PARSLEY FAMILY 633 



23. LEPTOTAENIA Nutt. 



Tall stoutish perennials, with thick fusiform roots and ternately compound 

 leaves. Flowers yellow or purple, in compound umbels. Involucre of few bracts 

 or none. Involucels of several small bractlets or none. Fruit oblong to subor- 

 bicular, strongly compressed. Lateral ribs with broad corky-thickened wings 

 coherent until maturity. Dorsal and intermediate ribs filiform and approximate. 

 Oil-tubes 1 to 8 in the interv^als, 2 to 10 on the commissure or obscure and ap- 

 parently none. — Species 10, Pacific Coast of North America. (Greek leptos, nar- 

 row, and tainia, vittae or oil-tubes. ) 

 Stems leafy below ; leaves large, the ultimate segments short. 



Leaves glabrous; oil-tubes present 1. L. calif ornica. 



Leaf margins and veins puberulent beneath ; oil-tubes none 2. L. dissecta. 



Peduncles and leaves from the root-crown ; leaves smaller, glabrous, the segments linear, elongated 

 or grass-like. 



Bracts obovate ; wings thicker than the body of the fruit 3. L. anomala. 



Bracts lanceolate, entire; wings not so thick as the body of the fruit 4. L. humilis. 



1. L. calif ornica Nutt. Chu-chu-pate. Erect, 2 to 4 feet high, glabrous, 

 glaucous; leaves once or twice ternate, then pinnate; leaflets 1 to 2 inches long or 

 more, cuneate-orbicular or -obovate, 3-lobed or the terminal 3-parted, serrate 

 above ; peduncles at summit abruptly widened into a disk-like dilation ; rays sub- 

 equal, 2 to 3 inches long; bracts none; fruiting pedicels 3 to 9 lines long; bractlets 

 few or none; fruit elliptical, narrowly winged, 4 to 6 lines long; oil-tubes 6 to 10 

 on the commissure (the lateral frequently anastomosing), 3 or 4 in the intervals 

 or sometimes obscure. 



Wooded or brushy slopes, 500 to 5500 feet: Piute Mts., Kern Co.; Mt. Pinos 

 region; Coast Ranges from San Benito Co. to Siskiyou Co. North to Oregon. 

 Apr., fr. June-July. 



Field note. — The roots are valued medicinally by the native tribes and are also used in con- 

 nection with various tribal ceremonies by the Hupas and doubtless by other tribes. The young 

 shoots (says J. W. Kisling) are sought by the Klamath Indians and used as food, as also the 

 roots (Jepson Field Book 17:186 ms.). They also smoke the triturated dried root (Jepson 

 Corr. 5:470 ms.). 



Locs. — Piute Mts.: Piute Peak, Purpus 5092. Mt. Pinos region: Ft. Tejon (Contrib. U. S. 

 Nat. Herb. 7:203) ; Frazier Mt. ; Mt. Pinos, Bertha Fuller. Coast Eanges: Lorenzo Creek, San 

 Benito Eiver, Bettys; Cedar Mt., Mt. Hamilton Range, Elmer 4347 ; Mt. Diablo, Mary Bowerman ; 

 Vaca Mts., Jepson 14,245; Devils Gate, Putah Pass, Jepson 10,408; Calistoga, Jepson 14,247; 

 Potter Valley, Mendocino Co., Purpus; Mail Ridge, s. Humboldt Co., Jepson 1892a; Low Gap, 

 ridge betw. Van Duzen and Mad Rivers, Tracy 2905; Yreka, Siskiyou Co., Butler 799. Ore.: 

 Keno, Klamath River, Cusich 2837. 



Refs. — Leptotaenia californica Nutt.; T. & G. Fl. N. Am. 1:630 (1840), type loc. Santa 

 Barbara, Nuttall; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 356 (1901), ed. 2, 300 (1911), Man. 718, fig. 703 

 (1925). L. californica var. platycarpa Jepson, Erythea 1:8 (1893), type loc. Gates Canon, Vaca 

 Mts., Jepson 14,248, 14,249; Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 357 (1901), ed. 2, 300 (1911). L. californica var. 

 dilatata Jepson, Erythea 1:63 (1893), type loc. Elk Ridge, Mendocino Co., Bolander 6526. 



2. L. dissecta Nutt. Ritual Root. Plants 11/2 to 23^4 feet high, leafy at 

 base; leaves broad, 2 or 3 times ternate and then once or twice pinnate, the seg- 

 ments incised-pinnatifid ; ultimate segments linear-oblong, 1 to 2 lines long; pe- 

 duncles 1 to 2 feet long; fruiting rays 2 to 4I/2 inches long; involucre of few bracts 

 or none; involucels of several lanceolate bractlets; flowers yellow or purplish; 

 fruit oblong, 5 to 9 lines long, sessile or on pedicels 1 line (rarely to 3 lines) long; 

 dorsal and intermediate ribs filiform or sometimes obscure ; oil-tubes none or very 

 obscure. 



Openly wooded or brushy slopes, 500 to 3500 feet : North Coast Ranges from 

 Mendocino Co. to Siskiyou Co.; Sierra Nevada from Mariposa Co. to Shasta Co. 

 North to British Columbia. Apr., fr. June- July. 



Locs. — North Coast Ranges: Ukiah, Bolander 3926; Redwood House, Yager Creek, Hum- 

 boldt Co., M. S. Baker 57; Buck Mt., Humboldt Co., Tracy 4237; Hupa, Chandler 1340; Dyer 



