January 12, 2013 · 6:22 pm

Plant of the day: Sitka willow

One of the early, sweet signs of spring is when the pussy willow buds start to emerge. This fuzzy little nubs pop out on all types of willow branches–look for them in the shrubby thickets of trees that grow along streams.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sitka willow (Salix sitchensis) has broad leaves that are green and leathery on top, netted with a complex tracery of tiny veins. Below they are covered with a fine white fur. Willows are abundant and versatile, and were used extensively by native tribes. Limbs were made into baskets, and bark into string. Willow bark has the same compounds as aspirin, and it was used as a painkiller–both eaten and applied topically as well. Various parts of the tree were used in many ways for cooking, such as  making a fire hearth from willow roots, drying salmon on branches, and wiping up fish slime with leaves. Shredded bark was used in baby diapers. Sitka willow was also a talisman–boughs were tied to boats for safe crossing when river water was high, and the plants were beaten with sticks to call for wind on hot days.

This willow grows throughout the west, north into Alaska and along the California coast as far south as Santa Barbara. It’s one of seven species of willow found in Marin county.

Leave a comment

Filed under Medicinal, Native, Plant of the day

Tagged as ,

January 11, 2013 · 10:13 pm

Plant of the day: bigleaf periwinkle

You know those moments where you think you know something–until suddenly you realize you don’t? Well this happened to me recently with periwinkle. I’ve seen this shrubby, large-flowered vine my entire life, but it wasn’t until I went to key it out that I realized I didn’t know its name. And when I finally came to periwinkle I couldn’t have been more surprised. This familiar plant is periwinkle? The periwinkle of literature, of blues and eyes and dresses? I always thought it would be some delicate British daisy; instead, it’s this coarse and common invasive!Vinca_major1

The bigleaf periwinkle of real life is Vinca major, a dark-leaved vine with a milky, sticky sap. This  invasive ground cover escaped from garden plantings and now is creeping across the U.S. In California you can see it in coastal areas, foothill woodlands, the Central Valley, and even in the desert. It forms dense mats, crowding out natives, and can resprout from bits of broken stem or root–a particular problem because it likes to grow on stream banks, where it regularly gets washed away in high water, taking root wherever the broken piece lands.

Leave a comment

Filed under Non-native, Plant of the day

Tagged as , , , , , ,

January 10, 2013 · 11:10 pm

“Plant” of the day: lipstick cladonia

I’ve always been entranced with the tiny gardens–lush yet austere–that grow on fallen logs. Ferns, lichens, fungi, tree seedlings and more all fall on stumps and fallen trees. On the edge of a redwood forest is a log hosting a minute forest of lichens. Small, dusty gray-green leaves cling to the wood, while tiny upright spires rise into the sunshine. At the tip of each little trunk is a red dot: a saucy salute to the world, if one looks close enough.

This is lipstick cladonia (Cladonia macilenta), one of my all-time favorite plants. Though of course, being a lichen, it is actually a symbiotic growth of fungi and algae–and not a plant at all. It is found on dead wood, the base of trees, and sometimes on rocks. It grows on every continent in the world (with the possible exception of Antarctica); mainly in temperate to boreal regions.

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Plant of the day

Tagged as , ,

January 8, 2013 · 11:04 pm

Plant of the day: scouring-rush horsetail

A tangle of plants like tall, green soda straws stick out of the ground on the same stream bank where yesterday’s wild ginger grows. This is scouring rush horsetail, Equisetum hyemale. It’s a cousin of the more common giant horsetail, which looks like an oversized bottle brush with wiry arms that stick straight out from a slim central stalk. But instead of looking brushlike, scouring-rush horsetail is unbranched; it consists solely of a tall, single, hollow stalk. It can grow up to nearly 7 feet tall, always in a dense cluster, spreading throughout the area by slim black rhizome.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The stems of scouring rush are remarkably tough–if you try to break one off you’ll find it unexpectedly hard to do. Equisetum’s flexible strength is due to silicon dioxide, and native Americans used it to polish wood such as canoes, bone tools, soapstone pipes, arrow shafts, and fingernails, or to make mats and baskets; later, settlers and 49’ers used it to scrub their pots and pans. Kids used it as a whistle, and the strawlike stem was used as a straw, particularly to give medicine to infants and others.

Scouring rush tea had a large number of medicinal uses, including for irregular menses, poison ivy, bleeding, infection, kidney problems, backache, lumbago, gonorrhea, and to treat lice. It’s described by Plants for a Future as “anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, febrifuge, haemostatic, hypotensive and styptic…with an appetite-stimulating effect.”

The roots and young spring shoots were sometimes eaten; but large quantities are toxic due to the silica.

Leave a comment

Filed under Good for gardens, Medicinal, Native, Plant of the day

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

January 7, 2013 · 8:32 pm

Plant of the day: wild ginger

PAsarum_caudatum2alm-sized, heart-shaped leaves grow in a thick patch under a grove of alders on the river bank. This is wild ginger, or Asarum caudatum. The leaves and root, when crushed, release a sweet spicy smell; to me it’s not quite ginger-like but others disagree. In the old days the root was used as a substitute when ginger couldn’t be found.

Wild ginger root can be harvested year-round, but is supposedly best in the fall. The leaves can be made into a tea. Leaf and root were used both internally and externally  to treat headache, joint pain, indigestion and head colds. It was also used as a laxative, and a poultice of warmed leaves was applied to toothaches and boils.

Though these little plants are low-growing and seem fragile, they are actually an evergreen. They spread by rhizome in moist areas, forming clonal patches that are actually all one plant. This dense growth makes wild ginger a good groundcover for shady, moist native gardens–but it spread slowly, so is only for those with patience.

Asarum_caudatum1

Plucked wild ginger leaves showing a chunk of underground stem, or rhizome

There are several other species of wild ginger,  all in this genus, that grow elsewhere in California, but this is the only one in the greater Bay Area. It also goes by the common names of longtail wild ginger and creeping wild ginger. It can be distinguished from its cousins in several ways, such as its small reddish-brown flower whose three petals have a long, dramatic taper like a showman’s waxed moustache.

Leave a comment

Filed under Good for gardens, Medicinal, Native, Plant of the day

Tagged as ,

January 7, 2013 · 11:01 am

Pepperwood in bloom!!

Though a lot of flowers are blooming right now, most of them are non-natives; of the few native blooms you might see, many are understated and easy to miss–so keep your eyes peeled! Umbellularia_californica1

Recently tiny yellow-green flowers have started to pop out on pepperwood (bay) trees, which I wrote about back in October. You have to look close to see them: six petals cupped around a cluster of stubby yellow stamens–by fall these will swell and ripen into purple, yellow, and green globes.

Leave a comment

Filed under TRAIL NOTES

Tagged as , ,

January 6, 2013 · 11:33 pm

Plant of the day: red flowering currant

Ribes_sanguineum1Pink cascades of flowers dangle from the nearly-bare branches of a tall shrub. This is red flowering currant, or Ribes sanguineum, an early bloomer that usually blossoms from January on throughout the spring. Up to 20 small flowers unfurl from each raceme, varying shades of pink near the end of each branch where last year’s brown twig has given rise to a new shoot of green.

The blue-black berries of this shrub are edible but not particularly tasty.

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Native, Plant of the day

Tagged as ,

January 5, 2013 · 3:57 pm

“Plant” of the day: old man’s beard

Usnea1Lichens litter the forest floor, shaken loose from the upper limbs of the trees by the winter storms. Old man’s beard is one of the most recognizable: a pale greenish tuft of long hair-like tendrils. My favorite thing about this lichen are the flat, fringed discs that are  some tufts. These are the apothecia, or fruiting bodies–I think they look like amoebas, or maybe stars, or maybe confetti. Delightful either way.

Old man’s beard is actually a generic name for the various members of the Usnea genus–which can be hard for a layperson to tell apart. But the genus itself is readily distinguished from others that look similar because it has a tough central cord running down each strand. If you gently tug on a piece of Usnea, the green outer covering cracks and separates, revealing the interior white cord which stretches like a bungee cord.

Usnea has long been used medicinally–as a bandage and antibiotic for rustic wound treatment, as sanitary napkins and in baby’s diapers. Western tribes such as the Makah used it to make mattresses in their seasonal camps. Modern herbalists have used it to treat lung and respiratory tract ailments. Usnea2

Leave a comment

Filed under Medicinal, Native, Plant of the day

Tagged as ,

January 4, 2013 · 12:02 pm

“Plant” of the day: yellow coral mushroom

Ramaria_rasilispora1This fungus looks like a discarded bit of sea sponge or foam rubber was left lying on the forest floor. Upon closer inspection, it looks exactly like its name: yellow coral-like arms diverge and split into ever smaller branches.

Yellow coral mushroom (Ramaria rasilispora) is the most common fungus to meet this description—though there are several others. Its lower branches and “trunk” are white, don’t stain green or brown when bruised, and are solid rather than gelatinous. It’s common throughout the west, and in our area is mainly found under tanoaks or live oaks. Interestingly this preference changes with region and elsewhere it is most often found beneath conifers, according to my field guide.Ramaria_rasilispora2

Leave a comment

Filed under Native, Plant of the day

Tagged as ,

January 2, 2013 · 8:43 pm

Plant of the day: coast live oak

Scattered across a grassy slope are twisty-trunked, round-topped, beautiful oak trees. Get closer and look at the leaves–if they are cup-shaped and slightly shiny on the  underside this is coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia)–another of California’s best trees.

The acorns are edible once the unpalatable, bitter tannins have been leached out. Acorns were historically a major food source for local Native American tribes, and still are a major part of the food chain for wildlife. People generally remove tannins by soaking the nut in water (or a running stream). But some tribes would plant the acorn in a bog and wait until it sprouted in the spring–a system which apparently got rid of most tannins but preserved more nutrients than the water method.

Acorns can be eaten whole, or ground into a floury powder for cooking. Roasted acorns can be used as a coffee substitute.

Leave a comment

Filed under Plant of the day