Sanicula saxatilis
| Sanicula saxatilis | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Apiales |
| Family: | Apiaceae |
| Genus: | Sanicula |
| Species: | S. saxatilis |
| Binomial name | |
| Sanicula saxatilis Greene | |
Sanicula saxatilis is a rare species of flowering plant in the parsley family known by the common names rock sanicle and devil's blacksnakeroot. It is endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area of California, where it is known only from Mount Diablo and Mount Hamilton. Its habitat is mostly rocky chaparral slopes and talus. Although it is rare, most occurrences are in remote mountainous locales that are relatively safe from disturbance.[1] This is a perennial herb producing a thick stem 10 to 25 centimeters tall from a spherical tuber. The leaves are compound, each divided into three leaflets which are deeply cut into serrated lobes. The herbage is green to purple and sometimes waxy in texture. The inflorescence is made up of one or more heads of bisexual and male-only flowers with tiny, curving, pale salmon pink, yellowish or straw-colored petals. The fruits are a few millimeters wide and covered in bumps and sometimes bristles.