General: Stout perennial herb from a taproot or cluster of tuberous roots; stems solitary or few together from a tuberous-thickened and chambered base, leafy, glabrous, 0.5-2 m tall.
Leaves: Basal and stem leaves divided 1-3 times, leaflets 3-4 times as long as broad, lanceolate to narrowly oblong or elliptic, these sharply pointed and toothed, 4-7 mm long; lateral veins ending at base of the teeth.
Flowers: Inflorescence of several to many small, compact clusters forming several compound umbels; flowers white to greenish; involucral bracts mostly lacking.
Fruits: Egg-shaped to orbicular, 2-4 mm long, glabrous, corky-thickened; ribs unequal, with a narrow raised border on edge of dark intervals.
1. Axils of leaves with bulblets; leaflets with narrowly linear segments C. bulbifera
1. Axils of leaves without bulblets; leaflets lanceolate.
2. Fruits slightly broader than long; midvein on upper leaflet surface scabrous C. virosa
2. Fruits from as broad as long to longer than broad; midvein on upper leaflet surface glabrous.
3. Leaflets 3-4 times as long as broad, lanceolate to narrowly oblong or elliptic; fruit with a narrow raised border along edge of dark interval C. douglasii
Leaflets more than 5 times as long as broad, linear to narrowly lanceolate; fruit without a raised border along edge of dark interval C. maculata
Habitat / Range
Wet stream edges, ditches and marshes in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common throughout BC except the Queen Charlotte Islands; N to AK and S to ID, NV and CA.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
