Stems: glabrous. Leaves: ternately compound, leaflets ovate, acuminate, the teeth mucronate. Flowers: in few-rayed umbels. Fruit: with prominent caudate attenuation at base, ribs equal.
This plant has pretty fern-like leaves, thick anise-scented roots which are edible, and very ephemeral flowers, whose white wistful faces look up at one from the flat-topped clusters.
Osmorhiza divaricata, or Western Sweet Cicely, is a taller plant with more spreading umbels. Both of these Sweet Cicelys grow in the coniferous forests.
Fern-leaved Lovage (Ligusticum apiifolium)