Illustration by Andy Singer
Bittercress: Sidewalk Snapshot
January 28, 2010 - One Response
If you’re interested in identifying this wild mustard, note the distinctive basal leaves — in other words, that the leaves grow out of the base of the plant rather than from a tall vertical stem — and the little pairs of opposite leaflets on each one.
Spicy Like Springtime
January 22, 2010 - One Response
Little Western Bittercress, a.k.a. Cardamine oligosperma, is safe in Wild Girl’s ghostly pale hands (Photo by Henry Stanley)
The blank white-gray skies of Portland’s wintertime are notoriously depressing, so signs of springtime are greeted eagerly in this neck of the woods. I went for a walk with Emily and Henry along the Springwater Corridor, a bike trail that runs through east Portland, and we looked for hope that the sun will return some day. When we spotted bittercress growing a few feet off the path in some soggy grass, we took heart.
Bittercress is a kind of wild mustard green, and it tastes accordingly spicy. The leaves and stem are good raw as a part of a salad mixture, but tread more carefully with the roots, which are extra hot like horseradish.
Bittercress is found all over the western United States as well as New York state, according to this handy plant profile on the USDA’s site. It’s unclear whether the herb is technically native, and it does not appear in Daniel E. Moerman’s behemoth “Native American Ethnobotany” catalog. Emily, a professional herbalist, says her books suggest Eurasian descent.
Like other plants in the mustard family, bittercress can be found in disturbed areas. When crushed, it emits a familiar mustard-like scent. It’s easiest to identify a mustard when flowers are present, but I lucked out because Emily and Henry knew the plant so well they recognized it sans decor. To learn more about patterns of the mustard (brassicaceae family) check out Botany In A Day, Thomas J. Elpel’s book on plant patterns.
Emily admires a hazelnut tree’s hanging thingies, called “catkins,” which are technically flowers. (Photo by Henry)
For more hope that spring is coming, read Emily’s latest blog post here.
Mullein: Smokable medicine
January 19, 2010 - 6 Responses
Wild Girl holding a mullein leaf & smoking it with lemon balm
You can find mullein in sunny, disturbed waste places like roadsides. Native American tribes historically smoked the dried leaves of the fuzzy plant, known by its Latin name Verbascum thapsus, for an array of healing uses. The Navajo used it to cure fevers; the Hopi as a cure for insanity; the Iroquois for hiccups. Modern herbalists regard it as soothing for the lungs. I like to add it to smoking mixtures because it adds a fluffy, soft, airy texture; tonight I paired it with some lemon balm, a.k.a. Melissa officinalis.
The leaves of Melissa are calming when brewed in a tea, as well as when ignited and inhaled.
Mullein in the urban wilds
So It Goes
January 16, 2010 - 3 Responses
Gabe and the femur
Have you ever had one of those nights where your tribe gets together for an adventure to go tracking animals in the city but it turns out to be raining really hard and the full moon you were looking forward to turns out to be a new moon instead? And Ariel’s home-made krupnik, a traditional Russian honey liquor, beckons, so you all decide to stay in and share stories about unrequited love while drinking it? And then your friend falls asleep so you put a femur bone on his head and wake him just in time to take open-eye photos to post on the internet? It was that kind of evening last night. Sometimes you’ve just got to take one for the team and do your part to keep Portland weird.
Ariel, home fermenting extraordinaire, in his dragon costume
