|
Western Springbeauty
Claytonia lanceolata Pursh
|
Family: Portulacaceae,
Purslane
Genus: Claytonia
Description
General: delicate, fleshy, hairless perennial, 5-20 cm tall,
partly underground, from a usually rather deep-seated,
almost round bulb-like corm 5-20 mm in diameter.
 Leaves: basal commonly 1 or 2, sometimes lacking,
narrowly to broadly oblanceolate, 2-15 mm broad, up to 15
cm long, including the underground portion of the slender
stalk. Stem leaves 2, opposite, stalkless, ovate to narrowly
lanceolate, 5-20 mm broad and 1.5-6 cm long.
 Flowers: about 3-20 in loose clusters, sometimes
compound, the stalks 1-5 cm long, usually curved back in
fruit. The 2 sepals 2.5-5 mm long, up to 7 mm in fruit. The
5 petals from nearly pure white or pinkish-lined to deep
pink, very occasionally light to deep yellow or orange,
joined for 1-2 mm at base, 7-12 mm long. Stamens 5,
attached at the base to the petals. Styles 3.
Flowering time: April-July.
 Fruits: capsules, ovoid, firm-walled, about 4 mm long.
Seeds 3-6, black and shiny, 2-2.5 mm long, with very
indistinct warty bumps, and a fairly evident appendage.
Distribution
Sagebrush foothills to alpine slopes, usually where moist
at least early in the spring, in w. and c. parts of MT. Also
from B.C. and Alberta to s. CA and NM.
Edible plant, see below.
|
|
|
|
(click on image for full size)
|
|
(click on images for full size)
The leaves of western springbeauty are a source of vitamins A and C, and the corms are said to taste like mild radishes when raw and like potatoes when cooked. The crisp corms were a special treat after a long, hard winter. They were dug in spring, just after the plants had flowered, and they were eaten raw or cooked. They can also be dried, ground into a powder and stored for later use.
Varieties:
1 Flowers pale to deep yellow or orange
2 Stem leaves lanceolate or narrowly oblong, several times longer than broad. Plants usually well over 10 cm tall. Petals deep yellowish-orange. Known only from near Henry's Lake, Fremont Co., ID, and from MT.
var. flava (A. Nels.) C. L. Hitchc.
1 Flowers white to deep pink, not at all yellowish
3 Stem leaves narrowly lanceolate, at least 5 times as long as broad, rarely over 1 cm broad. Stems many, the corms 1-4 cm broad. Yellowstone Nat. Park and vicinity, but not to the exclusion of var. lanceolata.
var. multiscapa (Rydb. ) C. L. Hitchc.
3 Stem leaves broader, from usually elliptic-lanceolate to sometimes ovate-lanceolate, commonly less than 5 times as long as broad. Stems 1-several, the corms rarely as much as 2 cm broad. Range of the species.
var. lanceolata
Pursh
|
|
|
Copyright © Plant-Life.org
|
|
