Page 90 - The Forager’s Guide to Wild Foods

Miner’s Lettuce/Spring Beauty,

Claytonia (Montia) spp. (MONTIACEAE) KEY MEDICINAL USES: It’s a gentle and nutritious
laxative, often used as a spring tonic.
MINER’S LETTUCE/SPRING BEAUTY or Candy Flower HOW TO HARVEST AND EAT: Pick young, bas-
has quite a few common edible species. 5-petalled flow- al leaves for salads or cook as a green. Leaves are
ers are usually pink or white and opposite leaves often,
best picked in the spring, but can be eaten anytime.
but not always, clasp the stem. It is an easy to identify Flowers can be picked with the leaves. Tubers are
tasty green. Edible species include C. perfoliata, C. sibiri- best harvested in fall, after identifiable by flow-
ca, C. virginica, C. acutifolia, C. tuberosa, C. caroliniana, C. ers. Keep bigger tubers and always replant smaller

lanceolata,C. megarhiza. ones. The root has a radish flavor when eaten raw,
EDIBLE PARTS: flowers, leaves, and roots (entire plant tastes like a cross between a water chestnut and a
is edible) potato when cooked, and is rich in vitamins A & C.

COMMON MINER’S LETTUCE, C. perfoliata grows up to
16 inches (40cm) but can be as short as ½ inch (1.3cm).
It has 2 fused leaf-looking bracts with a stem of white
flowers that protrudes from the center. It is found in
winter and early spring, in shady spots and moist banks.
FLOWER: The small white ⅛ inch (0.3cm) flowers are
5-petalled and bloom in February-May. They appear in
leaves that range in size from ½ inch (1.3cm) to
small clusters and are ½ inch (1.3cm) or more across.
2 inches (5cm) or more across. The stem passes
LEAF: Leaves are basal, on long and narrow stems that
through the center of the opposite clasping leaves.
widen into oval or triangular bright green succulent

SIBERIAN MINER’S LETTUCE, C. sibirica, Siberian
Springbeauty, Candy Flower, or Pink Purslane is a long-
lived, flowering perennial, biennial, or annual that can
be found growing in moist, rich soils of deciduous for-
ests and along shady streambeds. Plants can reach 8
inches (20cm) tall, spreading like a ground cover.
yakovlev.alexey, CC-BY-SA-2.0
FLOWER: Flowers bloom in April- July and measure
smooth, purplish-brown petioles, lanceolate with en-
0.5-0.8 inches (1.3-2cm) in diameter. They have 5 pink
tire margins. Stem leaves are opposite and they ei-
or white, candy-striped petals with 2 divided lobed tips.
ther meet or overlap at the base with entire margins
LEAF: Fleshy, bright green leaves are present from Janu-
and pointed tips.
ary through mid-October. Basal leaves are on very long,

VIRGINIA SPRING BEAUTY, C. virginica, Fairy Spud, or
Grass-Flower is found in wetlands, wet forests, riparian
hardwood forests, and prairies. Plants have little pink
flowers and can grow up to 8 inches (20cm) tall with an
8 inch (20cm) spread.
FLOWER: Flowers grow in a raceme of 5 or more per
Ivy Main, CC-BY-SA-3.0
cluster in spring. Each white to pink flower measures
LEAF: Green leaves are opposite, lanceolate and grow
0.5 inches (1.3cm) across and has 5 petals with dark
1.25-5.5 inches (3-14cm) long and 0.2-0.5 inches
pink veins and 2 green sepals. They close on cloudy
(0.5-1.3cm) wide on 2-8 inch (5-20cm) long petioles.
days and at night, and are open and erect on sunny days.
MIXED WILD GREENS SALAD: Mix Miner’s Lettuce, wild garlic or watercress, and wildflowers. Season to
Chickweed, and Purslane. Add chopped, wild herbs, like taste and dress with vinegar and oil.

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