Alaska's Wild Plants, Revised Edition. Janice J. Schofield
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and scrapes with mercurochrome or a pharmacy antiseptic. Upset stomachs earned a dose of hot-pink Pepto-Bismol®. More serious illnesses triggered doctor’s visits and penicillin. It wasn’t until decades later that I learned that my father’s mother (who I never got to meet) had been an herbalist. For grandmother Eugenie, herbs were her allies. The kids’ colds and flu were soothed with yarrow, and wounds with plantain poultices.
Today I follow in her footsteps, using the exact same herbal allies for tending my family and livestock, along with a much-broadened repertoire of local wild plants for enhanced well-being. Looking back, after 4 decades of incorporating “wild things” into my life, I can attest to the benefits of these nutrient-dense foods. Though eating weeds and wild plants can’t guarantee ongoing health, they certainly can help stack odds in your favor. My parents both had adult onset diabetes when they were 2 decades younger than I am now. I’m thankfully still free of pharmaceuticals.
The act of foraging in nature makes use of the best doctors in the world. As described in the nursery rhyme:
“The best six doctors anywhere and no one can deny it
Are sunshine, water, rest, and air, exercise and diet.”
Foraging the wild weaves together all these elements. So be sensible, but be unafraid. Put your toe in the earth and start foraging. May you experience deep health and happiness, as you enjoy the pursuit of herbs.
Free-Range Plants
The plants I dub the “free rangers” are extremely adaptable and difficult to pin down to any one habit. With mustards, for example, I address the entire forager-friendly family in one entry. Some mustards tend to favor beaches, others open rocky places, and some prefer your garden soil. Listing them under one habitat is far too limiting. And plants like coltsfoot mystified me, as our first encounter was in open forest, by a creek. Then I discovered it thriving in a sunny meadow. And later, in the mountains on rocky scree slopes. In Kotzebue, coltsfoot is prolific on the tundra. So coltsfoot, shown here below, is now another of the free-range plants.
WILD MUSTARD
Mustard family (Brassicaceae, formerly Cruciferae family)
BRASSICA
SPOONWORT
MUSTARD FLOWER (ROCKCRESS)
SHEPHERD’S PURSE
Alaska’s mustards are highly variable in genera, habitat, leaf shape, and in the shape of their seedpods. The good news is that the entire family is highly “friendly” to foragers. Moreover, all mustard flowers have an easily recognizable floral pattern: 4 petals, with 6 yellow thread-like male stamens—of which 4 are tall and 2 are short. As a memory boost, remember: “4 fine fellows with 2 tiny tims.” The female portion is the pistil. Mustard pistils mature into the seedpods of remarkable variety. To see mustard’s floral characteristics well, use a pocket loupe (magnifier). Most wild mustards have small flowers, but pods and flowers are often visible at the same time. After a short while, you will just begin to spot mustards at a glance wherever you go, even in your own backyard. All of Alaska’s mustards are safe to nibble, though not every single species appeals to the palate, the highly bitter “wormseed” (Erysimum) being my personal “yuck” on edibility. But as long as you can positively discern “mustard” and your plant passes your palatability test, you’re good to go.
Common to cultivated and disturbed soils are mustards including the ubiquitous yellow-flowered Brassicas (commonly called wild mustard or rapeseed), and the tasty rockcress, aka wild cress (Arabis species).
Spoonwort, aka scurvygrass (Cochlearia officinalis). This is a round-to spoon-leafed beach mustard whose leaves add zest and vitamin C to coastal camping meals.
Shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) is exceptionally easy to recognize with its distinctive heart-shaped seedpods. Petals are white. The peppery-tasting stem leaves are arrow shaped and alternate along the stem. The lower leaves, like those of dandelions, are deeply lobed and arranged in a basal rosette, i.e. they grow in a circular pattern at the base of the stem.
Other commonly eaten Alaskan mustards include:
• Bittercress, aka spring cress (Cardamine species) has white- to rose-colored flowers and long narrow seedpods (siliques).
• Sea rocket, aka beach rocket (Cakile edentula). A pink-petaled beach species with leaves with wavy or saw-toothed edges.
Refer to Discovering Wild Plants for detailed illustrations and line drawings of these and other Alaskan mustard species.
RANGE: Mustards range throughout all regions of Alaska and in diverse habitats.
HARVESTING DIRECTIONS: Leaves are prime before flowering; flavor becomes stronger and more peppery with age. Selectively pick flowers and seedpods throughout the summer, leaving some remaining on the plant to propagate.
FOOD USE: Leaves add zest to salads, stir-fries, and soups. Seeds and roots are traditional spices. Blend mustard with cream cheese as a dip; dairy-free foragers can blend chopped mustard (leaves, young pods, seeds) with ground, soaked cashews, nutritional yeast, lemon, and salt.
HEALTH USE: Mustards in general are good sources of vitamins A and C, and the minerals calcium, potassium, and manganese. Shepherd’s purse, in particular, is an excellent source of blood-clotting vitamin K, making it of use in the field as a poultice for cuts. Shepherd’s purse tea has traditionally been drunk to soothe stomach ulcers and can be applied with a cotton swab to hemorrhoids.
OTHER: Tulane University, in the 1970s, conducted experiments documenting that shepherd’s purse seeds, placed in water, release a gummy exudate that entraps and destroys mosquito larvae.
BLUEBERRY & HUCKLEBERRY
Vaccinium species Heath family (Ericaceae), Blueberry subfamily (Vaccinioideae)
FLOWER STAGE
FRUIT STAGE
Alaska’s blueberries, aka bilberries, are truly free-rangers, growing in acid soils in woods, wet meadows, heaths, bogs, and in the mountains to over 3,000 feet. “Mother’s Day flowers” is a common name for the bell-like pinkish to whitish blooms that generally flower in early May. These shrubby plants range from low tufted varieties to species more than 3 feet high. Vaccinium fruits are blue to bluish-black, with a couple exceptions: Vaccinium parvifolium, red huckleberry found only in south coastal to Southeast Alaska, and the dwarf red-fruited lingonberry, aka lowbush cranberry, Vaccinium vitis-idaea (see page 114).
DERIVATION OF NAME: Vaccinium is the classical name for blueberry and cranberry.
OTHER NAMES: huckleberry, great bilberry, whortleberry, dyeberry, wineberry, Mother’s Day flowers.
RANGE: Throughout Alaska except the extreme north Arctic.
HARVESTING DIRECTIONS: The early blooming flowers are edible and sweet, but most gatherers prefer waiting for the delectable fruits!
FOOD