Cymopterus goodrichii is a rare 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 Toiyabe springparsley. It is endemic to 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...

 in the United States, where it occurs in the Toiyabe

Toiyabe Range

The Toiyabe Range is a range of mountains in central Nevada in the western United States. It starts in northwestern Nye County north of Tonopah, Nevada and runs approximately 120 miles north-northeast through eastern Lander County, making it the second longest range in the state...

 and West Humboldt Range

West Humboldt Range

The West Humboldt Range is a short mountain range in the western Great Basin in northwestern Nevada in the United States. It runs for approximately 40 mi southwest to northeast in northern Churchill County and southern Pershing County...

s.

This perennial herb grows up to 15 or 20 centimeters tall from a taproot

Taproot

A taproot is an enlarged, somewhat straight to tapering plant root that grows vertically downward. It forms a center from which other roots sprout laterally.Plants with taproots are difficult to transplant...

 and underground root crown

Root crown

A root crown is that part of a root system from which a stem arises. Since roots and stems have quite different vascular anatomies, major vascular changes take place at this point....

. There is a small rosette of leaves with intricately divided blades 1 or 2 centimeters long. The inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

 arises on a purple flower stalk directly from the ground. It is a small 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....

 about a centimeter wide containing white or purple flowers. The fruit is 5 to 8 millimeters long and has broad wings.

This plant grows in bare scree

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 slate

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

 and limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 in subalpine

Subalpine

The subalpine zone is the biotic zone immediately below tree line around the world. Species that occur in this zone depend on the location of the zone on the Earth, for example, Snow Gum in Australia, or Subalpine Larch, Mountain Hemlock and Subalpine Fir in western North America.Trees in the...

 and alpine climate

Alpine climate

Alpine climate is the average weather for a region above the tree line. This climate is also referred to as mountain climate or highland climate....

s. Other plants in the habitat include spreading wheatgrass (Agropyron scribneri), Michaux's wormwood

Artemisia michauxiana

Artemisia michauxiana is a species of wormwood known by the common names Michaux's wormwood and lemon sagewort.It is native to western North America from Yukon to California to Colorado, where it grows in mountain talus habitats in subalpine to alpine climates. This is a rhizomatous perennial herb...

 (Artemisia michuaxiana), broadkeel milkvetch

Astragalus platytropis

Astragalus platytropis is a species of milkvetch known by the common name broadkeel milkvetch. It is native to the western United States from Montana to California, where it lives at high elevation in alpine and subalpine plant communities. This is a very small perennial milkvetch which forms a...

 (Astragalus platytropis), dwarf alpine hawksbeard

Crepis nana

Crepis nana is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family known by the common name dwarf alpine hawksbeard. It is native to much of northern North America and northern Asia, where it is a plant of the alpine climate and maritime regions across the Arctic. It grows in scree, on gravelly...

 (Crepis nana), desert draba (Draba arida), dwarf mountain fleabane

Erigeron compositus

Erigeron compositus, also known as Dwarf Mountain Fleabane, Cutleaf Daisy, and Trifid Mountain Fleabane, is a flowering plant in the genus Erigeron native to western North America to Greenland and eastern Canada....

 (Erigeron compositus), ballhead ipomopsis

Ipomopsis congesta

Ipomopsis congesta is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name ballhead ipomopsis. It is native to much of western North America where it grows in many habitats from alpine peaks to low-elevation scrub. This is a perennial herb which varies in appearance, especially...

 (Ipomopsis congesta), granite prickly phlox

Linanthus pungens

Linanthus pungens is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common names granite prickly-phlox and granite gilia. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Baja California and east to Montana and New Mexico.This plant has been called a shrub or a...

 (Linanthus pungens), spike fescue (Leucopoa kingii), sky pilot

Polemonium viscosum

Polemonium viscosum is a flowering plant in the genus Polemonium native to western North America from southern British Columbia east to Montana and south to Arizona and New Mexico, where it grows at high altitudes on dry, rocky sites.It is a perennial herbaceous plant growing 10-30 cm tall,...

 (Polemonium viscosum), wax currant

Ribes cereum

Ribes cereum is a species of currant known by the common names wax currant and squaw currant...

 (Ribes cereum), and mountain gooseberry

Ribes montigenum

Ribes montigenum is a species of currant known by the common names mountain gooseberry, alpine prickly currant, and gooseberry currant. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California to New Mexico, where it grows in high mountain habitat types in subalpine and alpine...

(Ribes montigenum).