Bob Nold wrote of cous: "It's the Okanogan or Oregon Indian name for the
plant."

 

 

Thanks, Bob.

 

I googled Lomatium cous before writing that. At the first site I found,
http://montana.plant-life.org/species/lomat_cou.htm , the plant is named
Cous' biscuit-root. I took that to be the name of a person. 

 

Now I see that other sites drop the apostrophe and explain the name as the
Indian name.

 

I was surprised to read that the name cous for this plant (in English) dates
back to the Lewis & Clark expedition. 

 

I already knew a bit about the genus Lomatium, but I had never heard the
great vernacular name, biscuit root. 

 

Jim McKenney

 

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