A Walk in a Fern Bluff Park (24 March 2007)

Page 3

Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

and

Lindheimer's Milk Vetch (Astragalus lindheimeri)

Still in Veterans Park

The common dandelion is a much despised plant when it invades our lawns, yet historically this species has been used as a salad herb, cooked green, and cooked vegetable.  The young leaves, picked before flowers are present, can be eaten raw in salads or boiled, like spinach, turnip, or mustard greens.  Young flowerbuds have been boiled and served with butter, or pickled.  The flower heads, themselves, are said to be an excellent source of vitamin C.  Baking the roots until brown and brittle, then grinding, produces a coffee substitute said to be tasty and envigorating.

Lindheimer's milk vetch, shown below, is another common native plant in this area, but unlike the common dandelion, it is neither despised nor--beyond its elegant beauty--of much use.  A relative of this plant, the wooly locoweed, is toxic to grazing animals, which helps explain why this plant is often called Lindheimer's locoweed.

The flowers of Lindheimer's milk vetch are few and bi-colored, purple to violet in their outer margins with white veins and a white center (or eye).

The leaflets alternate on the leaf stem, with a terminal leaflet in place of tendrils.  Each leaflet is gently notched.

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Archives of previous walks in the park: 12 May 2007,  05 May 2007; 28 April 2007, 21 April 2007, 14 April 2007,  1 April 2007 Easter Egg Hunt; 24 March 2007,  17 March 2007; Nov. 03, 2001; April 04, 2001; March 25, 15, 10-11, 04, 2001; February 24,  18, 10, 2001

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