Lomatium cous (cous biscuitroot)[1] is a perennial herb of the family Apiaceae. The root is prized as a food by the tribes of the southern plateau of the Pacific Northwest. Meriwether Lewis collected a specimen in 1806 while on his expedition.[2]
Lomatium cous | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Apiales |
Family: | Apiaceae |
Genus: | Lomatium |
Species: | L. cous
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Binomial name | |
Lomatium cous (S.Watson) J.M.Coult. & Rose
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It is called x̣áwš in the Sahaptin language, and qáamsit (when fresh) and qáaws (when peeled and dried) in the Nez Perce language.
It is called shappelell by the Chinooks: "... and a kind of bisquit, which the natives make of roots called by them shappelell."—Meriwether Lewis, Friday, January 9, 1806. From The Definitive Journals of Lewis & Clark, Down the Columbia to Fort Clatsop. Volume 6 of the Nebraska Edition. Gary E. Moulton, Editor. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1990.
References
editWikimedia Commons has media related to Lomatium cous.
- ^ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Lomatium cous". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
- ^ Schiemann, Donald Anthony. Wildflowers of Montana, page 174. Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula, 2005.