Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous perennials, 10-15 cm tall, pseudoscapes (subterranian stems) present or absent, if present leafless stems arising 1-15 cm above leaves, herbage glabrous, taproots slender, crowned with persistent petioles from leaf bases, these sometimes resembling fibers.

Leaves: Fleshy, alternate, pinnately 1-2 (rarely 3) foliate, blades ovate to broadly oblong in outline, lobes oblong-ovate, 1-8 mm long, rounded to acute at the tips, margins dissected, surfaces glacous, petioles 1-4 cm long.

Flowers: Small, purple, massed in densely globose umbels, heads with 3-5 fertile rays, these 4-10 mm long, involucres conspicous, scarious, stamens 5, inserted on an epiginous disk, ovaries 2, inferior, with 2 mericarps united by their inner faces (commissure), flowering heads with foliaceous bracts subtending masses of fragrant flowers, bracts and bractlets conspicous, bractlets white with few nerves, mostly connate and fused below the middle, flowering heads borne on stems protruding above leaves, these on pedicels 3-12 mm long.

Fruits: Capsules of 2 mericarps, widely ovate in outline and somewhat dorsally compressed, 8-18 mm long and 8-16 mm wide, with thin wings 2-3 times the body in width, ribs subequal, these with 3-4 small oil tubes per interval. Each mericarp with 1 seed. Seed face

Ecology: Found on shrubby slopes, from 4,500-7,500 ft (1372-2286 m); flowering March-May.

Distribution: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah.

Notes: This genus is distinguished from pseudocymopterus by the acaulescent habit and the glabrous herbage and peduncles of cymopterus; pseudocymopterus are usually caulescent and generally have peduncles with a long-haired pubescence, (at least at the base of the umbles). The maroon purple flowers with petal-like white bracts in globose umbels and widely ovate fruits help to identify this species.

Ethnobotany: Plant used for backaches and to settle the stomache after vomiting from swallowing a fly.

Synonyms: None

Editor: LCrumbacher2012

Etymology: Cymopterus comes from the Greek kuma, "wave," and pteron, "wing," some species having wavy wings, while purpurascens means becoming purple or purplish.