General: Slender perennial herb from tuberous-thickened and often clustered edible root, often fascicled, glabrous; stems solitary, 0.4-1.2 m tall.
Leaves: Several, well distributed along stem, divided 1-3 times, elongate; basal leaf sheaths not much inflated; ultimate segments long and narrow.
Flowers: Inflorescence of compound umbels; flowers terminal and lateral; spokes up to 6 cm long at maturity; flowers white or pink; involucel bractlets bristly or obsolete.
Fruits: Roundish, 2-3 mm long and wide, slightly flattened, glabrous, prominent ribs.
Moist to dry meadows and woodlands in the lowland and montane zones; infrequent in SE and SW BC (known from SE Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands), also rare in SC BC; E to SK and S to SD, CO, NM and CA.
A very shade-intolerant, submontane to montane. North American forb distributed equally in the Pacific, Cordilleran, and Atlantic regions. Occurs in maritime to submaritime summer-dry cool mesothermal climates on moderately dry to fresh, nitrogen-medium soils; its occurrence increases with increasing temperature and decreases with increasing precipitation. Scattered in forest openings and non-forested communities on water-shedding sites. Characteristic of moisture-deficient sites.
