Stout stemmed, erect perennial with leaves divided several times. Leaf highlighted in above photo was 34 cm tall and 18 cm wide, leaf undersides with fine hairs along nerves. Large, bright yellow flower umbel, with pleasently fragrant flowers, appearing in early May, an entire compound umbel measured at 13 cm diameter, a secondary umbel measured at 2 cm diameter, a single flower was 2 mm diameter. Secondary umbels have linear sepals, we measured a sepal at 15 mm length and 1 mm diameter.
Could be mistaken for Lomatium cous, both are yellow flowered members of the Umbelliferae family, share the same habitat, and bloom at the same time. However, Lomatium cous is a much smaller plant (to 25 cm tall), has elliptic to oblanceolate bracts, and does not have hairy undersides to its leaves.
Very rare (listed as an S1 by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre), as I understand it only found in some locations in the Cypress Hills. Habitat is listed in Budd's Flora as Foothills region, and in Flora of Alberta as open montane woods and rocky slopes.
Height listed in Budd's Flora from 30 cm to 90 cm. Height of plant in photo was 49 cm, the tallest plant we could find was 84 cm tall.
Photos taken May 20th on a very steep, rocky slope, edge of woods, Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan. About 400 km southwest of our home in Regina.
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