Saturday Botany Photos: Sea Plantain (Plantago maritima)

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Sea Plantain.  This photo was taken in June 2011 in Ketchikan, AK.

Sea Plantain (Plantago maritima) is an herbaceous perennial usually found growing in sandy soils of coastal environments.  It is native to temperate coastal areas around the world in the northern and southern hemispheres.  Though a native of the Pacific Northwest, it is related to two introduced weeds in this area: P. major, and P. lanceolata.  Of these three species, Sea Plantain has the narrowest leaves measuring less than 1 centimeter wide.

The leaves of Sea Plantain, also known as Goose Tongue, are edible (1,2).  I have only eaten it once raw and it was quite tasty, being a little salty flavored, presumably from growing in salty coastal locations.  Les Stroud of "Survivorman" fame also nibbled on it raw in Alaska (2nd season).  Some books recommend steaming it.  Before eating any wild plant, be absolutely positive of it's identification; a mistake could be deadly.

Book Review: "Surviving on the Foods and Waters of Alaska's Southern Shores" by Dolly Garza

Garza, Dolly. 2007. Surviving on the Foods and Waters of Alaska's Southern Shores.   Alaska Sea Grant College Program.  Fairbanks, Alaska.  ISBN 1-56612-115-9.

  Very often when I read reviews of survival oriented books, the negative reviews are about the reviewers' ideas of what the book should have been, not the author's stated purpose and audience for the book.  This difference often results in a inappropriately negative review for what otherwise may have been a good book.  So to start, this book is intended as a general overview of the foods you can eat if lost or stranded on the southern shores of Alaska.  At just 28 pages long it is more of a thick pamphlet than a book, but for what it is, I have found it useful, especially considering that I live in Washington State, not Alaska.  The coastal flora between Washington and Alaska are largely similar, making this book applicable to regions outside its stated range.

It covers a range of foods including animal, plant, and seaweed as well as acquiring safe drinking water.  In addition to edible plants and animals, non-edibles are discussed also.  Paralytic shellfish poisoning is covered, including what animals are affected by it.  While the book contains little information describing the characteristics of edible plants, it does have good color photos and does describe the differences between poisonous and edible look-alikes.

  For a small book or large pamphlet, it does a good job at addressing its subject.  I would however, recommend that anyone who might potentially end up in a coastal survival situation read up  on edibles and general survival from other sources as well.

Saturday Botany Photos: Devil's Club Oplopanax horridus

Devil's Club fruit cluster

This Saturday's plant species is Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridus, Apiaceae).  This species is an understory shrub that grows to 3 meters tall with stems and leaves armed with quite vicious-looking yellowish spines.  It often forms dense thickets.  The fruit is not edible but it is difficult to gather in quantity anyway due to the spiny nature of the plant.

Note:  Those of you with some taxonomic savvy may notice that I listed this species' family as "Apiaceae" instead of "Araliaceae".  Both families have been combined by taxonomists into a larger Apiaceae and so Oplopanax is no longer in the Araliaceae.

Devil's Club branch showing large (1 ft diameter) maple-like leaves.

Close-up of the spines on Devil's Club

I ordered a book on Alaskan wild foods

I recently ordered the book "Surviving on Foods and Water from Alaska's Southern Shores" by Dolly Garza and will review it here after I've had a chance to read it. It is a few years old now (republished 2007) and at just 28 pages it's probably more of a thick pamphlet than a book but the description sounds interesting.

Saturday Botany Photo

From Pacific Northwest Botany

Twinflower (Linnaea borealis, Linnaeaceae) growing among Stair-step Moss (Hylocomium splendens, Hylocomiaceae) in the Olympic National Forest.