SMALL-LEAF ANGELICA

ANGELICA PINNATA

Parsley Family, Apiaceae

Perennial herb

Look for the single, branching stem, 18–40-inches-tall, in moist soils and wet places. The plant has large, pinnately compound leaves with rows of toothed leaflets along the midrib, and stalks that sheath the stem. Note the showy array of umbrella-shaped clusters of small white flowers.

FLOWERS: June–August. Like an open umbrella, the flowering stem (peduncle) is 1 3/8–5 1/2-inches long (3.5–14 cm) and topped with 7–25 spreading rays, each up to 2 3/4 inches long (7 cm). Rays are unequal in length and each tipped with a round-topped cluster of small, white flowers (umbellets). This species has no small, leaf-like bractlets on the stem beneath the umbellets.

LEAVES: Alternate, from swollen sheaths along the stem. Blades pinnately compound with 5–7 oval to lance-shaped leaflets along the midrib, margins serrate; lower leaflets often divided again into 2–3 segments.

HABITAT: Moist soils of riparian woodlands, moist meadows, along springs and streams; from montane oak-maple forests to Douglas-fir and spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 7,000–12,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, UT, WY; Canada.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Gray’s Angelica, A. grayi, at high elevations in much the same range, has whitish-brown flowers and leaf-like bractlets 1/4–3/4 inch wide (5–18 mm) on the stem (peduncle) beneath each umbellet flower cluster.

NM COUNTIES: Northern NM mountains in mid- to high-elevation, moist habitats: Los Alamos, Mora, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Taos.