Perideridia is a genus of plants in the family Apiaceae. Plants in this genus are known generally as yampah or yampa. They are native to western North America. Similar in appearance to other plants of the family Apiaceae, they have umbels of white flowers.

Perideridia
Perideridia gairdneri subsp. borealis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Apiales
Family: Apiaceae
Subfamily: Apioideae
Tribe: Oenantheae
Genus: Perideridia
Rchb.
Type species
Perideridia americana
(Nutt.) Rchb. ex Steud. 1829
Species

About 12; see text

Name

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The genus is based on the Greek word perideri, meaning 'necklace'.[1]

Description

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The plants have a unique appearance for members of the parsley family, and are tall (1–3 feet) and grasslike, with threadlike leaves 1–6 inches long that resemble blades of grass. The plants effectively mimic tall grass and are virtually invisible until they flower, since they tend to grow in grassy meadows, and prefer full sunlight. Like most members of the parsley family, yampah produces umbels of white flowers.[1] The small roots of yampah are about the size of a large unshelled peanut.[citation needed]

Distribution and habitat

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The plants are widely distributed in moist open meadows and hillsides up to 7,500 feet (2,300 m) across Western North America.[2]

Uses

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Plains Indians named the plant 'Yampah' and consumed its starchy bulbs, some of which taste like carrots.[1]

Perideridia gairdneri was an important staple crop of Native Americans in Western North America. The nutlike roots of the plant are crunchy and mildly sweet, and resemble water chestnuts in texture and flavor.

Yampah roots were either baked or steamed, and were reported to have excellent flavor and nutritional qualities. The seeds of yampah were used as a seasoning and resemble caraway seeds in flavor. Yampah roots contain rapidly assimilatable carbohydrates, and were used by hunters and runners as a high energy food to enhance physical endurance.

Uncooked yampah roots are a gentle laxative if consumed in excess and were used medicinally for this purpose.[2]

It resembles the highly toxic poison hemlock and water hemlock.

Species

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Image Name Common name Distribution Cytology[3]
  Perideridia americana eastern yampah Midwestern United States n=20
Perideridia bacigalupii Mother Lode yampah, Bacigalupi's yampah Sierra Nevada foothills, California
  Perideridia bolanderi Bolander's yampah western United States n=19
Perideridia californica California yampah Central Coast Ranges and a section of the Sierra Nevada foothills, California n=22
  Perideridia erythrorhiza redroot yampah, western yampah Oregon in the United States
  Perideridia gairdneri Gardner's yampah, common yampah, Indian caraway western North America from southwestern Canada to California to New Mexico n=40,60
Perideridia howellii Howell's yampah Oregon and northern California n=20
  Perideridia kelloggii Kellogg's yampah San Francisco Bay Area, and the Sierra Nevada foothills, California n=20
Perideridia lemmonii Lemmon's yampah from southeastern Oregon, western Nevada, and the mountains of eastern California
Perideridia leptocarpa narrowseed yampah California, Oregon n=17
Perideridia montana Gairdner's Yampah Montana
  Perideridia oregana Oregon yampah, squaw potato Oregon and California in the western United States n=8, 9, 10
  Perideridia parishii Parish's yampah, Sierra Queen Anne's lace southwestern United States n=19
Perideridia pringlei adobe yampah California n=20

References

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  1. ^ a b c Taylor, Ronald J. (1994) [1992]. Sagebrush Country: A Wildflower Sanctuary (rev. ed.). Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Pub. Co. p. 98. ISBN 0-87842-280-3. OCLC 25708726.
  2. ^ a b Gregory L. Tilford (1997). Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West. Mountain Press Publishing. ISBN 978-0-87842-359-0.
  3. ^ Stephen R. Downie; Feng-Jie Sun; Deborah S. Katz-Downie & Gina J. Collett (2004). "A Phylogenetic Study of Perideridia (Apiaceae) Based on Nuclear Ribosomal DNA ITS Sequences" (PDF). Systematic Botany. 29 (3): 737–751. doi:10.1600/0363644041744437. S2CID 37252459. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-01-22.
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