Also called Rocky Mountain Hemlock Parsley, this 1–4 foot tall, unbranched plant grows in moist to wet soils. Note the clusters of tiny, white flowers in dense umbrella-like arrays (umbels). The 15–26 individual arrays are connected to the stem tip on stouter rays that about 2 inches long. As with many members of the parsley family, identification depends on details often overlooked by casual observation. Note the narrow bractlets beneath each small umbel of flowers, and the compound leaves divided up to three times with parsley-like leaflets. 

FLOWER: June–September. Stems are tipped with 15–25 radiating rays, or stalks, each up to 2 3/8 inches long (6 cm). Each ray is tipped with a small, umbrella-like cluster of tiny white, 1/4 inch wide (6 mm) flowers; 3–6 slender, leaf-like bracklets grow at the base of each small cluster. No, or only minute, bracts grow on the stem at the base of the radiating stalks of the compound umbel. The fruit is an oval, ribbed, green capsule.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate on stem. Blades 2–7 7/8 inches long (5–20 cm), once– to twice-pinnately compound with 2–5 pairs of lobed, parsley-like leaflets, each leaflet 3/8–1 3/8 inches long (1-3.5 cm). Stem leaves have an expanded base that sheathes the stem.

HABITAT: Moist sandy, loamy soils, standing water; stream sides, seeps, wet meadows, drainages, canyon bottoms, slopes; mixed conifer, aspen, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 7,400–10,900 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, NV, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Oshá, Ligusticum porteri, in much the same range and habitat, does not have long, slender bractlets directly beneath each small, umbrella-like flower cluster. Poison Hemlock, Conium maculatum, has purple-spotted stems, and is hazardous to touch and poisonous to ingest. Fendler’s Cowbane, Oxypolis fendleri, has leaves with 5–13 oval to lance-shaped leaflets.

NM COUNTIES: Mountains throughout NM in mid- to high-elevation, moist to wet habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley,  Mora, Otero, Rio  Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Socorro, Taos, Union.