Description. It is a very recently (2014) described species: «Lomatium tarantuloides Darrach & Hinchliff, sp. nov., is a narrow endemic of conservation concern growing primarily in shallow, gravelly, serpentine-derived soils in a small area of the Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests in Grant County of northeastern Oregon. The species is distinguished from other members of the genus by leaf morphology, prostrate inflorescences and infructescences, fruit shape, and pedicel length. The presently recognized populations are primarily confined to small patches within a several km2 area in the higher elevations of the Greenhorn Mountains in the Blue Mountain physiographic province. Populations are of densely clustered plants in sites often characterized by persistent rodent-perpetuated disturbance where the new species tends to display the highest biomass of any single vascular plant species present.»
The full botanical, and very precise, description of this new recognized species may be found in the monography published by Mark Darrach and Cody Hinchliff.
The pictures of Lomatium tarantuloides were taken on July 5th 2017, on Trout Meadows – NF 52 ; Grant Co, Oregon ; 44°56’42” N / 118°26’21” W; Elevation: 1654 meters. Interestingly, the buds of Calochortus bruneaunis were not yet open at that place while the same species was in full flower 35 kms further west, on the same road, and at the same elevation and in an environment of Lomatium canbyi, Lomatium ambiguum, Lomatium nudicaule and Lomatium bicolor var. leptocarpum.
Gaïan EthnoBotany 