Synonyms: Other names: Oregon bitterroot Nomenclature: rediviva = coming back to life Nativity / Invasiveness: Montana native plant
Edible plant
Medicinal plant
Description
General: low perennial from a usually several-branched, deep-seated, fleshy taproot and a simple or branched base. Flower stems leafless, 1-3 cm tall, bearing at the tip a whorl of 5-6 linear, membranous bracts 5-10 mm long.
Leaves: basal, 1.5-5 cm long, fleshy, linear- to club-shaped and nearly cylindrical, with a broadened dry base, usually beginning to wither and dry by flowering.
Flowers: single on each stem, the stalk starting and jointed just above the bracts, there readily separating at maturity, 1-3 cm long. Sepals mostly 6-9, oval, 10-25 mm long, unequal, overlapping, whitish to deep pink or rose, entire to ragged. Petals about 15, rather narrowly oblong-oblanceolate, 18-35 mm long, from deep to light pinkish-rose or sometimes nearly pure white. Stamens 30-50. Style branches 4-8.
May-July.
Fruits: capsules, ovate. Seeds 6-20, nearly round, about 2 mm long, dark brown, shiny, with very minute oval bumps in regular rows, without appendage.
Distribution
On gravelly to heavy, usually dry soil, often in scabland or rimrock, from the sagebrush plains to the lower mountains, in w. and s.c. parts of MT. Also from B.C. southward, on the e. side of the Cascades, to s. CA, CO and AZ.
Edible Uses
Bitterroot is the state flower of Montana. The root was a staple food of some native North American Indian tribes. It is said to be extremely nutritious, 50 - 80 grams being sufficient to sustain an active person for a day. The root is, however, rather small and tedious to collect in quantity. It is easiest to use when the plant is in flower in the spring, because the outer layer of the root (which is very bitter) slips off easily at this time of the year. The Indians usually dug the roots early in the spring as the leaves are developing and long before flowering time, when the root becomes most bitter. They believed that only certain areas produce palatable roots. While being boiled the roots become soft and swollen and exude a pink mucilaginous substance. The root swells to about 6 times its size and resembles a jelly-like substance. The root has a good taste though a decided bitter flavor develops afterwards. If the root is stored for a year or two the bitterness is somewhat reduced, however they are again cooked before use. The root can also be dried, ground into a powder and used as a mush or a thickener in soups etc.
Medicinal Uses
The root affects the heart and promotes secretion of milk. An infusion of the root has been used to increase the milk flow in nursing mothers, to relieve heart pain and the pain of pleurisy and also as a blood purifier. The root has been eaten raw to counteract the effects of poison ivy rash and as a treatment for diabetes. The pounded dry root has been chewed in the treatment of sore throats. A poultice of the raw roots has been applied to sores.
Sub taxa:
Our specimen belong to var. rediviva Pursh.
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Edible plant
Medicinal plant
