Lomatium utriculatum (Spring Gold / Common Lomatium (PNW Native))

Spring Gold (Lomatium utriculatum), also known as Common Lomatium, is one of the earliest and most important native wildflowers of Pacific Northwest prairie. Across the Willamette Valley, Coast Range bluffs, oak savanna, and headland meadow from southern British Columbia south into California, six to eighteen inch fernlike rosettes throw up flat yellow umbels in March, April, and into May, when little else is in bloom.

The wildlife value is exceptional. Lomatium utriculatum is a documented larval host plant for the Anise Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio zelicaon); caterpillars eat the finely dissected leaves and tuck themselves into the foliage to pupate. The flat yellow umbels are critical early-season forage for bumblebee queens emerging from winter, mining bees, and a wide spectrum of small native bees that depend on early-spring nectar and pollen. In a Willamette Valley prairie restoration, Lomatium is one of the species that sets the early bloom calendar.

The Lomatium genus is a major Indigenous food plant across the Pacific Northwest. Plateau Nations including the Klamath, Modoc, Cayuse, Nez Perce, Yakama, and Umatilla peoples dug Lomatium roots, dried and ground them into a biscuit-like meal often called 'biscuitroot' in English. NAEB records specific use of Lomatium utriculatum among the Kawaiisu (vegetable), Mendocino Indian, and Coast Salish peoples for both food and medicinal applications including gastrointestinal, orthopedic, dermatological, and analgesic uses.

Plant in full sun in lean, well-drained, gritty or sandy soil. Drought-tolerant and deeply taprooted; do not move once established. Goes fully summer-dormant after seed set in June, returning the following spring. Salt-spray tolerant in Coast Range and headland plantings.

USDA Zone 5 to 9. Deer-resistant. Pairs naturally with Camassia quamash, Iris tenax, Eriophyllum lanatum, Festuca roemeri, and Sidalcea malviflora for a Willamette Valley or Coast Range prairie planting.