Thaspium trifoliatum(L.) A.Gray

purple meadowparsnip

WFO wfo-0001068012 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Thaspium trifoliatum, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. a Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-25 / obs. 191023254
Thaspium trifoliatum, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. b Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191023315
Thaspium trifoliatum, photographed by John Abrams
fig. c John Abrams, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 78196084
Thaspium trifoliatum, photographed by cwarneke
fig. d cwarneke, CC0 1.0 / obs. 9006723
Thaspium trifoliatum, photographed by botanygirl
fig. e botanygirl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 379489
Thaspium trifoliatum, photographed by John Kees
fig. f John Kees, CC0 1.0 / obs. 203112401
Thaspium trifoliatum, photographed by John Kees
fig. g John Kees, CC0 1.0 / obs. 201733512
Thaspium trifoliatum, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. h Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202063677

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 24 botanical countries

Regions where Thaspium trifoliatum is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaArkansasFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaKentuckyLouisianaMarylandMichiganMississippiMissouriNew JerseyNorth CarolinaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin
Native distribution of Thaspium trifoliatum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Michigan MIC
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
New Jersey NWJ
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 56 in flower of 76 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Thaspium trifoliatum observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 56 of 76 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 25 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Carum cordatum Alph.Wood
  • Smyrnium atropurpureum Lam.
  • Smyrnium cordatum Walter
  • Smyrnium trifoliatum (L.) Muhl.
  • Thapsia trifoliata L.
  • Thaspium atropurpureum (Desr.) Nutt.
  • Thaspium aureum Torr. & A.Gray
  • Thaspium aureum var. apterum A.Gray
  • Thaspium aureum var. atropurpureum (Desr.) J.M.Coult. & Rose
  • Thaspium aureum var. cordatum Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.
  • Thaspium aureum var. involucratum J.M.Coult. & Rose
  • Thaspium aureum var. trifoliatum J.M.Coult. & Rose
  • Thaspium cordatum var. atropurpureum (Nutt.) Alph.Wood
  • Thaspium purpureum Walp.
  • Thaspium sylvaticum (Benke) G.N.Jones
  • Thaspium trifoliatum f. atropurpureum (Desr.) Farw.
  • Thaspium trifoliatum var. atropurpureum (Desr.) Torr. & A.Gray
  • Thaspium trifoliatum var. flavum S.F.Blake
  • Thaspium ziziopsis Daniels
  • Upopion cordatum (Walter) Raf.
  • Upopion heterophylum Raf.
  • Upopion pinnatum Raf.
  • Upopion trifoliatum Raf.
  • Zizia parvifolia Raf.

and 1 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.