Hydrophyllum occidentale

Hydrophyllum occidentale

Hydrophyllum occidentale, also known by the direct translation, Western Waterleaf, is a close relative to the Ballhead Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum capitatum), which I have had much better success with. Go read that article to learn about a much better edible plant.

Western Waterleaf is a larger plant, and very much a perennial. The leaves look much the same as Ballhead Waterleaf, deeply pinnately divided, with the lower divisions going all the way to the stem. The leaves are taller, and there are more of them as well. The biggest difference between Western and Ballhead, though, is that the flower clusters are below the leaves in Ballhead Waterleaf, and above the leaves in Western Waterleaf.

The root is a tangle of thickened black roots, each about the size of a bean sprout, all attached to a gnarly central perennial core. With Ballhead Waterleaf, I separated each of the roots to make cleaning easier, but with Western, I needed to pull all the roots off the central core just to make cleaning possible.

The leaves are fuzzy, but not nearly as furry as Ballhead Waterleaf. The younger ones are not bad, even raw with the fuzz on them. The older ones are a bit tougher, and have a bit of bitterness to them. I boiled them for 2-3 minutes, like I do with Ballhead Waterleaf, and they turned out rather tough; not actually stringy, but definitely tough. Even the younger ones seemed tougher. Maybe it's just because I expect to have to chew a raw leaf, but not a limp cooked leaf.

The stems are quite tough and stringy; not very edible. Quite a contrast to the nice crisp stems of Ballhead Waterleaf.

I cooked the roots for 20 minutes, just like I do with Ballhead Waterleaf, and found them to still be very tough and stringy. Even a full half hour did not help. There were a few lighter colored roots, which I assume are younger, which did turn out tender, and good to eat. But considering how few of them I found, I don't think it worth digging up the whole plant just to try to sort out a few of those from the rest.

In summary, the young leaves can be munched on if you wanted, but Western Waterleaf is in no way the 3-course feast that I have found Ballhead Waterleaf to be. Ballhead Waterleaf is much more abundant in my mountains, and so I will likely leave the stands of Western Waterleaf in peace.