In the sandy soil of shaded northwest woodlands from California through British Columbia right up to Alaska grow two species of miner's lettuce. Either one of the two species of this succulent member of the portulaca/purslane family has provided vitamin-rich greens for Pacific-based First Peoples and for early white settlers, including the gold rush prospectors and miners of both California and the Klondike. Montia perfoliata and Montia sibirica, Siberian miner's lettuce, are the two species.
Early prospectors and miners ate the young leaves of the plant as wild salad greens. Don’t eat too much of it however, as there are minor levels of mildly toxic phytochemicals in the leaves, chemicals like oxalic acid. But there is a good supply of vitamins A and C.
Miner’s lettuce is a member of the Portulaca and Purslane plant family whose correct botanical family name is Portulacaceae. Common names are winter purslane and Indian lettuce. A bad botanical synonym is Claytonia perfoliata. Montia is the preferred name in scientific botanical nomenclature. Once seen, Montia is an easy plant to identify, and its specific adjective reminds us of its best field mark, Like many purslanes and portulacas, the plants develop a protective reddish coloration in locations where they receive full sun or where they grow in poor soil. The young leaves can be picked and eaten raw as a salad green, or cooked in salted, boiling water for several minutes, after which they taste like spinach. Miner's lettuce is still a staple green for many northern First Peoples.
© 2007 william gordon casselman
|
perfoliate stem leaves. The botanical adjective perfoliate indicates that the stem seems to grow through the leaf or in Latin per folium. In fact the stem leaf clasps the stem near its top as a single, cup-shaped disc. It is from each of these clasping disc-leaves that the plant sends forth its little cluster of white flowers. 