Sanicula arguta Greene ex Coult. & Rose

Sanicula arguta Greene; Coult. & Rose, Contr. U. S Nat. Herb. 7: 36. 1900.
Plants erect, 1.5-5 dm. high, perennial from a thickened, elongated, woody taproot, glabrous except for the glandular-roughened foliage, the stems several, slender, sparingly branched; leaves deltoid in general outline, excluding the petioles 3-11 cm. long, 3-15 cm. broad, palmately 3-5-parted, the primary divisions narrow, pinnately lobed, the middle one elongate, the lobes serrate to sublaciniate, spinose, glandular-roughened above on the nerves, decurrent and forming a winged, toothed rachis; petioles flattened, shortly sheathing below, 2.5-30 cm. long, glandular-roughened above; cauline leaves few, reduced upward; involucre of reduced, leaflike bracts; involucel of linear to linear-lanceolate, spinose, entire to 3-lobed bractlets, about equaling the pedicels; fertile rays 3-5, 2.5-14 cm. long, the umbellets globose; sterile and fertile flowers in the same umbellet; fertile pedicels 2.5-4 mm. long; flowers yellow; calyx cleft to below the middle, the lobes linear, acute, shorter than the petals; anthers yellow, exserted; styles exceeding the bristles; fruit obovoid, 4—6 mm. long, 2.5-3 mm. broad, narrowed into a stipitate base, the bristles prominent above, few or wanting below, slightly bulbous at the base; oil-tubes obscure; seed subterete in cross section, the commissural face deeply concave to sulcate.
Type locality: Hills near San Diego, California, Pr ingle.
Distribution: Coastal southern California and the adjacent islands (Eastwood 2529, Elmer 3930).