Ligusticum scoticum

Ligusticum scoticum, known as Scots lovage,[3] or Scottish licorice-root,[4] is a perennial flowering plant in the celery family, Apiaceae.

[2] Ligusticum scoticum is primarily an Arctic plant, with a disjunct range extending from northern Norway to the more northerly shores of the British Isles, and from western Greenland to New England.

[9] A related species, Ligusticum hultenii, which was described by Merritt Lyndon Fernald in 1930[10] and may be better treated as a subspecies of L. scoticum, occurs around the northern Pacific Ocean, from Japan to Alaska.

[3] Within the British Isles, L. scoticum is only found on coasts where the mean July temperature is below 15 °C (59 °F), and this bound is likely also to apply in other parts of the species' range.

It grows in fissures in rocks, where it may be the only vascular plant, and also in cliff-top grassland communities dominated by Festuca rubra and Plantago maritima.

In the British Isles, flowering occurs from June to August, and the seeds are ripe in October or November; the timing is expected to be later at higher latitudes.

L. scoticum with ripening seeds, Edinburgh, Scotland