Balsamorhiza macrolepis
Balsamorhiza sericea
big scale balsam root, California balsamroot
silky balsamroot, silvery balsamroot
blades green to gray-green, elliptic to lanceolate, 15–40+ × 4–14 cm (1–2-pinnatifid, primary lobes ovate to linear, 15–70 × 3–15 mm, usually lobed or toothed), bases cuneate to truncate, ultimate margins usually entire (slightly revolute, not ciliate), apices rounded to acute, faces strigillose to subvelutinous or tomentose (sometimes gland-dotted as well).
blades silvery, lanceolate or lance-ovate, 9–30 × 2–7 cm (1-pinnatifid, lobes oblong to oblanceolate, 5–35 × 3–17 mm), bases cuneate, ultimate margins usually entire (plane or weakly revolute, obscurely, if at all, ciliate), apices rounded to acute, faces densely sericeous.
hemispheric, (15–)20–30 mm diam.
campanulate to hemispheric, 11–20+ mm diam.
20–30+ mm.
15–20 mm (adaxially puberulous on veins).
ovate or oblong to lanceolate, 12–30(–40) mm, usually surpassing inner, apices obtuse to acute or attenuate.
broadly ovate to triangular-ovate, 12–20 mm, slightly surpassing inner, apices acuminate to attenuate (margins not ciliate).
usually borne singly.
borne singly.
Balsamorhiza macrolepis
Balsamorhiza sericea
Of conservation concern.
Balsamorhiza macrolepis grows in the western foothills of central Sierra Nevada and in the eastern San Francisco Bay area (there mostly extirpated). The tall habit, exhibiting gigas characteristics, suggests that, like B. macrophylla, this taxon may be a polyploid. No hybrids with other species have been noted.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Balsamorhiza sericea hybridizes with B. deltoidea.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
