Participant Info

Species

Ligusticum porteri

Family

Apiaceae

CommonName

lovage, oshá, bear root, bear medicine

Presence

Yes

Status

native

EarliestDate

1936?

LatestDate

2018

Ecosystem

montane, subalpine

Geobotanical

SSanjuans, Culebras, NCristos

Counties

Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, San Juan

Passes

Cumbres, La Manga, La Veta, Mosca, Stony, Wolf Creek

WildlifePreserves

Big Meadows Reservoir, Great Sand Dunes

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

YES Rich Haswell: Rio Grande Co, Middle San Francisco Creek 18 June 2018

Comments

Locations for oshá are protected because of the extensive collecting of the plant for herbal and medicinal purposes (beginning with the indigenous tribes). Yet Ligusticum porteri is not uncommon in the south San Juans of the Watershed. This lovage is primarily a Southwest mountain plant found in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and northern Utah. It follows the Rio Grande drainage of New Mexico to the Mexican border but not farther. Note that the common names "bear root" and "bear medicine" derive from the behavior of bears emerging from hiberation, who seek out the plant and to it and roll in it.

Annotation