Liatris punctata, Dotted Blazing Star, photo by Missouri Plants.

If you study ethnobotany one thing you will learn is that natives often used several species in a genus without making any distinction between them. This was quite true of several “ground cherries” found in Florida. They used them interchangeably.  This may also be true with some Liatris of which there are 43 species, all native to North America.

Liatris’ purple spike of flowers doesn’t suggest any edibility. Indeed, until a few years ago I knew it as sporadic wildflower that would lie dormant for perhaps a century before blooming (after being coaxed out of slumber by a forest fire. ) But a few Liatris, perhaps more, put on an edible tuber. Just make sure you are not cooking up a rare one for dinner.

Liatris punctata root, photo by Missouri Plants

Charles M. Allen in his book “Edible Plants of the Gulf South” makes no  distinction between the 43 species of Liatris. He says the root is edible. Couplan in his “Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America” is more specific. He writes L. punctata have edible “corms.” Couplan adds that L. scariosa, L. spictata, and L. squarrosa were used as a diuretic and that L. ohlingera is endangered. Moerman in “Native American Food Plants” says the roots of L. punctata and L. punctata var. punctata were baked and eaten by various tribes.  There is little doubt the L. punctata was eaten. But there are also suggestions L. spicata — found locally — was eaten as well. Complicating this is the fact L. punctata (the Dotted Blazing Star) is rare in someplaces and prolific in others. Know what kind of area you are in.

Liatris punctata flower spike, photo by Missouri Plants.

L. punctata is found in 19 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming but endangered in Michigan and Wisconsin. We have at least seven different Liatris species in Florida including L. spicata, or Dense Blazing Star. The others are L. chapmanii, L. elegans, L. gracilis, L. ohlingerae, L. pauciflora, and L. tennuifolia. L. spicata is found east of Mississippi, eastern Canada, and states along the western shore of the Mississippi.

Liatris spicata, the Dense Blazing Star, photo by Missouri Botanical Garden

The carrot-flavored roots have inulin, a polysaccharide also found in Jerusalem artichoke roots. It doesn’t spike blood glucose levels when consumed thus is a starch edible by diabetics. While some stems were used as a famine food other parts of the plant were used medicinally often to treat heart ailments which makes sense as the species contains some coumarin. Plains tribes used the Dotted Blazing Star to make a tea that was used for kidney, bladder, and menstrual problems, water retention, gonorrhea, colic, sore throat and laryngitis. Mashed roots were applied to snake bites. Dry roots were burned like incense to relieve headaches, nosebleeds, and tonsillitis. L. chapmanii and L. gracilis might be active against various human cancers.

Domestic livestock like the Dotted Blazing Star particularly sheep. Rocky Mountain Elk also eat it and White-Tail Deer. A variety of small rodents like it — especially the roots — and it is the only source of food for some butterflies. The species apparently also has toxic pyrrolizidine but in very low levels.

As for the botanical name no one knows for sure why the genus is called Liatris (Lee-AT-tris or lye-AT-tris.) Punctata (punct-TAH-ta) means with dots and spicata (spih-KAY-tah) is flowering with a spike. The genus was created by J.C.D. vom Schreber 1739-1810. He might have used the Gaelic word liatrus, spoon-shaped, as a reference to the sometimes bulbous root.

Green Deane’s Itemized Plant Profile: Liatris

IDENTIFICATION: Liatris punctata: Warm-season perennial, several hairless stems, four to 32 inches high, leaves alternate, numerous, dotted with tiny pits, hairless except of coarse hairs on the edges. Lower leaves usually smaller than those above and soon dropped; flower is a dense spike up to a foot long of pink flowers that turn to dandelion-like pappus. Rhizomatous taproot is short, thick, four to 16 feet deep, with lateral roots at various levels. Roots are grayish-black in cross section. Note the L. spicata has a rounder top than the L. puncatata.

TIME OF YEAR: Anytime however only new root growth is edible.

ENVIRONMENT: Dry, open places, sandy soil

METHOD OF PREPARATION: New portion of roots roasted. (The plant keeps adding to the root.)  Sometimes the root was consumed raw.

How I mowed hay in my youth. Photo Powerhouse Museum

Anyone who has mowed fields for hay hates vetch… wild pea.  It binds up the machinery and a lot of livestock won’t eat it. That’s a lose lose all around unless the vetch is Lathyrus tuberosus.

Tuberous Sweetpea has typical wings and keel blossom

A decade of my life was spent haying with just such a mower above. I know every part of it intimately, personally, mechanically, greasily, irritatingly… Whether pulled by horses or a tractor the larger wheels turned a lateral shaft which changed the circular motion via a wooden “pitman” to a horizontal movement, a six-foot blade of piranha teeth swishing back and fourth through the sicklebar. Whenever you hit a patch of vetch the resistance of the stems was more than the mechanical power to cut through them. That’s when one of two things would happen. The ash pitman (the stick in the lower middle, above and right of the small wheel) would splinter, or if the pitman was made of sterner stuff,  the small wheel would trigger a spring release and the entire left side of the mower in front of the big back wheel would break free and swing back like a broken arm. This required stopping, cleaning the vetch from the sicklebar bar, then backing the entire contraption until the sicklebar bar snapped back into place. If the pitman broke it was the end of haying for that day, the evening spent in repairs. The bane of mowing hay was either vetch, or, ground hornets who were not happy when you cut off the top of their home.

Roots are best roasted or boiled

Vetch…. legumes — peas and beans if you will permit the common grouping — land all over the foraging spectrum from edible to toxic to this part edible and that part not. Thus it is with the Lathyrus tuberosus (LAY-thigh-russ  two-burr-OH-sus.) The seeds are toxic in quantity, the crisp cooked roots are delicious on par with sweet chestnuts. Raw they have more of a pea flavor. It makes one wonder how a plant once esteemed for its tasty tuber is now a noxious weed in many places… maybe haying had something to do with it. Another issue with this “invasive” is what do we call it? Tuber Vetchling, Earthnut Pea, Aardaker, Tuberous Sweetpea, Tanotte, Gland-de-terre, Gesse tubéreuse, châtaigne de terre, Fyfield Pea, Pebble Pea, Heath Pea, Pea Earth Nut, Earth Chestnuts, Dutch Mice, Earth Mouse. I like Dutch Mice and there are several Earthnuts/Chestnuts out there but let’s go with Tuberous Sweetpea. That is reasonably descriptive and accurate.

Lathyrus tuberosus in Wheat

The Tuberous Sweetpea is native to Eurasia but is also found across much of northern North America. Cultivated since the 1600’s many consider it an “antique vegetable” once popular but now passe. That’s not really accurate. In taste tests the Tuberous Sweetpea always rates high and numerous plans have been made to make it a commercial crop. The problem is the plant does not agree to be domesticated. A consistent crop is difficult to maintain so it has not become a commercial staple. That’s doesn’t mean me and thee can’t harvest a lot of it and enjoy it, or even raise it. The roots can be boiled or roasted. Some also eat the root raw though it might be mildly toxic that way. There is also “lathyrism” to consider.

Tuberous Sweetpea

Some members of this large genus — Lathyrus sativus for example — have a toxic amino acid in the seeds that can cause a nerve disease if eaten in large amounts. While some caution is advised that “large amount” is when the seeds are 30 to 50 percent of ones diet. Not exactly a problem for most. Also edible are the seeds and young pods of the Lathyrus japonicus ssp. matitimus, with the same caution. However note only the root of the Lathyrus tuberosus is eaten, preferably cooked. It’s also used to favor some scotch whiskey. The root of the Lathyrus linifolius, “knappers” are also eaten. I have not been able to substantiate that the roots of the Lathyrus amphicarpus are edible.

Haying the hard way.

To reiterate the seeds of Lathyrus species — there are 187 of them — are toxic particularly when consumed often and in large quantities. The tubers of the Lathyrus tuberosus were a common food in Europe often sold in produce markets particularly in France under the name “macusson.”  Botanically Lathyrus is from the Greek Lathyros which is an old name for pea. Tuberosus is Dead Latin meaning tuberous, referring to the thickened roots.

Green Deane’s Itenized” Plant Profile: Tuberous Sweetpea

INDENTIFICATION: Lathyrus tuberosus: Perennial herb with nut-sized tubers, 12 to 32 inches high, stem limp, sometimes climbing, bristly, wingless, hairless. Flower irregular, rose red if not crimson, five petals standard pea blossom, lateral two petals the ‘wings’, the lower two petals united to form the ‘keel’, overall shape of corolla being butterfly-like. Stamens 10, strong fragrance. Leaves alternate, stalked, elliptic–lanceolate, blunt, no teeth, bluish green. Fruit long, flat, brown pod with three to six seeds. Tubers can be up to 16 inches deep. Oh, by the way you will read that the plant’s stipules (dwarfed petals) are semisagittate. Who on earth thought that term up? It means half an arrow tip…

TIME OF YEAR: Flowering June to September, depending on climate, seeds in the fall. Left on it own the plant develops root rather deep. To avoid that problem under cultivation it is best to plant them in containers. Harvest in late fall or early spring.

ENVIRONMENT: Likes limestone rich soil, forests, hedgerow, roadsides, railway yards, wasteland, parks, sometimes ornamental. Nitrogen fixer. Easily trellised.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Roots boiled or roasted. Roots boiled for about 10 minutes. Some people like to steam the flowers and eat them. You are on your own with that. To cultivate the Tuberous Sweet Pea either plants the roots or used the seeds. Soak the seeds overnight then plant in spring, preferably in a container. The Providence of Ontario classifies it as a noxious weed.

To read about the amino acids in the genus go here.

Abutilon theophrasti, photo by Precision Crop Protection

Velvet Leaf is a commercial failure but a successful foreign invader. A flop as a fiber plant and cursed for its infiltration of food crops, it was first cultivated in China some 3,000 years ago. From there Abutilon theophrasti made its way nearly everywhere on earth. First the Mediterranean area, then Europe. It was introduced into North America before 1750 to make rope but never became popular for that. Instead it became an agricultural pest. That is has edible parts went by the wayside.

Velvet Leaf Seeds, photo by Robert Videki

The unripe seeds are edible raw. Where the plant is native its seeds are a common outdoor snack of children. Ripe seeds, however, must be leached until not bitter. Then dried they are ground into flour. Usually the flour was used to make noodles. The seeds contain between 15 and 30% oil. Even though the plant has edible seeds — young seeds taste similar to sunflower seeds —  it ends up on the bottom of surveyed edible species in China because there are better alternatives. Worldwide there are some 160 species in the genus with several being used for food in various ways among them Abutilon guineense and Abutilon megapotamicum. With A. guineense the flowers are consumed raw and leaves are eaten like Marsh Mallow. The seeds are also cooked and eaten but it they are more valued for their expressed oil. A. megapotamincum’s flowers are eaten like vegetables.

Velvet Leaf Blossom, photo by King County

Usually Abutilon theophrasti is found near farming activities: gardens, crop fields, nurseries, orchards, groves and the like. It’s significant problem where corn, cotton or soybeans are grown sometimes displacing 35% or more of the crop causing losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars. As a fiber source in Asia it has been used for rope, bags, coarse cloth, fishing nets, paper stock even caulking boats.

Single Velvet Leaf Fibers, photo from Bioresource Technology

In today’s world of artificial fibers it is difficult to imagine how important the plant fiber was to society hundreds of years ago, not only for clothes but for every day life. Consider sailing: All shipping relied on rope. Most ships carried several 120-fathoms (720-foot) long ropes. The USS Constitution had seven such ropes. A large ship could have 3.5 miles of rope that had to be replaced every two to four years. Companies that made cordage were called “ropewalks.” The first one opened in Boston in 1641. By 1794 there were 14 ropewalks in that city alone. In 1810 there were 183 ropewalks in the young United States. During those early years fiber for rope making was imported from Europe or Russia, which concerned the U.S. Navy then just as critical materials from hostile sources are a concern today. In 1825 it was reported that:

In answer to the resolutions of the Senate of the United States, of the 17th of May last, that the President of the United States be requisitioned to cause a report from the Secretary of the Navy to be laid before the Senate at the commencement of the next session of Congress showing the reasons, if any, why canvas, cable and cordage, made of hemp, the growth of the United States, may not be used in the equipment of national vessels with equal advantage as if of foreign fabrics or materials.

Ripe Seed Pod, photo by Invasive.org.

In 1751 the Gardener’s Dictionary by Phillip Miller describes Abutilon as: “The first sort here mentioned is an annual plant, which is hardy enough to come up in the common ground, and will perfect its seeds without any trouble; but does not bear to be transplanted, unless when the plants are very young, so that the seeds should be sown where the plants are designed to remain; and if the seeds are permitted to fall, they will come up the following spring without any care. This is very common in Virginia and most of the other parts of America; where it is called by some of the inhabitants Mash-mallow, because the leaves are soft and woolly. There is not great beauty in this sort.”  There’s actually a little more to that story. Miller (1691-1771) chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1721 until his death, didn’t like Carl Linnaeus’ binomial system even after meeting Linnaeus in 1736. Thus Miller didn’t create the Albutilon genus until 1768, three years before he died getting it into his seventh edition of his Gardener’s Dictionary. Theophrasti was added some 21 years later by Friedrich Casimir Medicus (1736-1808) director of the garden at Mannheim during the late 18th century. He, too, had a bit of a naming snit with Linnaeus.

Velvet Leaf, drawing by Regina O’Hughes for the USDA

Over the next 120 years much effort was made to create a home-grown fiber industry in the United States. Meanwhile Velvet Leaf was becoming an agricultural pest in food crops. An Illinois committee report in 1871 alluded to the growing problem. The committee said it had: ” … examined the fiber as exhibited on the stalk, and as dressed for use, in its various colors and qualities and as made into thread, cordage and ropes, and consider that its promise of permanent utility is indeed quite flattering. We have no doubt but that this detestable weed will be found far more valuable in (the) future, in our ropewalks, than it has heretofore proven in our corn fields.”  The committee added it hoped: …  Illinois and the great Northwest may yet find, in this hetherto most common and noxious weed, a plant of great profit to their people…” In the end Velvet Leaf never became the great promised fiber plant in North America because of the lack of machinery to economically process it.

A stand of Velvet Leaf, photo by Precision Crop Protection

In the greater mallow family Abutilon (ah-BLEW-tee-on) is from an Arabic name for a similar plant, which is not much help in identification. The word was created around 900 B.C., by Avicenna-or Ibn-Sina for plants resembling a mallow or mulberry. The species name isn’t much help either, Theophrasti. That means  “of Theophrastus.”  Unfortunately Theophrastus is not a place but a Greek, born around 370 BC who lived to be 82 or so and is considered the ‘father of botany.’  He wrote several books on the history of plants and six books on “The Causes of Plants.” A student of Aristotle, he might have mention the plant or something like it in one of his books. Guineense means ‘of Guinea’ and megapotamicum is Dead Latin for Rio Grande which means big river. A. megapotamicum grows near the Rio Grande. Other common names for Velvet Leaf include: Buttonweed, Indian Mallow, Butterprint, China Jute, Abutilon Hemp, Manchurian Jute, American Jute, Tientsin Jute, Piemaker, and in Chinese Ching-ma. It’s debatable whether the plant is native to India or China.

A reversed pen drawing entitled “A Rope-walk” by Frank Millet shows a Vierlande maid crafting rope in the traditional way.

Besides North America Velvet Leaf is native or naturalized in China, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Pakistan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, the Former Yugoslavia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom. Eritrea, Ethiopia, Morocco, Canada and the United States.

 Green Deane’s “Itemized” plant profile: Velvet Leaf

IDENTIFICATION: Abutilon theophrasti is a subshrub to about six feet, or two meters, often just a few feet. The stem and twigs are covered with fine hair. Leaves are heart-shaped and alternate. They are very fuzzy and have just a hint of teeth around the edge. One flower per leaf axils is produced, yellow, five petals, slightly notched. Self-pollinating each plant can produce up to 17,000 seeds and the seeds can remain viable for 60 years. One researcher reported 43% seed germination after 39 years of burial. Seed pods are usually densely covered with soft bristles. Nearly black at maturity. The seed capsule has a cup-like ring formed by 12 to 15 woody segments that remain intact at maturity. Each segment releases one to three seeds through a vertical slit on the outer face of the capsule. Seeds range from kidney shaped to almost triangular, have a notch, are flattened, and about one eighth of an inch long, purplish brown, brown, or black, smooth or have tiny star-shaped hairs

TIME OF YEAR: Leafs out in spring, flowers in the summer, seeds in fall, hardy to zone 4 and is found in North America between 32 and 45 degrees north.

ENVIRONMENT: Likes well-drained neutral soil high in nitrogen (read agricultural land.)  Moist. Full sun, will tolerate some shade. Seeds, adult plants, and decaying plant  contain or produce allelopathic chemicals limiting the growth of surrounding crop plants.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Unripe seeds raw, ripe seeds leached of bitterness, dried, then ground into flour. In other species flowers and or young leaves are edible. Oh… one last thing. The leaves can be used as toilet paper.

To see a short video on the plant as a source of fiber go here.

Floating Rosette of Water Chestnuts

The Water Chestnut is a plant of contradictions. It is rare in parts of Europe where it’s native thus “endangered.” Europeans want to see more of it. But it’s “invasive” in North America where officials want to eradicate it. In its native range it’s rare because people ate most of it. Where it’s invasive officials say it not edible. That’s probably because a lawyer someplace is telling people not to mention it is edible or all kinds of liability could ensue (the same reason why our local zoo had to stop giving away manure.) By the way this “water chestnut” is not the water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis) you find in Asian restaurants. That’s a sedge. This is a different species altogether, Trapa natans. They do, however, share a common name.

The Water Chestnut seed is well armed.

Here’s why plant officials don’t like the Water Chestnut in America: One acre of Water Chestnuts can turn into 100 acres in one year (and that’s including winter down time.) Without any local counter balance it does all the things some folks wish an invasive would not do: Drives out native species, hogs water surface, changes a body of water from thriving to near dead, makes waterways unnavigable and reduces recreation. (It has pointed seeds that can puncture a shoe and inflict painful damage to a bare foot… There’s that lawyer sweating liability again.)

Why did it become so endangered in some parts of Europe? Changes in climate for one thing, but also the sweet seed kernels can be eaten raw, roasted, boiled, or fried like a vegetable. They are also preserved in honey and sugar, candied, or ground into flour for making bread and confections. These water chestnuts have a tasty, delicious flavor similar to tree chestnuts. It was the main ingredient in traditional Italian risotto. Water Chestnuts have been eaten since antiquity and cultivated in Asia for some 3,000 years. The opposing European and North American views are best explained by a line from the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke: “What we got here is a failure to communicate.”

Water Chestnuts covering a lake

Water Chestnut is found in Connecticut, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire and Vermont. It is fiercely banned in many other states particularly the south with huge fines in place. The Water Chestnut’s introduction to North America is as muddy as some of the ponds it grows in. Best guess is it first came to the United States in 1874, perhaps at Harvard’s botanical gardens.  It was first noticed by botanists outside the gardens near Concord, Massachusetts in 1879 (reports that it was found in 1859 are mistaken.) It was intentionally put in a pond near Sudbury River near Concord by a gardener who also put it in many other ponds including the Fresh Pond of the botanical gardens in Cambridge. By 1884 it was in Sanders Lake near Schenectady NY and had reached had reached western Massachusetts by 1920. In 1923 there was a two-acre patch on the Potomac near Washington D.C. From Massachusetts it spread to Lake Champlain in Vermont, the Nashua River in New Hampshire and the Connecticut River in Connecticut.  Special problem areas today are The Bird and Sassafras rivers in Maryland, the Hudson River, the Connecticut River valley, and Lake Champlain. It has also been reported in Ontario and naturalized in Australia in New South Wales. Control measures can be expensive, such as the $5.25 million spent from 1982 to 2005 to clean-up Lake Champlain where there was a 300-acre infestation.

Fasciolopsiasis, a parasitic fluke

One reason why officials might be reluctant to mention that it is edible is that the plant easily picks up a variety of toxic metals. According to one report from India “despite varying levels of metals found in various fruit parts of T. natans, the metal accumulation in (the) kernel was alarming. However, metal content decreased significantly in various parts after boiling…” The report went on to say that using boiling to reduce the metals is important in the “exploitation of these aquatic crops to meet the demand of food and health perspectives for human beings…” So, grown in bad water it collects toxins but boiling reduces the problem. There is another reason to boil the seeds even though they can be eaten raw: Fasciolopsiasis. It’s a disease that can be transmitted from the surfaces of Water Chestnuts and other water plants. During the larval stage of their life flukes leave their water snail hosts. They swim away to form cysts on the surfaces of water plants, including the leaves and fruit of water Water Chestnut. If infected water plants are consumed raw or undercooked, the flukes can infect humans, pigs and other animals. It’s very common particularly where people and pigs live together and share similar water resources.

Trapa bikornis nut

While the Water Chestnut seed has four horns its edible relative Trapa bikornis (Horn Nut) has only two. Still painful to step on though. As for the botanical name Trapa comes from Dead Latin’s calcitrappa, a four-pointed weapon (as the seeds have four points.) But that term came from a Dead Latin word for “thistle.”  Natans means floating. Bikornis means two horns. The other common name, Water Caltrop, also comes from calcitrappa. A third species, Trapa rossica, is endangered. Should you be interested in having your own illegal kiddie wading pool of T. bikornis they are usually found fresh in Chinese markets in October and November. The seed is rich in carbs, fat, protein, sugar, and vitamins B1, B2, C, calcium, phosphorus and iron.

Green Deane’s Itemized Plant Profile: Water Chestnut

IDENTIFICATION: Water chestnut are a rosette of floating, fan-shaped leaves, each leaf having a slightly inflated stem. The roots are fine, long, profuse; the small 4-petalled flower is white The fruit is a large nut produced under the rosette having four sharp spines, or two depending on the species. The “chestnut” usually weights about six grams. They don’t float.

TIME OF YEAR:  Seeds overwinter at the bottom of water bodies and germinate during warmer months producing stems that reach the water surface and produce rosettes. In the northeastern United States flowering starts in July and continues until the plants are killed by fall frost. Fruits ripen in about a month and can remain viable for up to five years some report twelve years. Each seed can produce ten to fifteen rosettes and each rosette may produce as many as twenty seeds.

ENVIRONMENT: An aquatic weed, it is found is ponds, lakes, and slow portions of rivers.

METHOD OF PREPARATION:   Shelled seeds (nuts) are eaten raw, roasted, boiled, or fried. They are also preserved in honey and sugar, candied, or ground into flour for bread and confections.

HERB BLURB