Plant Identification Quiz #9

Have you noticed the position of the sun lately?  Have you noticed the way the shadows are getting just a little bit longer, the afternoons a little lazier and the evenings are starting to cool off a bit.  Not a lot, just enough to remind us that summer is winding down.

This month, the Fall Equinox is celebrated around the world in many native cultures.  It is the time of equal night and equal day and marks the beginning of death of Grandfather Sun as the legend is told.  It is the time to gather the harvest and reap what we have sown in the spring.  There is a sense of abundance from the harvest, but also it is our sense for the preparation of the dark, cold winter and the apparent death of nature.  It is a time of going within ourselves and making preparation for our survival, physically and spiritually during the winter months.

Have you noticed the plants are dying back and some leaves have been falling?  The grass is all but brown in most areas and the tomatoes are coming on strong.  There are still many flowers blooming and bringing fall colors to the season.

I recently had the opportunity to travel down the Oregon Coast for my annual Karate (Tang Soo Do) Seminar in Coos Bay.  The weather was beautiful and warm, the Pacific Ocean still as expansive as ever.  I was aware of how just watching the waves come and go, how I could find that calm place inside that my secret spot brings me.  Water is a powerful essence.  Well, on our journey I kept my eye open for a plant that spoke to me.  This beautiful “weed” grows along the roadsides of waste areas and disturbed sites.  It grows in dense patches and is sometimes interspersed with another of its family that looks similar but yet very different.

This weed grows also in pastures, and moist clearings, at low elevations.  It is a biennial that grows up from a whitish, bitter taproot to about 20-120 cm tall.  The leaves are medium sized and fern-like and lacy with small narrow segments.  The flowers are white or yellowish white, small and bloom in late summer.  They grow in small numerous compact heads that when fully bloomed resemble an umbrella shape.  And in the very center of the umbrella is an “umbel” (one single raised flower) that is black to burgundy in color.  My children make it a game to find the little black flower in the middle.  Under the flower are a layer of lace like leaves that give the appearance of “celery leaves under a bed of cottage cheese.”  Use your mind’s eye for that one.  The great part about this flower is the root.  The Native People dug up this root and steamed it as a vegetable, it has a carrot like flavor, only a little bitter.

Now, there is a danger with identifying this plant.  There are at least two other plants that are very similar in appearance that I will mention here.  One plant is called Cow Parsnip.  Heracleum lanatum, and grows in similar areas, usually grows 1-3 cm tall and will be found up to supalpine elevations.  This plant is much taller and larger umbrella flowers.  It has a strong odor but the inner young stalks were eaten as a green vegetable by the Northwest Coastal People.  This plant also has furanocoumarins (a colorless, volatile compound) found in the outer skin and too much handling can cause phototoxicity and was considered poisonous by some groups.  The other which you should know from studying Kamana is the Poison Hemlock, Conium maculatum.  This one is the extremely poisonous plant that killed Socrates in 399 BC.  This plant looks VERY similar to the “weed” I have described earlier.

A few hints to tell the difference between Poison Hemlock and Queen Anne’s Lace are:

1. You won’t find the little colored flower in the middle of the umbrella
2. The root has a very disagreeable odor when crushed and does not smell like a carrot
3. The leaves under the flower head do not appear as celery leaves, they are very small and close to the stem
4. I have found the umbrella shape flower head of the hemlock to not appear as elegant and close together as the one mentioned earlier.

Here is the WARNING: DO NOT EAT ANY OF THESE PLANTS! I wanted to compare some common plants that look similar and are unique.  I am not recommending to go out and dig up roots to put into your salad.  Even if you are an expert herbalist, please ALWAYS use caution.

What inspired me to write about Daucus carota was that it is in bloom this month when a lot of other plants are dying back, getting ready for the winter.  I saw Queen Anne’s Lace blooming next to brown, dried stalks of Cow Parsnip and felt a little rebirth of spring hanging on in my neck of the woods.  Soon everything will be withered and sending energy to the roots to hold till next year’s cool, moist spring returns…as it always will.