Shoshonea

Shoshonea
On Heart Mountain, Wyoming
Conservation status
Vulnerable (NatureServe)1
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Embryophytes
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Spermatophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Apiales
Family:	Apiaceae
Subfamily:	Apioideae
Tribe:	Selineae
Genus:	Shoshonea Evert & Constance
Species:	S. pulvinata
Binomial name
Shoshonea pulvinata Evert & Constance

Shoshonea is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the parsley family. Its native range is Western Central USA.²

Shoshonea plants are low growing plants without a main stem. They grow as a tuft of leaves that are pulvinate, having a swollen base to the leaf stalk allowing it to move without growing. The plants are quite small, only reaching 2 to 8 centimeters (3⁄4–3+1⁄4 in) in height. It is a perennial that sprouts from a woody taproot and a caudex which is usually branched underground.³

The genus Shoshonea and its one species Shoshonea pulvinata were scientifically described and named in 1982 by Erwin F. Evert and Lincoln Constance. It is further classified in the family Apiaceae. It has no synonyms or subspecies.⁴

The genus was named Shoshonea for the Shoshone River that flows nearby in northwestern Wyoming.³ The genus name is also used as a common name for the species.¹ Although the species does not much resemble the garden carrot in either its above ground or below ground parts,⁵ it is given the common name Shoshone carrot in the Natural Resources Conservation Service database.⁶