments irregularly lobed or toothed; petioles sheathing below, 3-7 cm. long; involucre of leaflike, pinnatifid bracts; involucel of oblong, acute to short-acuminate, united bractlets, shorter than the heads; fertile rays 4-9, 0.5-8 cm. long; umbellets capitate, about 5 mm. broad; sterile and fertile flowers in the same umbellet, the sterile pedicellate, conspicuous in the mature umbellets; flowers yellow; calyx cleft shallowly or to the middle, the lobes acute to mucronate, shorter than the petals; anthers yellow, exserted; styles exceeding the bristles; fruit ovoid, 3-5 mm. long, 2-4 mm. broad, shortly pedicellate, tuberculate, the tubercles terminated by bristles; oil-tubes 3-5 on the dorsal and lateral surfaces, 2 on the commissure; seed subterete in cross section, the commissural face slightly concave.
Type locality: Plumas County, California, Mrs. M. E. P. Ames.
Distribution: Western Montana and northwestern Wyoming to Vancouver Island. British Columbia, south to southern California (Cusick 2841, Heller 11,482, Thompson 9550).