Atriplex heterosperma

Atriplex heterosperma

This post is about Orach in general (also spelled orache), although I am talking about one species in particular. Orach is a common name applied to many species in the genus Atriplex, although mainly to the more herbaceous, spinach-like species. The woody ones are more often called "saltbush", which is relevant because the plants in the Atriplex genus, including orach types, can thrive in salty environments, and often have a more-or-less salty taste to them. Orach will most often refer to Atriplex hortensis or Atriplex patula, but the species I found in my area is Atriplex heterosperma. Ultra-modern botanists will call it Atriplex micrantha, but I like the older species name because it refers to a distinguishing characteristic of the species, namely that it has two different types of seeds.

But in the broader sense, Orach refers to quite a lot of different species, and they all taste more-or-less the same, and are used the same. Even many species in the sister genus Chenopodium, such as Chenopodium album (Lamb's quarters), are used the same and taste similar. Chenopodium is separated from Atriplex by botanists, because the flowers have a different morphology. As a botanist, I want to know the exact species of what I eat, so what I did was to identify the mature plant in late summer, and then come back in the spring to pick the tender new plants. None of the oraches are toxic, so you are usually safe if you don't know the exact species, once you are familiar with this type of plant. And besides that, modern botanists have nit-picked the genus into so many species, in spite of knowing how easily they crossbreed, that they are often not able to be sure of the species either.

My particular orach, Atriplex heterosperma, is found in the spring growing in great abundance underneath the old dried stalks of last year's plants. The leaves, like all orach, are generally triangular in shape, with a few teeth that are small at the tip and larger at the base. The lower tooth might even be considered a lobe. They have a sparsely powdery coating on the leaf, which might be from exuding salty compounds that the plant does not need. The leaves are usually opposite.

The taste of Atriplex heterosperma is very good. I don't detect any bitterness at all. It is hard to tell the difference in a side-to-side taste test with Chenopodium album, but I think the Atriplex heterosperma is slightly better tasting, in that it is more mild, without any hint of bitterness. (At least in the early growths I was testing.) Just like other Oraches, it provides its own saltiness, and it is very good cooked. Even though it is tender enough to eat raw, it fries or boils without getting squishy. Frying in oil gives it an excellent flavor, and this is may favorite way to eat it, because it stands up to the cooking very well without becoming limp or squishy. We use Orach or Lamb's Quarters in many dishes, such as omelets, or soups, or fried with other vegetables. It works well in quiche or pasta dishes, or basically anywhere you might use spinach.

Lamium purpureum

Lamium purpureum

Purple Dead Nettle may be bit scary for the name of an edible plant, but this is one plant that I am liking a lot, if I cook it right. The right way to cook it is to boil it. If you eat it raw or cook it other ways, it seems fairly average in flavor.

closer view of flowers

But first, to identify it, look for a mint (square stems, opposite leaves) with purplish flowers, which are two-lipped, with spots on the lower lip. In Lamium purpureum (Purple Dead Nettle) the leaves have petioles (stems) and are clustered at the top of the stem. The uppermost leaves are usually tinged with purple color as well. On the other hand, if the leaves clasp the stem (sessile, no leaf-stems) and are more widely spaced along the stem, you have found Lamium amplexifolium (Henbit Dead Nettle). If the leaves have white spots or patches, you have found Lamium maculatum (Spotted Dead Nettle). There are also Dead Nettle species with white or yellow flowers. By most accounts, Purple is the best tasting kind of Dead Nettle.

One nice thing about these flowers, is that the sepals (green bracts at the base of the flower) are soft and edible as well. (Horehound and Motherwort are examples of mints with stiff and sharp sepals.) This means you can break off the entire top leafy part of the plant and eat or cook it whole (leaves, stem, flowers, and sepals), resulting is a larger vegetable that doesn't get lost in a stew the way individual leaves might. 

You can eat this whole top raw. It is soft instead of crisp, so not especially good as a salad green. It is a bit hairy, so the texture is not the best. But it is mild for a mint, with no strong or unpleasant aftertaste. Some describe it as earthy, which is not unfair. So expect a mildly minty, earthy flavor from it. Not bad, but also not something I would seek out for the fine flavor.

I tried cooking it in several ways. Frying in butter did not improve the flavor much. The texture is better that way, since it comes out slightly crisp instead of soft-hairy. It was pretty good cooked with egg. The flavor does not stand out, but it is a good addition to an omelet, and well worth eating this way.

The best way to cook it is to boil or steam it for about 3 minutes. I notice that the steam coming from the cook pot has an odd or funky smell at first. This may indicate that there is a volatile oil being boiled off, which can explain the change in flavor. After about three minutes, the steam seems to smell sweeter, so this is probably a good indicator of when it is done cooking. The flavor is much improved, in my opinion, and much less earthy. The boiled flavor can almost be described as sweet. The boiled version is the flavor that I want to eat more of. 

The earthy flavor seems to be left behind in the water. It is not bitter or unpleasant, so it can be drunk as a tea. It would not be a bad additional flavor to a soup or stew, so while I haven't tried it that way yet, I would not pre-boil and discard the water. I would just add them directly to the soup and wait for the volatile oils to boil off.

Mertensia brevistyla

Mertensia brevistyla

Bluebells (Mertensia species) are a very common plant, and they are edible. I'm usually not very impressed with their flavor, but accounts of successfully enjoying them say the young shoots and tips should be used for best results. Since most bluebells are shrub-sized, although not woody, it is long past the shoot stage when the flowers come out and makes them simple to identify.

However the species of bluebells pictured here neatly sidesteps that problem. Short-styled Bluebells or Mertensia brevistyla is endemic to (only occurs in) Utah and Colorado, and is a spring ephemeral, which means it is a small plant which grows early in the spring before most other plants get started, but only for a short time, and then dies off as everything else outgrows it. This means that the entire plant is nothing other than a young shoot, six inches high or less, and the flowers grow immediately to give away its identity. The appearance is a bit different than you might expect if you are familiar with the more common bluebells species, since they are quite small, and the flowers are shorter and do not hang down. They are a bit of an outlier in the genus, but still definitely a bluebell. Just like other bluebells, the flowers start out pink when young, and have the same blue color when mature. But because they more open (instead of cylindrical) than other bluebells, you can see the light-colored center of the flower, which is common in the Boraginaceae (Borage) family.

They are fairly abundant in their limited area and time of growth, but remember to practice good foraging etiquette and only take a few of the ones you find. You will get enough if you walk and bushwhack around the area. You can just break off the upper portion, which will leave the root and give it a good chance to grow again next year.

Like other bluebells, the raw leaves have a distinctive flavor, which some people describe as "fishy". This may not be entirely accurate, but it is probably as close a description as you can get with actually tasting it yourself. It is not a particularly strong or unpleasant taste, though, and these leaves are never bitter, like the older leaves on larger plants can get. Cooking removes that flavor from the leaves, and softens any fibers in the stems. So the cooked leaves together with the stems is a mild and very nice tasting green. I boiled them for three minutes, which is my standard time for most greens, but they may not need even that long. The flowers do not survive the cooking process. They looked like they turned clear in the simmering water, and washed away through the sieve when draining the water off. Some of my plants still had flowers in bud stage, and those cooked up fine, just like the leaves and stem. The raw flowers could be used as a pretty addition to a salad or as a garnish.

All of the Mertensia species are edible, with varying degrees of good taste. This is one of the better tasting species, especially when cooked. However, not everything called "Bluebells" is edible. The Hyacinthoides genus in the Lily family is also known by the common name Bluebells, but they are definitely not edible. They hang down like most bluebells, and some of the species are blue, but they have six petals instead of five, and they are never found in Utah unless cultivated. The Wahlenbergia genus grows mostly in Australia and is known as Bluebells there. There is one species which grows in North America, mainly in the southeast, but it is called Rockbell there. Campanula species are sometimes called Bluebells, but more properly called Harebells or Bellflowers. Harebells are edible. This is case where you have to fear the synonyms instead of the look-alikes.

Lomatium triternatum

Lomatium triternatum

Lomatium triternatum is a species of Biscuit Root, also known by common names such as Ternate Desert-parsley, Nineleaf Biscuitroot, Nine-Leaf Lomatium, or some variation on those names. In my locality, Cymopterus longipes is more common, so read that blog article for more information. Lomatium and Cymopterus are very closely related genera, so much so that it is difficult to know which genus some species should be placed in. But that's probably not a concern for you. 

Lomatium triternatum looks quite different from Cymopterus longipes. It has yellow compound umbels of flowers, which is characteristic of the Carrot family (Umbelliferae). And it has long slender leaves whose stalks are divided into threes (ternate), and each stalk divides a second time into three, resulting in nine leaflets, on average. Botanists call this branching pattern biternate. A triternate branching pattern would repeat the ternate branching once more, resulting in 27 leaflets, so the species name might be a bit of a misnomer, although it does invoke the thought that three times three equals nine leaflets. It grows very early in the spring, and few plants in the carrot family have such thin leaves. Orogenia linarifolia has narrow leaflets, but it is much smaller. Perideridia gairdneri has similar leaves, but they are usually withered when you find them, and the flowers are white. Lomatium graveolens also occurs in the area, but is has much, much more than nine leaflets.

The root is the important edible part of this plant, and it is very similar to Cymopterus longipes, being a long taproot, usually about a half inch in diameter, and as deep as you care to dig. The raw root has a hint of carrot flavor to it, but that goes away after drying. The raw roots are rather fibrous, so grinding the dried root into a powder fixes that problem.

The leaves have a rather resiny flavor to them, so I don't like to eat them, although some taste testers have suggested they could be used in place of rosemary.

Digging the roots can be a laborious process, especially in the rocky ground which the Rocky Mountains are named after. Rather than trying to dig down to the bottom of the root, I prefer to dig a few inches, in order to make sure I have the root and not the bottom of the stem, and to be sure where the root is and which way it is going. Then I push my hori hori down on all sides and wiggle it around a bit to loosen the soil and hopefully break the little side roots which would hold it in the ground. After that I can grab the top of the root and pull. I usually get about six inches of root this way (which coincidentally is the length of my hori hori) for only a couple minutes of digging. Any root which is deeper is left to regrow another plant.

Some root can be rather thin. These are younger plants, and the amount of root is probably not worth the digging effort. To find larger roots, look for larger top parts of the plant, of course. Larger roots will often put up more than one stem, so two or more stems growing very close together is a good sign to look for.

As I say in my other biscuit root article, the processing of the root takes several steps. 1) Peel or scrape off the dark outer layer. 2) Dry the root. 3) Grind or pound it into a powder. 4) Form it into "biscuits" of various size and thickness. 5) Bake or dry the biscuits.

Removing the dark outer layer is important because it prevents the root from drying out, which is an important thing for a desert plant. The inside is white and dries easily, either in a food dryer, or merely sitting in the open air. It will be brittle when fully dry, which helps with the powdering process. Traditionally a metate (hand grinding stone) was used, but a modern blender is much faster.

The biscuit root flour is pretty bland tasting. So when making biscuits, add salt and some sort of fat to it for flavor. The fat will also help hold it together. It has no gluten, so without the fat the biscuits are very crumbly. Try a ratio of 1 part fat to 8 parts flour, and adjust to taste. Add enough water to make a thick dough. Them form into biscuits and bake or fry them.

The taste of the biscuits is good, like a dry whole wheat biscuit. They are good to eat plain, as a side to a meal, or with some sort of jam. (Choke-cherry, Serviceberry, and Oregon Grape are good local sources for fruit to make jam from.)

Many Lomatiums were used as Biscuit Root, but not all. For example Lomatium dissectum is a well-known medicinal plant, whose root is much too resinous to be used for food.

Cymopterus longipes

Cymopterus longipes

There are a large number of species known as biscuit roots, all from the carrot family (Umbelliferae), and mostly from the Lomatium or Cymopterus genera. Many of them were used as food by native Americans in similar ways, and they were probably less picky about distinguishing them into as many species as modern botanists want to do, because they have "resisted all attempts at morphologic systematic approaches that make sense," or in more colloquial language, they are very difficult to distinguish by appearance. 

The most common species in my area is Cymopterus longipes, which is one of the earliest plants to grow in the spring. It can be recognized by the clusters of yellow flowers rising from a rosette of bluish-green parsley-like leaves. A more specific characteristic to look for is a pseudoscape. This is a sort of stem between the top of the root and the leaf rosette. This allows the top of the root to be lower in the ground, but later in the season, it may elongate and lift the leaves off the ground. It prefers dry fields with full sun.

The root is a vertical tap root which can go quite deep, so I usually just get as much root as my spade will go deep, assuming the ground is not too rocky to dig at all. This species tends to have roots which can be up to a half inch in diameter, and as long as you can dig. They have a thin dark outer layer, and the inside is white. Some of the better-known Lomatium species of biscuit roots can form larger tuberous roots, but I dig what is available to me.

The traditional processing of the root takes several steps. 1) Peel or scrape off the dark outer layer. 2) Dry the root. 3) Pound it into a powder with a metate. 4) Form it into "biscuits" of various size and thickness. 5) Bake or dry the biscuits.

I found that removing the outer layer is necessary in order for the root to dry out completely, which is not too surprising for a plant so well adapted to dry desert habitats. I used a food dryer running at a low temperature overnight to dry the roots. The dried roots are light and brittle, so pounding them would turn them into a powder pretty easily, but in modern times, a blender or coffee grinder is much easier for making it into a powder. If fully dried and kept that way, they should store well, but I have not tested how long one can store the biscuits.

To make the biscuits, combine the powdered root with some salt and fat (lard or bacon grease or butter or whatever you have) for flavor. Without the salt and fat, the biscuits will be very bland and crumbly, and much less enjoyable to eat. Add water until you have a good doughy consistency. The root can probably absorb more water than you expect, because that is what these roots are made to do. Form it into a biscuit shape, and bake or fry it. There is no gluten, of course, so the result will be the sort of dry bread-like consistency we describe as a biscuit.

The taste is mild and pleasant, though it varies some depending on the species. It's not too different in taste from a dry whole wheat biscuit. It may be important to collect the roots of Cymopterus longipes in the spring, because I have tasted them later in the year and found them to be bitter.

The leaves are also edible. They have a good earthy-parsley flavor, which is probably too strong to eat much of it alone, but it can work as a pot-herb when combined with other milder plants, or better yet, as a spice to improve the flavor of soups and sauces. They get quite mushy when boiled, so they will soon disappear into the broth if stirred much. When the leaves are used, the plant is often called "spring parsley" instead of "biscuit root". And this particular species is called "longstalk spring parsley" because of the pseudoscape.

The next most common species in my locality is Lomatium triternatum. I get similar results with its roots. The flavor of the biscuit is very similar, but maybe a little lighter in flavor. There is a hint of carrot flavor in the raw root. The few narrow leaves have a strong resiny flavor, so I don't like eating those.

Lomatium dissectum is also common around here, but you should not use this species for food, at least not the root in the same way as other biscuit roots, because its roots are very resinous and balsamic. It is more of a medicinal plant.

John Mionczynski: Some Interesting Plants of the Ancient People of the Yellowstone

I found this very interesting presentation on native plants of the Yellowstone region. John Mionczynski has lived in Wyoming for many years, often living entirely on local foods. He features many of the plants which appear in this blog, and goes into some details about the edible, medicinal and other uses of our local plants. He also has some interesting information about bears.

John Mionczynski Presents: Some Interesting Plants of the Ancient People of the Yellowstone

(I found more short videos from John Mionczynski at https://nativememoryproject.org/plants/)

Plants talked about in this video:

Yampah (Perideridia gairdneri)

Biscuit Root (Lomatium and Cymopterus sp.) -- I hope to publish information on this soon. Some of the more common biscuit root species in this area are Lomatium triternatum and Cymopterus longipes.

Desert Parsley (probably Lomatium dissectum) -- antimicrobial root

Oshá (Ligusticum porteri) -- I used this a lot last winter. Everyone else around me got sick, but I didn't.

Limber pine (Pinus flexilis) and Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) -- See my article on Piñon pine (Pinus monophylla) for information on harvesting pine nuts.

Whortleberry (Vaccinium scoparium) -- leaves used to prevent blindness in aged

Huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum)

Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) -- pudding is antitumor

Cattail (Typha sp.) -- Food, padding, insulation. Definitely on the to-do list.

Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) -- food, padding, antifungal, healing.

Evening Primrose (Oenothera caespitosa) -- food, perfume, healing.

Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa)

Elephant Tree (Adenium obesum) -- A tree found in Ethiopia; used similar to milkweed.

Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa) -- perfume

Sedges (Carex sp.) -- food, basketry

Elk Thistle (Cirsium foliosum) -- rubbing stick for teeth, chlorophyll is antibacterial.

Bitterroot (Lewisia sp.) -- I have found it here, but not common.

Sage brush (Artemisia sp.) -- antimalarial

Pineapple weed (Matricaria discoidea) -- perfume

"Abortion Plant" (probably Lithospermum ruderale) -- contraceptive

Black tree lichen (Bryoria fremontii) -- jello

Juneberry or Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia)

Brassica nigra

Brassica nigra
(flowers and seeds)

lots of mustard

Brassica nigra, or Black Mustard, is a common lowland weed, especially around cultivated farmland. It is fairly tall and noticeable, with lots clusters of yellow flowers at the top of it many branches. 

Unsurprisingly, it is a member of the Mustard family, with four petals and narrow seed pods about an inch long. This is typical of the mustard family. The stems are much branched, with clusters of yellow flowers at the top of each branch. The clusters are somewhat small, because it proceeds from bud to flower to seed in a short time, but it keeps growing new buds at the end of the stem, so there can be a lot of seed pods below the flowers. It can be distinguished from other mustards by how the mature seed pods grow pressed up against the stem ("appressed" in botany terms). The leaves are pointed and variously lobed, being quite large and compound at the bottom, and small at the top near the flowers and seed pods. The taste is also very distinctive. The whole plant has the flavor of mustard, and when raw, it is very pungent and spicy-hot.

The mustard flavor is the main reason for eating this plant. The leaves, flowers, buds, and the youngest stems can all be used to add some of that flavor to your food. The pungency is moderated by combining it with other foods or by cooking. It is not a green I would eat as a main course, but it is good when added as a flavoring to other foods.

But this plant is more important as a spice than as a food, and the seeds are the source of spicy-hot mustard. Other species, such as Brassica alba, are also used to make mustard, but they are less spicy-hot than Brassica nigra. 

Collecting the processing the seeds is a longer enterprise. First, you need to collect the branches full of seed pods. It is helpful to let them dry completely before trying to separate the seeds, by leaving them in a dry place for a week or more. Or even much more, if you want to save them for winter when you have less fresh plants to work with. They need to be threshed and winnowed similar to grains, but there are some differences because the seeds are so small. Threshing is fairly easy and similar to wheat. Just put the stems or seed pods in a cloth bag, and beat them with a thick stick for a few minutes. Winnowing is a bit more difficult than wheat because the seeds are small and nearly as light as the chaff. It is helpful to sift them through a screen to separate the seeds from the larger chaff. Then pour the seeds and chaff from one bucket to another in front of a fan to blow away the lighter chaff. Using a fan is better than natural wind, because it is more consistent, and you can move closer or farther from the fan to get the right amount of wind to blow the chaff without blowing away the seeds. Large, deep buckets are helpful, because the seeds have a tendency to bounce. Repeated sifting and winnowing will eventually leave you with clean mustard seeds.

Once you have your seeds, you can make mustard. The general recipe is 1 part mustard seeds to 2 parts water or other liquid. (And add a bit of turmeric if you want the mustard to actually be yellow.) The seeds need to be ground, and this can be done while dry or after soaking the seeds in water. If you are doing a small amount, grinding dry works better, because the wet seeds will stick to the sides of your spice grinder instead of falling into the blades. You could also use a mortal and pestle, but that will be a lot more work either way. Once the seeds are both ground and mixed with water, the chemicals in the mustard seeds start reacting, producing the spicy-hot pungency which is very intense in fresh mustard. It should be left out for a while until it mellows out a bit. The spiciness is also antibacterial, so you don't have to worry about it going bad. It is also common practice to extend the amount of mustard with some filler, such as flour or other meal. I have used wheat flower, almond flour, and other things. It does not affect the taste much and gives you more mustard in the end.