- Kathleen Scavone
- Posted On
The Living Landscape: Fascinating flora
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Ethnological research shows that what is now called California was once home to more than 100 American Indian tribes, or groups of people, who knew the lay of the land intimately – what to eat, how to hunt and how to respect the land.
William Ralganal Benson, a Pomo, born in 1862 at Shaxai – which is now known as Buckingham on Clear Lake – indicating this respect, said, “Plants are thought to be alive, their juice is their blood, and they grow. The same is true of trees. All things die, therefore all things have life. Because all things have life, gifts have to be given to all things.”
Miner's lettuce is a familiar California native plant that is seen during spring to early summer in damp areas. It is easily identified by its thickset, round, rosette shape with delicate flowers at its top. In times past, California's American Indians made use of its succulent leaves in their varied diet.
The name of the plant comes from the California Gold Rush era when miners dined on it to prevent scurvy, as it is high in vitamin C. It was commonly eaten as a leafy vegetable, raw or boiled like spinach.
Wild strawberries, known by the Yuki Indians as “Pol-put' mam,” are commonly seen along wooded hillsides.
A perennial with white flowers, the berry is quite similar to its cultivated cousin, except much smaller.
Children, then as now, loved wild strawberries and consumed them fresh or dried. Pomos along the coast celebrated the arrival of spring's first ruby red delicacies with a strawberry festival before gathering them commenced.
The leaves of wild strawberry plants were enjoyed as a vitamin C-enriched tea, while the roots were used medicinally for stomach problems and as a diuretic.
According to “The Complete Garden Guide to the Native Perennials of California,” by Glenn Keator, wild strawberries, or Fragaria, are of the rose family.
There are at least three varieties of wild strawberries, and all grow to great colonies in a garden, and may be used as a ground cover or as a stabilizer.
Soaproot is an unassuming low-lying green plant which was used in a variety of ways by California's Indians.
Soaproot, also known as soap plant or amole, is considered to be one of the most abundant bulbs in California.
A relative of the lily, it is easily identified even without a flower. The leaves are narrow and long with a slightly wavy edge.
By late spring a straight stalk grows amidst the center of the leaf rosette and, if you look carefully, you may see the white flowers open late in the day.
These marvels of evolution do not need bees or wasps for pollination, but instead, depend upon small night flying beetles, flies or moths to do the deed.
Soaproot has been used to make strong brushes from the brown fibers which cover the bulb. After the fibers were removed from the bulb, they were cleaned of debris, and were fashioned into various sized bundles for sifting acorn flour. The brush handle was often made from boiled soaproot bulbs.
Once it was made into a pulp, it could be adhered to the soaproot fibers and dried. These handy brushes were put to a variety of uses by American Indians. They could be used for the cleaning of baskets, mortars and pestles.
Soaproot, as its name implies, was used for soap, as well. First, the bulb was crushed, then mixed with water for a foamy, fresh cleaner.
Along with soaproot's many other uses, it was used traditionally to stun fish in a dammed creek, and its bulb was also cooked and eaten.
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.