This week we ended up going to Edgewood park! The ride to Edgewood park was quite a long one! On most of our trips, we have never really been that far away from water. However, this ride to Edgewood broke that trip as we are pretty in towards the interior. As a result, the type of land we saw that day was characterized by alternating patches of open California grassland, shrubland, and low-level forests. This variety of habitats allowed us to look at a lot of different types of plants this time around. Luckily, the variety also means that there is more to eat! Just be warned, you might not like everything that you taste.
DISCLAIMER: DO NOT ACTUALLY EAT ANYTHING I TALK ABOUT IN THIS POST
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Never Waste
As the title of today’s post suggests, today we are pushing our culinary adventure TO THE EDGE. When I was younger, I loved to try new foods and my mother and grandmother were only too happy to oblige. They are the ones who taught me to never waste anything if you can’t help it! That’s why today’s first plant post will be about Mule’s Ears! You should never waste a good chance to feel a good donkey ear (both the plant and animal version). The leaves of this plant are very leathery and actually feel like a mule’s ear.
One fun fact about the Mule’s ear is that even though the thick leathery leaves might not actually be enjoyable to eat, their roots apparently are. Native Americans used to dig a pit in the ground, line it with stones and light a fire on top of the stones. After the fire burned, they would place the roots of these plants on top of them, cover them with fern leaves and dirt and leave them for 2 days. Afterward, they would come back to dig them up and have a delicious snack. Apparently, the roots have a mildly sweet flavor.
Plant description (Wyethia sp.): The habit of the plant is that it can grow to be between 2 and 6 decimeters in length. The whole plant is generally puberulent in nature. The leaves were cauline and sessile. Their shape was lanceolate and they were very hairy. The inflorescence of the plant is that it has very large heads that resemble smaller sunflowers. They’re involucres have a very characteristic bell shape to them and the bracts are quite large. The flower is perfect and the head possesses a corolla that can have up to 25 petals.
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From Ears to Organs
When I was around the age of 14 I was HUGELY fortunate enough to have my parents take me to Europe for the first time. It was an amazing experience with amazing food! However, there was one time we ate dinner that I still think about today (and not in a good way). It was the first time I was going to try pate made from goose liver and I have to say it was unbearably disgusting by itself. However, smothered in other cured meats and a nice baguet with cheese it was bearable. You can think of the Dwarf Bladder Clover as sort of the same thing. If you smother it with enough cheese, it might taste good.
These plants tend to like alkaline soils at relatively low elevations with plenty of water. Since they are so short, they also prefer to be in open areas where they can get sunlight. As you can guess, the reason why they are called bladder clovers is that they have a balloon shaped Carolla that superficially looks like a sack of air. You can tell that these guys are clovers because they have the characteristic three leaf arrangements that all clovers have and they have an indeterminate almost head like inflorescence.
One fun fact about clovers is that they occasionally have a mutation which causes them to produce 4 leaves. Frequency varies with location but there is approximately 5,000 to 10,000 3 leaf clovers per 4 leaf clovers and 25,000 3 leaf clovers per 5 leaf clover! That’s what I would call lucky.
Plant description (Trifolium depauperatum): The habit of the plant is that it is generally within a few centimeters of the ground. The leaves of the plant have an obovate shape and the margins are very finely toothed. In addition, they are also cauline and usually attached to a stem despite being so short. In addition, their inflorescences are head-like despite being in the Fabaceae family. The calyx of each flower is glaborous while the Corolla is a pinkish purple color. Lastly, the styles are persistent even when producing fruits.
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A Sweet Ending
I figured you guys have heard enough about organs at this point so I decided to throw in something that you guys might actually like! The next plant on the list is pink honeysuckle. To be honest, I thought it was a fictional plant, but on our plant field trip I found out it’s actually real and actually tastes like honey! Nature truly is amazing.
One fun fact about honeysuckle is that people used to believe that hiding honeysuckle under your pillow gave you good dreams. Their parents obviously didn’t explain the concept of the tooth very well to them. Victorian era Englishmen also believed that it warded off witches and human spirits. Also, as the name honeysuckle suggests, you can actually suck on the nectar at the base of the flower and it tastes sweet! Just don’t eat the berries because they cause indigestion. Unfortunately, the climbing honeysuckle we stumbled upon was not really flowering :(.
Plant description (Lonicera hispidula): The honeysuckle plant can grow to between 18 and 60 decimeters and is pretty tall. It can either sprawl on the ground on climb other plants by twining. The leaves are 4 – 8 cm and the base is chordate. In addition, the margins are entire and the tip is obtuse. The leaves closest to the flowers are fused and have scale-like stipules. The inflorescence of the flower is a spike. The flower itself is generally pink. It also has 2 lips and the stamens and stigma are interestingly exserted. The fruit is 8mm in length, red and berry-like. Unfortunately, the plants we observed were not blooming.
Thank you all for stopping by! Come again next week!
