''Balsamorhiza hookeri'' (Hooker's balsamroot) is a North American species of

perennial plant In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...

in the family

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

. It grows in the

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

and neighboring regions in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

.Great Basin Wildflowers, Laird R. Blackwell, 2006, Morris Book Publishing LLC., . p. 115. It is found in

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, and

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

Description

The leaves are compound pinnate, with the leaflet divisions also divided or deeply lobed. Basal leaves are hairy and may be up to long. There may be one to several stems, which are leafless and hairy, and topped by one flower each. It blooms from April to July. Flower heads are wide, and sunflower-like, with 10–21 fringe-tipped

ray flowers Asteraceae () is a large family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger fam ...

and numerous

disc flowers Asteraceae () is a large family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger fam ...

. The flower bract has long hairs. Hitchcock, C.L. and Cronquist, A. 2018. Flora of the Pacific Northwest, 2nd Edition, p. 550. University of Washington Press, Seattle. Burke Herbarium Image Collection, http://biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Balsamorhiza%20hookeri

Distribution and habitat

It grows to in dry, grassy meadows in

sagebrush steppe Sagebrush steppe also known as the sagebrush sea, is a type of shrub-steppe, a plant community characterized by the presence of shrubs, and usually dominated by sagebrush, any of several species in the genus '' Artemisia''.

and

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

plant communities A plant community is a collection or Association (ecology), association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The comp ...

in the

. It is common at much lower elevations in central Washington State

scablands The Channeled Scablands are a relatively barren and soil-free region of interconnected relict and dry flood channels, coulees and cataracts eroded into Palouse loess and the typically flat-lying basalt flows that remain after cataclysmic floods ...

Ecology

It tends to grow in rockier habitats than its cousin, arrow-leaf balsamroot (''

Balsamorhiza sagittata ''Balsamorhiza'' is a genus of plants in the family Asteraceae known commonly as balsamroots. These are perennials with fleshy taproots and caudices bearing erect stems and large, basal leaves. Atop the tall stems are showy yellow sunflower-like ...

''). It hybridizes with arrow-leaf balsamroot, which has arrow shaped leaves. The result is a plant with leaves that are arrow shaped, but also deeply divided.

Uses

Balsamroots have been used as food and medicine by native peoples for many years.Hairy Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza hookeri var. hispidula)
by Charmaine Delmatier, United States Forest Service. 2014. Accessed March 11, 2025.

Gallery

Image: Balsamorhiza hookeri JHT iNat-158690200.jpg, Flower side view Image: Balsamorhiza hookeri JHT iNat-160450038.jpg, Plant top view

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q15545542 hookeri Flora of the Western United States Plants described in 1840 Flora without expected TNC conservation status