General: Slender annual herb from a taproot, 10-40 cm tall, sometimes branched.
Leaves: Basal and stem leaves compound, stalked, pinnately dissected into narrow segments; leaf blades 2-6 cm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence of compound umbels; spokes 1-9, 1-8 cm long; flowers white, the petals broadening from the base; calyx with teeth; involucel bractlets well-developed, leaflike.
Fruits: Oblong, 3-7 mm long, with hooked prickles along the ribs, laterally compressed, beakless.
If more than one illustration is
available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two
subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below.
Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
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)
There are several look-alikes within the range of Yabea microcarpa in B.C. Torilis japonica, an introduced Japanese plant, is distinguished from Y. microcarpa by a single bractlet that subtends the flower. Torilis japonica has beaked fruits; Y. microcarpa has beakless fruits. The fruit of T. japonica is covered in generally distributed prickles rather than along the ridges as found in Y. microcarpa. Similarly, Anthriscus caucalis, from Europe, differs by having beaked fruits with a ring of short flattened hairs on each seed rather than along the ribs. Daucus pusillus has similar foliage as Y. microcarpa but does not have flowering stems exerted beyond the subtending bracts (Douglas and Smith 2004e).
