Fresh Yacon roots resemble sweet potato roots, photo by Soren Holt

Is it a Polymnia or a Smallanthus? Botanists took some 70 years to make up their minds. Let’s call it Yacon like the natives.

In publications before 2000, particularly the Journal for Economic Botany in 1991 and Cornucopia II 1998, it’s Polymnia sonchifolia, poh-LIM-nee-uh son-khi-FOH-ll-uh. Polymnia is Latin for the Greek goddess of sacred poetry, hymns, eloquence, agriculture, pantomime and sometimes geometry and meditation. She was often shown with a pensive finger touching her mouth as in thought. That really helps us in identifying the species.

Cured roots darken in color outside

Smallanthus (small-ANN-thus) in use more on the Internet and after 2000 and in recent professional journals. The genus name was first proposed in 1933, advocated in 1978, and as the botanists say “currently preferred” some 79 years later. It means “small flower” which is certainly more descriptive than a “pensive goddess.” The flowers aren’t really that small but the plant grows rather large so they look smaller than they are. When the genus was switched from PolymniA to SmallanthUS the species name had to follow Dead Latin endings and went from sonchifolia to sonchifolius. That reminds me of a scene from the movie Life of Brian in which the Centurion does not arrest Brian for writing anti-Roman graffiti until Brian corrects the Latin endings.

Whether a Polymnia or a Smallanthus  sonchifolius make more sense. It means like a sow thistle. In practical terms that usually translates into meaning the leaf has no stem and attaches directly to the main stem of the plant, often nearly wrapping around it. Emilia sonchifolia, another edible, was so named for the same reason. An older name for Yacon, Polymnia edulis (Edible Goddess) is sometimes still seen.

Yacon resembles Jerusalem Artichokes

Yacon (yah-KON) also Llacon, Strawberry Jicama, Bolivian Sunroot, Ground Pear, and Apple of the Earth, grows wild in areas of South America. They can be eaten raw, cooked or pickled. The flavor is between an apple and a pear. Very tolerant of sun and drought they are often “cured” for a week or two before eating, as one does with sweet potatoes. You can, however, eat them immediately out of the ground. “Curing” activates an enzyme process which increases sweetness significantly. Specifically prebiotic oligofructans (indigestible sugars) are converted into fructose, glucose, and sucrose. This would mean right out of the ground they would feed your gut bacteria. Once cured the roots has more available sugars.

Yacon flowers are only about an inch across

At the end of the plant’s reproductive cycle the top starts to wither. From that point on the root is increasing in sweetness. Said another way when fresh out of the ground the roots are at near-optimum stage for diabetic consumption, the non-digestible sugars are high and the roots is not overly sweet. As it sits for several days, particularly in the sun, enzymes change the non-digestible sugars into digestible ones such as fructose and sucrose. While this increases the sweetness it also increase the kinds of sugars diabetics should avoid. Thus if you are making diabetic sugar or syrup out of the roots they should be processed immediately. If you are a diabetic raising them they should be eaten sooner than later. In a related issue  the probiotic strains Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, and Bifidobacterium bifidumare able to ferment Yacon root in the gut.

Yakon syrup tastes similar to molasses

About the only drawback to the plant is it needs about 200 frost-free days to complete its annual cycle thus it has been imported to other warm areas of the world. In areas with shorter growing seasons they can be started inside indoors. A common grocery store item in New Zealand it has also been actively cultivated in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Germany, French, Russian, Estonia, the United States, China, where it is called Snow Lotus Root, and Italy where it is used to make alcohol and inulin. Depending upon the variety the roots can be white, crystal white, violet, orange or yellow. The white fleshed ones are not as sweet as the others.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Yacon.

IDENTIFICATION: Smallanthus sonchifolus: Under right conditions the plant can grow to some seven feet tall producing two kinds of roots, small ones near the surface (the little red caudices in the top picture) which are used to propagate more plants and larger storage roots below, used for food. The main stem is covered with dark green leaves and violet-colored hairs. Blossoms are about 1.25 inches (30mm)  in diameter, yellow or orange, growing on top fo the main stem and on other stems from lower nod buds. Flowers are limited as the plant reproduces via caudices. Fruit is black, 2mm achenes. It looks similar to a relative, Jerusalem Artichoke.

TIME OF YEAR: Where frost free they can grow or and be grown year round. Roots are available when the flower top withers.

ENVIRONMENT: Likes sun and water and good, drained soil. Fertilize like a potato or you will get a lot of leaves and small roots. When raised properly roots average about 10 ounces each. Can be much larger.

METHOD OF PREPERATION: Peel the root before eating raw. Eaten out of hand, or sliced and added to salads to add sweetness. Curing the roots in the sun increases sweetness but reduces crispness. Grated pulp from fresh roots can be squeezed in cloth to produce a refreshing drink, juice can be reduced to sugar or syrup. The root can be boiled, baked, fried, pickled. Young leaves and stems can be boiled and eaten as a green. Not all that good. More often leaves are used to make a tea that is good for diabetics to reduce oxidative stress and control blood glucose levels. The foliage is good forage for livestock.

Yacon seed stock can be ordered from B&T Seed.

Young and tender growing tip is edible. Picture By Green Deane.

Spanish Moss is not edible. Well, barely an edible. The bottom of the growing tips (pictured above) provides about one eight of an inch of almost tasteless green. It probably takes twenty or thirty calories to get that little green tip which probably only provides less than a calorie of energy. It’s really not food. It’s a “hey, watch me eat this” kind of thing, a Boy Scout nibble. But it does have uses and since I am asked about Spanish Moss all the time here’s an article about it.

Chiggers eat skin cells.

First let’s talk about red bugs and chiggers, microscopic irritations said to live on Spanish Moss. They might inhabit Spanish Moss but to be utterly frank I have never gotten chiggers from Spanish Moss in trees. I have handled it and been in it many times over the decades and not once have I gotten chiggers from Spanish Moss from trees. Where I have gotten chiggers is in open fields with knee-high grass. I’ve gotten also them in knee-high brush.  I have gotten them in knee-high grass and knee-high brush often enough to avoid said. But not from Spanish Moss in trees. I am not saying it’s not true. I am saying it has never happened to me.  You can, however, get chiggers from Spanish Moss on the ground. When I do get chiggers I cover the wound with clear fingernail polish. Yes, it stings and but it works for me and has for over 40 years. A thick skin lotion might work as well. Treating chigger bites is a surprisingly controversial topic involving a lot of hardcore angry fanatics. Some authorities say the bug bites and hangs around thus smearing something on it is a good idea. A vote for fingernail polish.  Others say nonsense, the bug bites and is gone and simple washing will do. Thus fingernail polish or any ointment is wives’ tale and nonsense. Frankly I am weary of the derogatory emails I get about it.  Getting rid of the itch is what’s important and that is what I do. Now, what of Spanish Moss?

Spanish Moss and Owl

Spanish Moss — which isn’t a moss — was used to stuff car seats and furniture not only in the United States but Europe as well. It was chemically stripped of its outer gray bark and use for that purpose up until about 1960. In 1939, for example, 10,000 tons of it was raked from trees in Florida and Louisiana. It is not a parasite but an epiphyte so it doesn’t harm the tree unless it grows so prolifically to shade the tree from sunlight. Natives used it to make bedding and emergency clothes when cloth was unavailable. The inner black core was spun and used as thread. A bundle of stripped moss also makes excellent tinder. One can find them easily in local woods.

Spanish Moss is in the Pineapple family. Oral extracts of Tillandsia usneoides in a few studies have reduced blood glucose in laboratory animals. The chemical responsible is  3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaric acid. Called HMG it’s found in some diabetic supplements.  Traditionally T. usneoides was brewed into a tea to treat fevers, chills, rheumatism and contraction pains of childbirth. Other claims for it include treatment of infant epilepsy, estrogen substitute, and antibacterial uses. In 2004 a Japanese company reported an extract strengthen and protects skin capillaries and slows skin cells decline. I don’t know if that is true but they took out a patent on it.

Spanish Moss usually doesn’t harm the tree

Why is it called Spanish Moss? There is an explanation but it’s on linguistic quicksand. It is said the Spanish had beards and the moss looked like their beards so it was called Spanish Moss. But… the term “Spanish Moss” seem to be rather late day innovation. As early as 300 years ago it was called Old Man’s Beard, White Beard and Spanish Beard. Detect a theme there? Other names included Florida Crape and Wool Crape. It’s found in the southern United States, the Caribbean, Hawaii and Australia, where it was introduced.

The botanical name, Tillandsia usneoides (til-LAND-sia oos-knee-OY-deeze) has an interesting background. Usneoides means “looks like usnea” which is a small, edible lichen. Tillandsia honors Erici (or Elias) Tillands, 1640-1693, a physician and professor who was extremely frightened of water. He would take a long journey on foot rather than take a short boat trip to the same destination. Linnaeus — the guy who started naming plants — was told Spanish Moss only grows in dry areas so he named it after Tilland. The irony is that in only grows in humid areas.

Spanish Moss Horse Blanket, at glennpierdepot

Other uses for Spanish Moss include: Lids for cooking pots, emergency blankets, insulation, mixed with clay to strengthen plaster, used to fire pots, used in tanning and to skim scum off cooking liquids, fiber woven into floor mats, to make string, rope and sacks, fire arrows to destroy invaders’ forts, doll decorations and Voodoo doll stuffing. It can be soaked — a natural sponge — and used as a covering to keep things from drying too fast, such as dug out canoes and cement. It also makes excellent mulch and the water it is boiled in is excellent fertilizer. Spanish Moss is often draped on chain link fences to create privacy. To easily clean the bark off the fiber soak the Spanish Moss in water for six weeks. Or, you can throw it into a pile for about six months where it will rot naturally. A third option is to rub Spanish Moss with Spanish Moss to get rid of the coating.

Wablers Like To Nest in Spanish Moss

Birds like to nest in it, particularly Warblers and the Baltimore Oriole. Rat Snakes and at least three bats call it home. Some livestock will eat Spanish Moss. One jumping spider, Pelegrina tillandsiae, is found only on Spanish Moss. Jumping spiders, by the way, are bight little creatures with at least two large eyes out of the eight. They are hunters, colorful, and often kept as pets. I used to feed one using tweezers and blind deceased mosquitoes.

Ball Moss also has edible tips

There is also Ball Moss. Tillandsia recurvata, right,  is similar to Spanish moss except it is compact and has larger growth, which also makes it easier to get an edible nibble. It blooms in the spring with a blue-violet flower and tends to be about the size of a baseball but can be smaller or much larger. Sensitive to freezing Ball Moss can be found from the southern United States to Argentina and Chili. Medicinally an extract has shown the ability to cause death of tumor cells.

Green Deane’s “Itemizing” Plant Profile: Spanish Moss

IDENTIFICATION: Tillandsia usneoides: Spanish-moss is a fibrous, perennial, epiphytic herb. It hangs from trees in long, thick masses that may reach 20′ in length. The leaves are grayish-green, narrowly linear, and up to two inches long. It looks like filaments with many branches and is covered with silvery-gray scales. The flowers are tiny with pale greenish-blue blossoms. They form in the axils of the leaves and may give off a light fragrance at night. Te flowers lead to tiny capsules which split open to release even smaller seeds.

TIME OF YEAR: Year round

ENVIRONMENT: Spanish Moss grows well in full sun but endures partial shade. It prefers moist environments 50 to 90ºF but can survive well in dry habitats too. Spanish Moss is usually found on oaks or cypress trees — it likes the chemicals that leach form the trees’ bark — but can be found on other species such as pine or sweet gum.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Growing tips are pulled out of their sheath. The tiny green tip can be eaten raw.

Lyrics to Spanish Moss by Gordon Lightfoot

SPANISH MOSS
Let go darlin’
I can feel the night wind call
Guess I’d better go
I like you more than half as much
As I love your Spanish moss
Spanish moss hangin’ down
Lofty as the southern love we’ve found
Spanish moss
Keeps on followin’ my thoughts around
Georgia pine and Ripple wine
Memories of Savannah summertime
Spanish moss
Wish you knew what I was sayin’
So I’m rollin’ north thinkin’
Of the way things might have been
If she and I could have changed it all somehow
Spanish moss hangin’ down
Lofty as the sycamore you’ve found
Spanish moss
Keeps on followin’ my thoughts around
Georgia pine and Ripple wine
Kisses mixed with moonshine and red clay
Spanish moss
Wish you knew what I was sayin’
So I’m rollin’ north thinkin’
Of the way things might have been
If she and I could have changed it all somehow
Let go darlin’
I can feel the night wind call
The devil take the cost
I like the way your kisses flow and I love your Spanish moss

Butomus umbellatus, the Flowering Rush

In one area of its native range — Israel — it’s endangered becauses of dwindling habitat. In another part of the world it is an invasive weed, and you can bet where it is an invasive weed — the Great Lakes area — no official mentions that, oh by the way, it’s edible.

James Burke

I am going to date myself but I was an intense fan of the original production of Connections with James Burke, circa 1979. An extremely accomplished science writer he’s still famous for his live walk on and narration of a rocket launch at Kennedy Space Center that I also saw. Perfectly time he talked down to the last second and lift off without a mistake. It is regarded not only as one of the best performances by a science reporter but among the gutsiest. In these days of digitization and retakes the mundane can become the remarkable. Burke did the remarkable the hard way decades ago. If you watch this video remember that from the waking part on it was done live in one take.  What you don’t see is off screen is an assistant silently doing the count down with hand gestures. The camera crew in the final shot were also standing on a fire ants nest and had to endure some 15 seconds of their stinging attack. After you watch that here’s a follow up some 35 years later with Burke in the last five minutes talking about that famous shot.

When Burke started to write Connections he said he just followed the trail. He had a non-linear view of history. I did the same thing when I wrote “Indian Pipes, Gold and Emily Dickinson.” Botany in isolation will put you to sleep. When I decided to create a post called the “Only Plant In Its Genus” I wanted to find all of the edible plants that were the only plant in their genus, just to see where it would take me. Along the way I found some unexpected things, among them the Flowering Rush.

Root is more than half starch

Let’s start with the fact that the Flowering Rush is not a rush. And as you might guess as a member of a monotypic genus botanists had and have a hard time classifying it… When in doubt, a cat washes, when botanists are in doubt they make it monotypic though there is some debate about that. Some argue the version in North America has some subtle differences than those in Eurasia and that there should be two species, Butomus umbellatus and Butomus junceus. Others say the differences are either not differences or just plain don’t exist. In the decades to come perhaps a decision will be made on that. Historically the Flowering Rush  was a common food in Northern Europe particularly Russia where food sometimes was scarce.

Flowering Rush has a distinctive cross section

The perennial was first collected in North America near Laprairie on the St. Lawrence River in 1905 but it was seen as early as 1897 (not 1879, that’s an internet replicated typo.)  It was officially collected near Detroit in 1930 by O. A. Farwell who noted it had been there since before 1918. Now the Flowering Rush, also called the Water Gladiolus,  is basically found in the northern half of the United States and the lower half of Canada. Humans, moving water, ice and muskrats help spread the plant, the latter because they use it to build their mounds. The root has edible starch, a point no doubt not missed by the muskrats.

Butomus (BEW-toe-mus) is bastardized Greek from bous meaning ox and temno meaning to cut. The leaves are sharp enough to cut a cow’s muzzle. Umbellatus (um-BELL-ah-tus) means with umbells, a reference to the flowers. We are told that in Dead Latin it was called Buxus but Buxus is now a totally different genus altogether.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Flowering Rush

IDENTIFICATION: Butomus umbellatus: Flowering aquatic plant to five feet. Leaves are thin, straight, sword-shaped, triangular, pointed up to 40 inches (one meter long.)  They grow in two rows from a rhizome. The leaves are also untoothed, parallel veined and twisted, submerged leaves however are limp. The flowers grow on tall, cylindrical stalks with umbrella-like clusters of twenty to fifty flowers. They have three large pale pink petals each — sometimes white — and three lower, smaller sepals that are also pale pink and resemble petals. Blossoms have six pistils that are simple, whorled, united at the base. The fruit is an indehiscent, many-seeded capsule. The plant looks like a bulrush when not flowering but is missing the bulrush’s tuff of seeds. Base of flower stalk can have bulbils (tiny bulbs) and the rhizome rootlets.

TIME OF YEAR: Flowers from June to September

ENVIRONMENT: Mud, ponds, canals, ditches, edges of still or slowly moving water to about 10 feet deep. Will not grow in shade.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Removed bubils and rootlets, peel rhizome, boil, changing water helps. They can also be roasted. Alternatively cleaned rhizome can be dried then ground. Check to make sure it is not acrid after drying or roasting. Used as a thickener or added to flour. Is more than half starch. Harvested also plants make excellent compost.

Tape Seagrass at low tide

Seed Capsule

It is said that all seaweed is edible but that’s not true. There’s at least one species that is not, Desmarestia ligulata. Why? Because it is laced with sulfuric acid though it is used to make pickles.  While most seaweed is edible — I said nothing about being palatable — there is at least one edible sea grass, Tape Seagrass.

Actually one does not eat the Tape Seagrass but rather its large seeds, which taste like chestnuts when cooked. What drew my attention to Tape Seagrass is that it is a monotypic genus, that is, there is the only species in its genus. Some genera have hundreds of species if not thousands. Monotypic genera have one species each. You can read about monotypic genera here.

Uncooked seeds

Tape Seagrass is found basically between Southeast Asia and Australia. Where it grows it provides a habitat for numerous sea creatures besides human food. It’s method of reproduction is a bit odd. Male flowers, looking like bits of Styrofoam, surface, aggregate, then float off looking for a receptive female blossom. It is a littoral species, that is, it lives on mudflats, or sand flats, part of its life submerged and part out of water. This does not necessarily mean Tape Seagrass seed pods are easy to collect. I dug many clams when young and slogging across mud flats for food is hard, exhausting, smelly work… though that does remind me of a line from a comic strip called B.C. by Johnny Hart: “The bravest man I ever saw was the first one to eat an oyster raw.”

White Male Flowers Floating To Larger Female Flower

Where Tape Seagrass grows it’s a wave breakers, protects some beaches, and is a preferred food of the Dugong, the only living relatives of the Manatees. Unexpectedly where it does grow is called “meadows.” Worldwide there’s some 72 species of sea grass. As mentioned Tape Seagrass provides good hiding places for small species, oxygenates the water, and is good at carbon sequestration to reduce any effects of global warming.

Botanically the species is Enhalus acoroides. Enhalus (en-HAL-us) is Dead Latin’s bastardization of Greek en halo meaning in salt. Acoroides (ah-koh-REE-these) is more obtuse. It means resembling Akoron or Akoros. Those were ancient names for Sweet Flag and Yellow Flag, strap-like plants that resemble the leaves of a cattail and grow in water.

 Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Tape Seagrass

When the tide is in

IDENTIFICATION: Enhalus acoroides: The leaves are very long and ribbon-like (30-150cm long, approximately 1-2cm wide) with many parallel veins and air spaces, generally dark green in colour and thick. Rolled leaf margins make the leaves tough (hard to tear), the rhizome are thick, with long black bristles and cord-like roots. Fruits are round and large (4-6cm in diameter) with dark, ribbed skin and 6-7 white seeds. When the ripe fruit bursts, the seeds are released and float for only about five hours before they start to sink. The seeds are estimated to be able to travel 25 miles.  When the seeds settle, roots develop rapidly and the seeds germinate quickly.

TIME OF YEAR: Flowers year round

ENVIRONMENT: Littoral land, shore exposed at low tide often adjacent to mangrove forests. Widely distributed in the tropical parts of the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific and very common in the Indo-Malay Archipelago and in the Philippines.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: The white seeds are eaten raw out of hand. Or they can be boiled or roasted, if the latter they have a chestnut like flavor. The plant itself smells sulphurous. If allowed to ret a strong, saltwater resistant fiber can be made from the remains.