Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Fabales > Fabaceae > Pediomelum > Pediomelum castoreum

Pediomelum castoreum (beaver Indian breadroot)

Synonyms: Lotodes castoreum (homotypic); Psoralea castorea (homotypic)

Wikipedia Abstract

Pediomelum castoreum is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common names beaver Indian breadroot and beaver dam breadroot. It is native to the deserts around the intersection of California, Nevada, and Arizona, where it grows in local habitat including disturbed areas. It is a perennial herb with no stem or a short stem that is mostly underground, leaving the plant at ground level. The compound leaves are each made up of five or six oval leaflets which may be over 4 centimeters long. The leaf is borne on a long petiole. The inflorescence is a raceme of several blue or purple pealike flowers each roughly a centimeter long. The fruit is a hairy oval legume pod tipped with a long, curved beak. It contains ridged gray seeds each about 6 millimeters long.
View Wikipedia Record: Pediomelum castoreum

Attributes

Edible [1]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [1]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [1]  Although no specific mention of toxicity for this species has been found, at least some members of this genus contain furanocoumarins, these substances can cause photosensitivity in some people;
Lifespan [1]  Perennial
Pollinators [1]  Insects, Lepidoptera
Structure [2]  Herb
Usage [1]  The plant is valuable under natural conditions as a soil stabilizer;
Height [1]  20 inches (0.5 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Pediomelum castoreum

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0