Grow it in a humus-rich but sharply drained soil. Propagation of the plant is via autumn-sown seed or small tubers. Box 10, Pineola, NC 28604 70 Hardy from USDA Zones 5 to 9, spring beauty is more often than not an ephemeral the foliage tends to wither and fade away over the summer.
One good source is Gardens of the Blue Ridge (P.O.
Just make sure to purchase your plants from nurseries that propagate their plants on-site rather than dig them from the wild. Spring beauty is easy to grow in the garden and makes a handsome addition to the sunny or partially shaded wildflower collection. (In at least one state-Massachusetts-spring beauty is now listed as endangered!) In any case, it's not necessary to harvest native edibles when we can grow them at home as a renewable delight. These days, wild collection of spring beauty and other native plants is controversial, due to issues of sustainability.
"The tubers are good food for the body," he wrote, "but after a long winter, the pale-rose flowers in early spring are food for the soul." He warned against overharvesting the tubers in the wild and diminishing the plants' flowering display. However, even back in 1970, Gibbons sounded a note of caution and restraint. He remarked that the "spuds" don't really taste like potatoes at all but rather are sweeter in flavor, like boiled chestnuts, though with a softer, smoother texture. In his classic culinary field guide, Stalking the Wild Asparagus, Euell Gibbons wrote a charming chapter on these wild edible treats. The tubers are found about two to three inches under the soil and measure from a half inch to two inches in diameter. When spring beauties blossom in large drifts across the landscape, the effect is stunning. In early spring, dense racemes of star-shaped, pink-tinged white flowers appear and last for about a month. It sports grasslike, succulent, dark green leaves. Both the Iroquois and Algonquin dined on the boiled or roasted tubers of Claytonia virginica.Ī perennial herb, spring beauty usually grows about six inches tall and eight inches wide. The genus is distributed throughout North America and Australasia and has long been a source of good snacking. Photo by Jim Stasz at USDA-NRCS PLANTS DatabaseĪ member of the Portulacaceae, or portulaca family, and a cousin to other well-known wild edibles such as purslane ( Portulaca oleracea) and miner's lettuce ( Montia perfoliata), spring beauty is one of about 15 species in the Claytonia genus.
0 kommentar(er)
