Klickitat Lomatium, Klickitat Desert Parsley-- Lomatium klickitatense -- (25+ seeds)
Now shipping fresh seed for 2024 planting!
(Seeds of this species stay viable for several years. We have made the decision to continue offering seeds collected for the 2024 planting year as this seed is difficult to find and is very useful for some swallowtail butterfly caterpillars and pollinators. We hope to collect fresh seed again to offer for 2026 planting.)
An excellent caterpillar host plant for Anise Swallowtail and Indra Swallowtail butterflies. This particular species grows MUCH LARGER than the typical Gray's Desert Parsley (Lomatium grayi) or Butterfly Desert Parsley (Lomatium papilioniferum). Full-size plants can measure a meter across, making it a very productive plant to offer hungry caterpillars.
Only having been described in the past decade, it has quite a prolific population in a small area around the Columbia Gorge. Before, it was thought to be the same as the much smaller Gray's Desert Parsley.
Hardy and long-lived perennial.
Sowing: Outside in late fall or winter sow in the ground or in tall (9 inches or more) pots. Seeds can also be forced to germinate if moistened for 30 minutes in cool water, then drained and placed moist in a sealed zipper bag and into the refrigerator...germination takes place in the refrigerator between 30 and 90 days...then germinated seeds can be planted outside or in tall pots. Does best in the ground, though can survive in pots for several years.
