Authors: Maxon  

Botanical Description

Usually densely clump-forming, but sometimes with shortly creeping rhizomes. Leaves 10-20cm tall or sometimes to almost twice this, the blades about one third of this, simply pinnate to bipinnate, the ultimate pinnules oblong, somewhat leathery, glabrous above and pale to bright yellow-powdery beneath. British Columbia to Baja California, up to 1520m, in rocky habitats. A variable species in the wild also in frost hardiness. P.t. var. maxoni has bi- to tripinnate leaves, yellowish-glandular above and light yellow or whitish-powdery beneath. South-western U.S.A. and Baja California. P.t. var. pallida has the leaf stalks blackish (red-brown in triangularis) with leaf blades glandular and white-mealy above, and white-powdery beneath. California, in foothills woodland. is162 P.t. var. viscosa is like triangularis, but viscid-glandular above and white-powdery beneath. California, on dry slopes, coastal sagebrush scrub and chaparral. Only P. triangularis itself from the northern and upper altitudinal limits of its range is likely to prove hardy outside.