Blunt-fruited Sweet-root - Osmorhiza depauperata

Blunt-fruited Sweet-root
Osmorhiza depauperata Phil.
Synonym: O. obtusa. Other names: Sweet-cicely.

Family: Apiaceae, Parsley
Genus: Osmorhiza

Description
General: perennial, not markedly odorous, from a well-
developed taproot. Stems solitary or sometimes 2 or 3,
rather slender, 30-100 cm tall, branched and leafy near tips.
Herbage stiff-hairy to occasionally essentially hairless.

Leaves: twice divided in 3's, the leaflets thin, narrowly to
broadly ovate, coarsely toothed and sometimes 3-lobed,
2-7 cm long and 1-5.5 cm wide. Basal leaves several, long-
stalked, stem leaves 1-3, opposite, single or whorled, with
shorter stalks or almost stalkless.

Flowers: greenish-white, small. Umbels several, small,
inconspicuous, and short-stalked at flowering, becoming
open and long-stalked at maturity, the umbel-stalks 5-25
cm long, the 3-8 rays ascending-spreading, 2-12 cm long.
Involucre and involucels absent or nearly so.
Flowering time: May-July.

Fruits: mostly 10-15 mm long, club-shaped, convexly
narrowed to the rounded or mainly blunt summit, the tip
not at all beaklike. Stylopodium low-conic to depressed,
as wide as or often wider than high.

Distribution
Woodlands, from the plains to moderate elevations in the
mountains, in w. and s. parts of MT. Also from s. AK to n.e.
CA and s. NV, NM and e. to w. SD, and in the Great Lakes
region and from VT to Newfoundland.

Edible plant: see below.

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Contents
Identification
English Names Index
Scientific Names Index
Family Index

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The root of sweet-root is edible, raw or cooked. At its mildest early in the season, it has a parsnip-like flavor. It is also used as a flavoring, imparting an anise-like flavor. The Isleta Indians boiled the roots and stems to make a beverage. The seed are edible, raw or used as a flavoring.