Cymopterus cinerarius
Encyclopedia
Cymopterus cinerarius is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family
Apiaceae
The Apiaceae , commonly known as carrot or parsley family, is a group of mostly aromatic plants with hollow stems. The family is large, with more than 3,700 species spread across 434 genera, it is the sixteenth largest family of flowering plants...

 known by the common name gray springparsley. This small plant is native to the US states of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

, where it grows on the rocky talus
Scree
Scree, also called talus, is a term given to an accumulation of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, or valley shoulders. Landforms associated with these materials are sometimes called scree slopes or talus piles...

 of the Sierra Nevada. This plant has a short stem and lies against the ground or draped over rocky debris. Its distinctive leaves are only a few centimeters long and dissected into segments of a few millimeters in length. The gray-green segments are thick, pointed lobes with a bumpy textured surface and a waxy epidermal coating. From the center of this patch of leaflets sprouts an erect peduncle
Peduncle (botany)
In botany, a peduncle is a stem supporting an inflorescence, or after fecundation, an infructescence.The peduncle is a stem, usually green and without leaves, though sometimes colored or supporting small leaves...

 holding the flowers. The peduncle and the umbel
Umbel
An umbel is an inflorescence which consists of a number of short flower stalks which are equal in length and spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs....

s of flowers are reddish-green or brown and the umbel has very large wrinkly bract
Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...

s which are more visible than the actual white flower corolla.

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