Habit: Perennial herb, taprooted, glabrous to minutely scabrous.
Stem: erect, leafy, conspicuously fibrous at base, generally branched.
Leaf: blade oblong to round, ternately or pinnately compound or dissected, leaflets oblong to obovate, entire to deeply pinnately lobed, segments linear to oblong.
Inflorescence: compound umbels; bracts generally 0; bractlets 0 or inconspicuous; rays, pedicels few to many, spreading-ascending.
Flower: calyx lobes minute; petals wide, white [+- pink].
Fruit: oblong to elliptic, +- compressed side-to-side; ribs +- equal, thread-like to narrowly winged; oil tubes generally several per rib-interval; fruit axis divided to base.
Seed: face flat to concave.
Species In Genus: +- 25 species: Eurasia, North America.
Etymology: (Liguria, Italy, home of related
Levisticum, lovage)
Note: Genus and species poorly defined.
Jepson eFlora Author: Lincoln Constance & Margriet Wetherwax
Reference: [Leute 1970 Ann Naturhist Mus Wien 74:457--519]
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Ligusticum
Previous taxon: Heracleum maximumNext taxon: Ligusticum apiifolium