XOxyria digyna - Alpine SorrelX
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Alpine Sorrel -or- Wood Sorrel -or- Mountain Sorrel -or- Alpine mountainsorrel (Oxyria digyna), family Polygonaceae (Buckwheat)
The pretty color of these interesting looking blooms are surpassed only by their nutritional value. Abundant sources of vitamins A, C, and E, they were used by Native Americans in the making of a dish like sauerkraut. The species is a perennial herb.
Per WIKIPEDIA is this information: 'Oxyria digyna (mountain sorrel, wood sorrel, Alpine sorrel or Alpine mountainsorrel) is common in the tundra of Arctic. Further south, it grows in high mountainous areas like the Alps and Cascade Range. It grows in dense tufts, with stems 10-20 cm high. Both flowering stems and leaf stalks are somewhat reddish. Leaves are kidney-shaped, somewhat fleshy, on stalks from the basal part of the stem. Flowers are small, green and later reddish, and are grouped in an open upright cluster. The fruit is a small nut, encircled by a broad wing which finally turns red. Forming dense, red tufts, the plant is easily recognized. O. digyna grows in wet places protected by snow in winter. Oxyria (from Greek) means sour. The leaves have a fresh acidic taste and are rich in vitamin C, containing about 36 mg/100g. They were used by the Inuit to prevent and cure scurvy, and can be used in salads. It is called qunguliq in Inuktitut.' End quote.
USES: From Native American Ethnobotany: Alaska Native Food - Leaves used as a good source of vitamin C. Leaves eaten fresh and raw. Eskimo, Alaska Fresh leaves mixed with seal blubber and eaten. Leaves and stems eaten raw or cooked with seal oil. Leaves and young stems eaten raw and cooked. Eskimo, Greenland Juice sweetened, thickened with a small amount of rice or potato flour and eaten. Fresh leaves mixed with seal blubber and eaten. Eskimo, Inuktitut Leaves eaten with seal oil. Leaves eaten raw, with seal oil, cooked or fermented. Montana Indian Acid-tasting leaves used as a salad.
Per Flora of North America the species is food for caribou, muskoxen, and geese - reported to eat the leaves and stems, and arctic hares and lemmings consume the fleshy rhizomes (horizontal underground stem; rootstock). Elk are also known to feed on the plants.
Flower -
Plant location: Our first sighting of Oxyria digyna was in the Rocky Mountain National Park on July 17, 2008. The flower panel is from that instance. Plant and foliage views were from a sighting on Rollins Pass - Colorado - July 26, 2015.
Found in the following United States: AK, AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, NH, NM, NV, OR, SD, UT, WA, and WY. Habitats are wet, shady areas such as tundra rills and depressions, forest edges, and rock crevices. Early melting snowbeds and zones of snow accumulation, gravel bars, mudflats, tundra, scree slopes, crevices in rock outcrops, talus slopes, per Flora of North America. Elevation varies from 9500' to 12,500'. Our specimens were in the 11,000'+ range. See the BONAP distribution map, here.
Plant -
Bloom period: July through September. Fruit production from July to October. Leaves are shaped like kidneys or heart-shaped (reniform to cordate).Foliage -
Rocky Mountain National Park - July 17, 2008
Macro of inflorescence showing perianth (the calyx and corolla of a flower, collectively, especially when they are similar in appearance) and tepal (a segment of a perianth which is not differentiated into calyx and corolla - a sepal or petal) details, among others.
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