Gray Springparsley

Cymopterus cinerarius A. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 6: 535. 1866
Aidospermum cinerarium Coult. & Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 7: 178. 1900.
Plants acaulescent, 7-8 cm. high, a pseudoscape never developed; leaves oblong-ovate in general outline, excluding the petioles 1.5-2.5 cm. long, 1-2.5 cm. broad, bipinnate, glaucous, hirtellous to sparsely scaberulous, the leaflets entire to pinnately lobed, apiculate, mostly distinct, 1-3 mm. long, about 1 mm. broad; petioles 3-5 cm. long; peduncles exceeding the leaves; involucre conspicuous, dimidiate, the bracts connate below the middle, frequently tridentate toward the apex, scarious-margined ; involucel obscure; umbels compact, discoid, the rays and pedicels obsolete; fruit narrowly cuneate, about 6 mm. long, 3 mm. broad, the wings barely constricted at the base in cross section, subacute at the apex, narrower than the body, the dorsal wings 3, similar to the lateral; oil-tubes small, 5-8 in the intervals, 6-10 on the commissure.
Type locality: "Dry hill, Sonora Pass, California, 10,100 feet alt.," Brewer 1899.
Distribution: High mountains in the region of Mono Lake, and the Sweetwater Mountains, California and Nevada (Ferris 6735. Hoover 5545).

Cymopterus cinerarius is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common name gray springparsley. This small plant is native to the US states of California and Nevada, where it grows on the rocky talus of the Sierra Nevada. This plant has a short stem and lies against the ground or draped over rocky debris. Its distinctive leaves are only a few centimeters long and dissected into segments of a few millimeters in length. The gray-green segments are thick, pointed lobes with a bumpy textured surface and a waxy epidermal coating. From the center of this patch of leaflets sprouts an erect peduncle holding the flowers. The peduncle and the umbels of flowers are reddish-green or brown and the umbel has very large wrinkly bracts which are more visible than the actual white flower corolla.