Yampa, a smooth, slender, erect perennial plant of the carrot or parsnip 

 family (Umbelliferae), is also known as squawroot, wildcaraway, breaclroot, 

 Queen-Annes-lace, and Indian-potato. It is the best known of the several 

 closely related species of Carum native to the West and is a sister species 

 of the Old World caraway (C. carvi) which produces the caraway seed of 

 commerce, sometimes observed on western range lands as an occasional (and 

 probably short-lived) escape from cultivation. Yampa is an Indian name 

 and was used in naming the Yampa River and the town of Yampa in Colo- 

 rado. The name, Carum, is commonly held to be derived from Caria, an 

 ancient country of western Asia Minor. The Carians were a seafaring people 

 and perhaps introduced caraway into commerce. The species name, guirdneri, 

 commemorates Dr. Meredith Gairdner, a surgeon of the Hudson Bay Co. who 

 collected plants around Fort Vancouver, Wash., prior to 1840. 



This weed is widely distributed throughout the western States, occurring 

 from British Columbia and Washington south to California and eastward to 

 New Mexico, Colorado, and the Black Hills of South Dakota. It grows on 

 moderately moist soils in open, weedy parks within stands of aspen, ponderosa 

 pine, and Douglas fir, in moist meadows, and in drier, more open situations 

 within the sagebrush and wheatgrass types. It is found in the company of 

 such plants as geranium, Idaho fescue, low larkspur, lupine, mules-ears, 

 sedges, and yarrow. The elevations at which this plant is found vary from 

 slightly above sea level along the Columbia River to about 9,000 feet in Montana 

 and perhaps higher toward the southern limits of its range. 



Yampa is not usually abundant on the range but occasionally occurs in small 

 rather thick stands, and in some moist moxintain meadows becomes very abun- 

 dant. It is widely distributed, fair to high in palatability and furnishes an 

 appreciable amount of feed on many western ranges. Because of the sparse- 

 ness of the leafage, the individual plant does not produce very much forage. 

 The forage which is produced, however, is of good quality. Both cattle and 

 sheep readily eat the flowers, seeds, leaves, and sometimes a large portion of 

 the stems. Yampa reproduces from seed as well as from tubers which break 

 away from the parent plants to form new individuals. 



From the standpoint of Indian lore, yampa is an extremely interesting plant. 

 The tubers have a sweet, nutty, creamlike flavor and were formerly eaten ex- 

 tensively by the Indians, but now are little used. Piper 1 recognized yampa as 

 the best food plant of the Northwestern Indians. Although the Klamath In- 

 dians originally called the plant kash, contemporary members of the tribe and 

 white men know it as ipo, sometimes pronounced epa, apo, or apaui Klamath 

 Indians say that the word ipo comes from the south and was the Shasta's tribal 

 name for the plant. However, it is probably not of Shastan origin, but a cor- 

 ruption of the Spanish-Californian apio, meaning celery (Apium sp.), which 

 members of the caraway genus somewhat resemble in appearance and flavor. 

 The plant is valued by the Snake, Gosiute, and Ute tribes also, and is known 

 to them as yampa. Sacajawea, the famous woman guide, counselor and in- 

 terpreter for Lewis and Clark, appears to have been the first person to introduce 

 this plant to the whites under that name. This Indian woman is said to have 

 been exceptionally well versed in the uses of wild foods. 2 Capt. John C. Fre- 

 mont ate the yampa as a vegetable with wild duck, and declared it to be 

 the finest of all Indian roots. The roots were cleaned by placing them in 

 baskets in running water where squaws trod them with bare feet to remove 

 the dark outer skin and make them smooth and clean. They were then boiled 

 or prepared as the Indians cooked other vegetables. 2 The roots were also 

 eaten raw, ground into flour and made into bread, or used with other roots and 

 seeds to make a meal or gruel. The seeds have an aromatic caraway flavor 

 and were used to season other foods. 



Yampa roots are fleshy and tuberous, growing up to 3 inches long and 

 three-fourths of an inch thick, and resemble tiny sweetpotatoes. They grow at 

 the base of the stem singly, in pairs or in groups of three or more. The stems 

 are solitary, smooth, slender and sometimes branched, one-eighth to one-fourth 

 of an inch in diameter and 1 to 4 feet in height. 



1 Piper, C. V. FLORA OF THE STATE OP WASHINGTON. U. S. Natl. Mus., Contrib. U. S. 

 Natl. Herbarium 11, 637 pp., illus. 1906. 



a Haskin, L. L. A FRONTIER FOOD, IPO, OB YAMPA. SUSTAINED THE PIONEERS. Nature 

 Mag. 14 : 171-172, illus. 1929. 



