Columbia desert parsley is one of the early spring wildflowers on the dry eastern edge of the Mt. Hood area. It is a regional specialty with a small range, found only around the Columbia River Gorge and nearby south-central Washington, east of the Cascade crest. In Oregon it grows in just two counties, Hood River and Wasco.
Each plant rises from a very thick, woody taproot and comes back year after year. In early spring a stout clump of stems pushes up blue-green leaves, waxy and cut into many thread-thin segments, followed by flat-topped, umbrella-like clusters of small pinkish purple flowers. Both the petals and the anthers carry that purple tint, and the whole plant is aromatic.
After flowering, the plant sets large, flattened fruits close to an inch long, each with a thin wing along the edges that is paler than the seed body. The fruits stay on the stalks for a while after the flowers fade, which helps confirm the identification later in spring.
To find it, look on sunny, open slopes at lower elevations, from valley floors into the low mountains, especially where the national forest meets the drier country toward the Gorge. It is a good reason to explore the east side early in the season.
How to identify it
A stout, hairless, blue-green plant 1 to 2.5 feet tall, with mostly basal leaves divided again and again into narrow segments less than an inch long. Small pinkish purple flowers grow in flat-topped compound clusters on 7 to 14 nearly equal rays, with no bracts beneath the cluster. The flattened, oblong fruits are about two-thirds of an inch to an inch long, with pale side wings.
Habitat
Open, sunny slopes from low valleys into the lower mountains, east of the Cascade crest. In Oregon it is known only from Hood River and Wasco counties, toward the eastern side of Mt. Hood National Forest and the Columbia River Gorge.
Sightings in the forest
685 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on May 18, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →