edible

Showing 13–24 of 58 results

  • Cardamine hirsute / hairy bittercress

    • small brassica/crucifer with compound leaves
    • teeny white, 4 petal flowers with 4 stamens in racemic clumps
    • a widespread weed, including gardens and lawns

  • Cirsium scariosum / elk thistle

    • usually tall, quite prickly thistle with deeply lobed, spiny leaves
    • large, lavender (pink to purple) flowers hidden by the long leaves
    • covered with white hairs giving it a silvery look overall
    • in moist areas, in full sun

  • Cirsium vulgare / bull thistle

    • very nasty spines all over, including stems
    • purple flower head over pear/egg-shaped narrow, spiny bracts
    • fruits are thistle-downy
    • disturbed areas, but also forest gaps, stream sides and seeps

  • Claytonia lanceolata / lanceleaf spring beauty

    • small, very early spring, ephemeral
    • 5 white or pink-ish petals with pink/purple stripes
    • pair of opposite leaves at mid-stem; lanceolate

  • Crepis acuminata / tapertip hawksbeard

    • leaves (diagnostic) - long; many deep triangular, pointed lobes; upright, grey-green; milky sap
    • flowers - 5-10 rays, no disc florets; yellow; up to 70 per plant
    • dry, open places in foothills; commonly with sagebrush

  • Elymus trachycaulus / slender wheatgrass

    • cool season bunchgrass; no rhizomes
    • flower spikes very narrow and linear; overlapping spikelets tightly pressed to stem
    • flat, medium-width leaves; somewhat bluish
    • beautifully straw colored in fall
    • common but rarely abundant; many habitats

  • Erythronium grandiflorum / glacier lily

    • striking, yellow, six tepals - recurved and nodding
    • large, yellow or red anthers, a single pistil
    • two large green basal leaves
    • early spring

  • Fragaria vesca / woodland strawberry

    • trifoliate, light green markedly toothed leaves
    • clusters of hairy, 5-petaled white flowers on a soft-hairy stem
    • plants spread by stolons
    • fruit (if any) red with bumps where the seeds are
    • spring/early summer bloom
    • widespread

  • Helianthus annuus / sunflower

    • tall with big, drooping leaves (up to 15x15 inches)
    • large sunflower like flowers - yellow petals, darker disk
    • disturbed edges and waste areas, roadsides, near crops

  • Heracleum maximum / cow parsnip

    • very tall - stands above most other herbs and forbs
    • huge leaves with clasping sheaths at the stem junction
    • leaves lobed and like a very large maple
    • huge flat umbels with white flowers
    • grooved, woolly, stout stem

  • Hydrophyllum capitatum / ballhead waterleaf

    • leaves to 10" tall, deeply lobed (7-11 lobes)
    • globe of purple-blue-white flowers below the leaves or at ground level
    • flowers are fuzzy while still in bud
    • rocky, shady, seasonally moist sites

  • Koeleria macrantha / Prairie Junegrass

    • short, tuft-forming bunchgrass
    • leaves short and basal with raised veins
    • grows in early spring; flowers in June/July
    • spike-like cylindrical inflorescence, 2-5" long, tan or purple
    • scattered distributions, esp. in rocky or sandy forests or plains

Showing 13–24 of 58 results