Adobe Snakeroot

Sanicula maritima Kellogg; S. Wats. Bot. Calif. 2: 451. 1880.
Plants erect, 1.5-3.5 dm. high, perennial from a thickened, somewhat woody rootstock, glabrous, the stem stout, usually solitary; leaves orbicular to obovate in general outline, excluding the petioles 2-5 cm. long, 1.5-4.5 cm. broad, entire or 3-parted, the margins entire, repand, or slightly serrate; petioles 2.5-15 cm. long; cauline leaves smaller, 3-parted, the divisions ovate to cuneiform, subentire, dentate or deeply lobed, the lower long-petiolulate, the upper sessile; peduncles few, elongate; involucre of leaflike bracts; involucel of small, lanceolate bractlets; fertile rays 1-4, 15-95 mm. long, the flowering umbellets compact; sterile and fertile flowers in the same umbellet, the sterile short-pedicellate; flowers yellow; calyx deeply cleft, the lobes triangular-lanceolate, acute, shorter than the petals; anthers yellow, exserted; styles exceeding the calyx; fruits few in each umbellet, ovoid, about 5 mm. long, 3 mm. broad, subsessile, the bristles prominent above, more or less obsolete below; oil-tubes several, large, conspicuous; seed subterete in cross section, the commissural face concave with a prominent median longitudinal ridge.
Type locality: "Near the coast, about San Francisco or northward," Kellogg. Distribution: Coastal California in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay.

Sanicula maritima is a rare species of flowering plant in the parsley family known by the common names adobe snakeroot and adobe sanicle.