Hello Everyone! This week we went to San Bruno State Park! Sorry if this post is a little short on the facts that I usually give, but its time for that second round of midterms! San Bruno was certainly very interesting because it seemed like everything had just decided to open up for us. The weather had finally gotten a little warmer and the sun was out and it made the state park truly look like Spring had hit. As a result, we got to see a lot flowers, particularly those well suited to be out in the fields. We didn’t end up seeing a lot of forestry or trees in this particular environment.
Today’s theme will incorporate different flowers we saw along the trail into a salad! I didn’t think it was possible, but this salad might actually taste good. After going on a diet when I was 11, I ate a lot of salads. After I finally hit my dieting goal, I swore I would never eat another nasty salad again. However, I might actually be convinced to try another salad after seeing the ingredients on this trip.
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Bermuda Buttercup
This particular flower may bear the name buttercup but it is not a true buttercup because it is not in the family Ranunculaceae. Instead it is is in the oxalidaceae family! That’s not the only thing surprising about it either! It is also packed with vitamin C! Another common name for this plant is sourcress because it brings has a very nice tartness to it. As a result, any salad with this plant could immediately bring my tastebuds to life. One fun fact about this plant is that, because of its vitamin C content, sailors actually used this plant to stave off scurvy.
Plant Description: Bermuda Buttercup (oxalis pes-caprae) is a perrenial herb with rhizomes. The plant’s stem is actually underground, most of its height actually comes from the flower’s peduncle which can reach up to 30cm. The leaves of the plant are abaxially hairy and occur in a loose basal rosette. However, the leaves themselves are not close to the ground because the petioles can grow to be up to 12 cm long. Their inflorescence is umbel like. The corolla possesses 5 very distinctive bright yellow clawed petals. The fruit is explosively dehiscent (which is my favorite kind of dehiscent).
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Miner’s Lettuce
This next plant is extremely cool looking! Miner’s lettuce is probably one of the most unique plants I’ve seen on all of our trips so far. You know when your dog has to go to the vet and they put a cone over his head to stop him from biting himself. I call that the cone of shame. This plant is practically wearing the cone of shame. One large leaf actually wraps its way around the inflorescence of the plant and actually creates a cone. Its so cool!One fun fact about miner’s lettuce is that miners would actually pick this on their way to the mines as a quick snack. As a result it would make the perfect base to our salad!
Plant description: Miner’s lettuce (Claytonia Perfoliata) is an annual herb. Its one leaf is basal and is usually fused into a disk and cauline. The leaves of the immature plant actually look more like a ginko leaf. It’s inflorescence is a terminal raceme one. The pedicel of the the flower has been reflexed. Lastly, there are 5 pink or white petals.
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California Poppy
Lastly, our salad needs some seeds to give it some depth of flavor. I can think of nothing better to provide those seeds than the California poppy. The California poppy seeds are edible just like any other poppy. One fun fact about the California poppy is that its seeds were a historical additive to opium poppy seeds during the production of opium to give it a different flavor and to cut the merchandise. However, although it doesn’t have as much yield as opium poppy seed, the California poppy seed still has mild sedative effects.
Plant Description: The habit of the plant is that it is an annual plant but the taproot is perennial and will continue flower every year it can. The plant can be erect or it can be more spread out and is generally entirely glabrous. The leaf segments are actually pretty variable. They can be either obtuse or acute. The flower bud is erect and the flower itself has a very distinctive orange color at its base. Sometimes the middle can be orange. The receptacle is obconic (or like an inverted cone). The seeds are round to elliptic, brown or black and are around 1.6mm in diameter.
