Lomatium cous

Lomatium cous (cous biscuitroot)^[1] is a perennial herb of the family Apiaceae. The root is prized as a food by the tribes of the southern plateau of the Pacific Northwest. Meriwether Lewis collected a specimen in 1806 while on his expedition.^[2]

Lomatium cous
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Apiales
Family:	Apiaceae
Genus:	Lomatium
Species:	L. cous
Binomial name
Lomatium cous (S.Watson) J.M.Coult. & Rose

It is called x̣áwš in the Sahaptin language, and qáamsit (when fresh) and qáaws (when peeled and dried) in the Nez Perce language.

It is called shappelell by the Chinooks: "... and a kind of bisquit, which the natives make of roots called by them shappelell."—Meriwether Lewis, Friday, January 9, 1806. From The Definitive Journals of Lewis & Clark, Down the Columbia to Fort Clatsop. Volume 6 of the Nebraska Edition. Gary E. Moulton, Editor. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1990.