Oreoschimperella verrucosa is a slender, high-altitude herbaceous plant native to the cool mountain meadows, rocky streamsides, and Afroalpine scrublands of Ethiopia and East Africa. Growing among mist-swept highland grasses, it bears finely cut, fern-like foliage and delicate compound umbels of tiny white to purplish-tinged flowers, while its specific epithet verrucosa is Latin for 'warty' and describes the tiny, raised bumps covering its miniature fruits.
A member of the family Apiaceae (tribe Pyramidoptereae), the species was first published in 1848 by Achille Richard based on notes by Jacques Étienne Gay as Sium verrucosum, and after placements in Pimpinella and Schimperella, it received its current accepted name from the German botanist Stephan Rauschert in 1982.
Oreoschimperella verrucosa grows as an annual or short-lived perennial herb with slender, finely grooved stems that branch gracefully from the base and reach between twenty and eighty centimeters in height.
Late rainy season to early dry season in the East African highlands (August to December)
The generic name Oreoschimperella combines the Greek word oros (mountain) with a tribute to Wilhelm Georg Schimper, the nineteenth-century naturalist who spent decades collecting plants across the lofty Simien Mountains of Ethiopia.
Taxon Synonyms: Sium verrucosum, Sium simense, Helosciadium simense, Pimpinella simensis, Conium verrucosum, Schimperella verrucosa, Helosciadium simiense
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