A small relative of Queen Anne’s
Lace, this one grows in the woods and bears its few-flowered umbels
in spring. This plant was growing along the Trillium Trail, Fox Chapel,
where it was blooming in the middle of May. The fern-like leaves are
distinctive. A similar species, O. longistylis, is not hairy,
and thus easy to distinguish.
Gray describes the genus and the species (which he spells Claytoni):
OSMORHÏZA Raf. SWEET CICELY. Calyx-teeth obsolete. Fruit with prominent
caudate attenuation at base, and equal ribs. — Glabrous to hirsute
perennials with thick aromatic roots, ternately compound leaves, ovate
variously toothed leaflets, few-leaved in volucres, and white flowers in
few-rayed and few-fruited umbels. (Name from osme, a scent, and
rhiza, a root.) Washingtonia Raf.
O. Claytoni (Michx.) Clarke. Stems rather slender, 8-9 dm. high,
vinous-pubescent; leaves <2-3-ternate, crisp-hairy; leaflets mostly 4-7
cm. long, acuminate, crenate-dentate and somewhat cleft; stipules
ciliate-hispid; fruit (not including the attenuate base) 1-1.8 cm. long;
stylopodium and style 0.7-1 mm. long. (O. brevistylis DC; Washingtonia
Claytoni Britton.) — Open woods, e. Que. to w. Ont., s. to N. С,
Ala., Mo., and Kan.
