Corydalis aurea / scrambled eggs

Adjectives: annual, disturbed, exposed, forest openings, interesting bits, native, poisonous, rocky, toxic

Also known as: golden smoke, golden corydalis

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Scrambled eggs, or golden corydalis, is a winter annual or biennial, native to much of the US and Canada (except the southeastern US and Maine, and the Maritime provinces).

The root is a branching caudex from which the plant can spread laterally. The stems, up to 15″ long, are highly branched. Erect initially, they become prostrate with age. They may be light green, varying to red-ish.

The leaves are generally green when young, then blue-green as they get covered with a waxy coating. Each is 3x pinnately compound and deeply lobed. Each lobe is further divided into elliptical, pointed segments. The overall appearance is “feathery”, albeit a pretty coarse feather.

Scrambled egg flowers, are, as you might expect, yellow. They are small (about ½ inch long). Although it is no simple task to count them, each has four petals and six stamens. The upper, outer petals is folded along a mid-line to form a spur. The flowers occur on racemes with up to 30 per unit. They start out erect, and become horizontal and drooping as they age.

A distinguishing feature of the species (in comparison with a cousin that doesn’t live here) is that the uppermost leaves on a flowering branch typically rise above the raceme.

Scrambled egg fruits (that sounds weird) are pod-like, resembling members of the pea family. Each is about ¾ inch long. As seen in the circled area in the photo, they can vary between, slender and stout, and widely spreading to hanging. Young fruits are typically straight but curl up as the shiny black seeds ripen.

Scrambled eggs are found in a wide variety of habitats, ranging from open prairies and hillsides, to along streams and rocky banks or shores, to sagebrush steppes and open woodlands. They also grow in a variety of disturbed sites.

Interesting bits: Scrambled eggs has a number of alkaloids that make it somewhere between unpalatable and toxic to animals. But that’s OK because it is also poor in protein and calories. In any case, don’t eat it.