Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Long-style sweet-cicely

LONG-STYLE SWEET-CICELY

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Osmorhiza longistylis (Torr. ) DC.

Jefferson County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 12-40 inches

Family: Apiaceae - Parsley Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June, July

Stems:

Erect or ascending, branched, sparsely to densely villous, sometimes glabrous.

Leaves:

Basal and cauline. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 2 to 6.4 inches, glabrate to densely pubescent; blade 2-3-ternately compound, triangular or ovate in outline, 1.6 to 10 inches; leaflets ovate to oblong-ovate, 1.2 to 4 inches long, .4 to 2 inches wide; margins serrate or doubly serrate, often pinnately lobed or incised toward base. Cauline leaves gradually reduced above; petiole present or absent; blade mostly ternate.

Inflorescences:

Compound umbels, terminal and axillary; peduncles 2 to 6 inches; involucral bracts .2 to .6 inch; rays 3-6(-8), unequal, .6 to 2 inches; involucel bractlets 4-7, lanceolate to linear, .2 to .4 inch.

Flowers:

Pedicels 1/12 to 1/5 inch; calyx lobes absent; petals 5, white or greenish white, broadly elliptic to obovate; stamens 5; styles 2, longer than petals.

Fruits:

Schizocarps splitting, elongate-ellipsoid or clavate, .4 to .8 inch, flattened at right angle to commissure, antrorsely hispid, persistent styles 1/12 to 1/6 inch; mericarps dark brown or black, ribs not corky, not winged, oil tubes obscure.

Habitat:

Mesic to dry oak-hickory forests, wooded stream banks

Distribution:

East 1/3 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

The roots have been used as the source of an aromatic oil similar to that of anise (Pimpinella anisum).

Comments:

Plants usually strongly anise-scented. Osmorhiza, scent and root, and longistylis, long and column, alluding to the styles.

Long-style sweet-cicely