Amelanchier alnifolia

Amelanchier alnifolia

Serviceberries grow on a small tree. In early spring it is recognizable from the white flowers with five narrow petals which soon fall away, but most of the year the most distinctive feature is the leaf which is only toothed on the half toward the tip; the teeth usually smooth out lower down, and the base of the leaf has a smooth edge.

The berries themselves are red and firm when not yet ripe, and become dark purple and soft when they are ripe. The inner flesh is whitish and there are a few dark seeds, but the seeds are not large or hard enough to bother you much when eating them. The berries have a very pleasant, slightly sweet flavor. They can almost be called juicy, but it is more like a berry full of apple sauce in consistency and they taste like apple sauce with a bit of grape flavor mixed in. My mouth was somewhat dry after eating them, so they may have a slightly astringent property, which I didn't notice at all while eating them.

When I pick a bunch of these, I can keep them in the fridge for a few weeks, and use them in the same way I would use blueberries.

When I pick a gallon or more, which is not hard to do if you find an area with lots of trees, there are a variety of ways to preserve them. They make a very good jam if you simply blend them up with a food processor. They have a lot of pectin, and are already jelled up when you remove the mass from the foot processor. But it doesn't hurt to add a small amount of sugar and water, and boil them for a few minutes to make them more preservable. I used about 2 cups of berries, 1/4 cup of water, and 3 tablespoons of sugar, and boiled for 5-10 minutes, to get a very good flavored jam. For long term storage, you might want to add a little lemon juice for acidity and process the jars in a boiling water bath to make sure all the germs are dead.

Another good way to preserve serviceberries is as fruit leather. You can simply crush them and spread them on a fruit drying sheet. You can also use the jam recipe above, and spread that on the fruit drying sheet. The extra sugar-water and boiling makes it more pliable, so the result was a smoother leather without and breaks. Also, I thought the fruit lost some of its sweetness while drying, so I liked restoring that with a little sugar. The plain fruit leather developed a lot of cracks from shrinkage while drying, but some of my family preferred its crunchier texture over the jam-style leather. You may want to try both methods to see which you prefer.

Oenothera caespitosa

Oenothera caespitosa

Evening Primrose is a fairly well-known edible plant, and we have a few species in this area which are fairly common. The one I see the most is Oenothera caespitosa, commonly known as Tufted Evening Primrose. This species differs in several ways from the Evening Primrose  which is most commonly used for food, which is Oenothera biennis.

Most importantly, O. biennis is a biennial (as implied by the name), while O. caespitosa is a perennial. This means the root grows completely differently. A biennial plant is like a carrot: it will not flower the first year; instead it just grows a rosette of leaves and stores up energy in a fat root the first year, and then the second year it will use that energy to send up a large flower stalk. A biennial root is best at the end of the first year. In the second year it soon turns tough or woody as the flower stalk forms. A perennial plant will flower every year mostly with the energy generated that year, so the root never needs to get fat with sugars. This means the root of our O. caespitosa is not particularly good to eat. It is always somewhat tough. If you want to eat it, the best part is the crown at the base of the leaves. The tap root can be quite long, but almost immediately gets woody and soon becomes small. It's best to stick with the root crown, which is more tender.

Another important difference is what caespitosa or tufted implies: this plant is entirely stemless. The leaves and flowers grow directly from the root crown. So don't look for edible shoots on this plant, since there aren't any.

As for the taste, I'm afraid there is more bad news there. All parts of the plant have a spicy flavor, and leave a bit of a burny/tingly sensation in the mouth. As you eat more the sensation will slowly increase until you don't want to eat more. Some people have compared it with horseradish, but I don't feel anything in the sinuses, so I would say it is more comparable with capsicum or hot peppers. The burning sensation also stays in the mouth for quite a while afterwards. The leaves are a bit tough, and remind me of kale. Boiling them will make them slightly less tough, but doesn't reduce the spiciness much. One should use them sparingly and combine them with other greens.

The root crown also has this spiciness. It is white and tender and somewhat mucilaginous. It could be used along with other less spicy root, as some people suggest, but I'm not sure it the small amounts you can get from the crowns are worth the effort.

The flowers and buds are better than the leaves, but also have the spiciness in them. Evening primrose flowers have a long tube below where the petals spread out. It looks like a stem as first glance, but is all part of the flower. The part I would recommend most, is the base of the flower or immature seed pod, including the long tube. It is sweeter and more tender than the leaves.

Oenothera caespitosa is rather disappointing compared to the reports for O. biennis. But it's not entirely bad, so I'm still going to try some of the species which put up stalks for their flowers when I get a chance.

Calochortus species

Calochortus is a genus of lilies which includes the Utah state flower, Sego lily or Calochortus nuttallii. This post is about two other species I found while hiking in Montana.

All calochortus species are known as mariposa lilies, and break with the usual lily pattern, in that the sepals and petals are not identical. The sepals, or outer three tepals, are smaller, while the petals, or inner three tepals, are larger and usually colorful, especially near the center.

Calochortus apiculatus

Calochortus apiculatus is a close relative of the more famous sego lily. Instead of multiple colors in the throat of the flower, like the sega lily, this species of mariposa lily is yellow and hairy in the center, with a black dot near the base of each petal, from which comes its common name, 3-spotted mariposa lily.

The bulbs can be difficult to dig up successfully, since the stem easily breaks off of it. I only have a success rate of around 50%, but I console myself by thinking that the bulbs I miss will grow again the next year.

The bulbs have several layers, first a dirty brown outer layer, then a lighter colored layer, then a shiny brown layer, and finally the white inner bulb. This white inner bulb is the good part, and is typically about a half-inch (or 1 centimeter) is diameter. The taste is crisp and slightly sweet, and reminds me of the taste of jicama root.

Calochortus elegans

Calochortus elegans is a smaller mariposa lily, known by the common name of Cat's Ear. It is also hairy down in the inner flower, but they are smaller in size and have purple markings on the lower portion of both the sepals and petals.

The taste of the bulb is the same as other mariposa lilies. The leaves are tough and grass-like, so not much fun to try to eat. The three-winged fruits are tender and taste good; they remind me somewhat of sweet-pea pods, but not as sweet. The unopened flower buds are also good, but the mature flowers taste a bit bitter to me.