One or more species of Osmorhiza (commonly called "Sweet Cicely") is found in every state except in Florida and Louisiana. The plant is often quite common, popping up in backyard gardens and forests. Stems, leaves, seeds, and especially roots often have a pleasant anise flavor and aroma, thus the Greek genus name: "osmo" for "smell" and "rhiza" for "root".  .

Three species of Osmorhiza found in the Four Corners mountains are shown below. Osmorhiza occidentalis is fairly easy to distinguish from Osmorhiza berteroi (Synonym: O. chilensis) and Osmorhiza depauperata, but the latter two are very difficult to distinguish from each other. As indicated by my photographs and comments below and by the following descriptions from the Jepson Manual, O. berteroi and O. depauperata are primarily separated by the shape of their inflorescences and fruits.

Botanical classification eliminates Osmorhiza chilensis (which still appears in Weber's Colorado Flora) and splits it into three taxa, O. berteroi, O. depauperata, and O. purpurea. The first two are found widely through the West; the latter is a West Coast species. The three are very similar looking.

O. berteroi (Synonym: O. chilensis)
Plant 3–12 dm, ± glabrous to finely hairy. 
Leaf: petiole 5–16 cm; blade 4–20 cm wide, widely ovate to obovate, 2- ternate, leaflets 2–8 cm, widely lanceolate to round, serrate to irregularly cut or lobed. 
Inflorescence: peduncle 5–25 cm; bractlets generally 0; rays 3–8, 2–12 cm, spreading- ascending; pedicels 4–20 mm. 
Flower: corolla white; styles generally < 1 mm; ovary tip projection conic; disk 0. 
Fruit: 12–25 mm, linear- fusiform or - oblong; tail 2–8.5 mm; beak slender; ribs bristly.

O. depauperata
Plant 1.5–8 dm, generally sparsely short-hairy to glabrous. 
Leaf: petiole 3–20 cm; blade 4–12 cm wide, widely ovate to round, 2–3- ternate, leaflets 1.5–5 cm, widely lanceolate to ovate, coarsely serrate to deeply cut. 
Inflorescence: peduncle 5–15 cm; bractlets generally 0; rays 2–5, 3–9 cm, spreading; pedicels 8–15 mm. 
Flower: corolla white; styles < 0.5 mm; ovary tip projection low- or depressed- conic; disk 0 or vestigial. 
Fruit: 10–18 mm, club-like; tail 3–8.5 mm; tip obtuse, beakless; ribs ± bristly. 

Montane, subalpine.  Woodlands.  Spring, summer.
Prairie Dog Knoll Trail, Abajo Mountains, Utah, June 25, 2004.
Bear Creek Trail, July 1, 2004.

The flowers and seeds of Osmorhiza berteroi are in a compact spray, i.e., the pedicel (the individual flower stem) of each flower makes about a 30 degree angle with the peduncle (the stem of the entire flower cluster).  Osmorhiza depauperata flowers and seeds spread nearly at right angles to the main flower stem (see especially the last two photographs above of O. depauperata).  Seeds of O. berteroi are nearly cylindrical; seeds of O. depauperata are club-shaped, i.e., widest at the tip.  Otherwise the plants are almost identical in appearance.

This plant was named Osmorhiza chilensis by Hooker and Arnott in December of 1833 from a collection made in Chile by Lay and Collie, and this plant name was used until 1993 when Kartesz and Gandhi published a paper showing that the plant had been named Osmorhiza berteroi in September of 1830 by Augustin de Candolle from a collection also by Lay and Collie. The berteroi specific epithet is now the accepted name. Carlo Bertero was an Italian physician and avid botanist. (Click to read more biographical information about Bertero.)