Perideridia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of North American wildflowers in the carrot family, related to the yampah and known for their umbrella-shaped clusters
2. Plants of western North America in the parsley family, bearing small white flower heads and slender tuberous roots
3. A genus of umbellifer herbs native to North America, often called yampah, with fine leaves and compound flower clusters

Etymology: The yampah, the root vegetable that gives this genus its common name, was valued by Shoshone and Northern Paiute peoples of the western United States, and their word "yampa" is the source of the English name. The plants are carrot-family herbs, and the genus name is a New Latin scientific coinage rather than an ancient word. The Latinized name is built from Greek. Its first element is probably "peri-", meaning "around" or "about," but the second part is less certain, and I cannot confirm its exact source. Its form is typical of plant names created by botanists who drew on classical roots to label newly described genera.