St. Patrick's Day Claytonia perfoliata - Miner's Lettuce 7031
I don't want to give short shrift to my "pea pods," but I do want to be green in content of St. Patrick's Day. Let's hear it was Miner's Lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata!
I really had to be in tune with my surroundings to see this plant at the Garden. Tucked between several cacti and mostly in the shade, that springtime green just stood out among the other plants in that section. And what a deep green it was.
View Large to see that tiny white flower in the center! It's sort of a flower within a flower. Claytonia perfoliata, also known as miner's lettuce, Indian lettuce, winter purslane, or palsingat (Cahuilla), is a flowering plant in the family Montiaceae. It is an edible, fleshy, herbaceous, annual plant native to the western mountain and coastal regions of North America, from southernmost Alaska and central British Columbia, all the way south to Central America, but most common in California in the Sacramento and northern San Joaquin Valleys.
If you've hiked the foothills or valleys of California, you've probably seen some. The Gold Rush miner's ate it and probably named it. And I think I still see it in a salad now and then, and may once more if we ever go out to eat again ;-)
St. Patrick's Day Claytonia perfoliata - Miner's Lettuce 7031
I don't want to give short shrift to my "pea pods," but I do want to be green in content of St. Patrick's Day. Let's hear it was Miner's Lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata!
I really had to be in tune with my surroundings to see this plant at the Garden. Tucked between several cacti and mostly in the shade, that springtime green just stood out among the other plants in that section. And what a deep green it was.
View Large to see that tiny white flower in the center! It's sort of a flower within a flower. Claytonia perfoliata, also known as miner's lettuce, Indian lettuce, winter purslane, or palsingat (Cahuilla), is a flowering plant in the family Montiaceae. It is an edible, fleshy, herbaceous, annual plant native to the western mountain and coastal regions of North America, from southernmost Alaska and central British Columbia, all the way south to Central America, but most common in California in the Sacramento and northern San Joaquin Valleys.
If you've hiked the foothills or valleys of California, you've probably seen some. The Gold Rush miner's ate it and probably named it. And I think I still see it in a salad now and then, and may once more if we ever go out to eat again ;-)