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Arrowleaf
Balsamroot: A.K.A.: Bigroot & Big
Sunflower is a large plant, one to two foot tall, with flowers two to four
inches across. In the Spring the Balsamroot turns entire hillsides yellow.
This plant's roots are sometimes used as an alternative to Echinacea. |
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Bearberry
or Kinnickinick or Indian Tobacco or Uva-Ursi or Manzanita
is a low-growing, evergreen
shrub commonly used as an ornamental plant or hedging in gardens. It has
small, oval, dark green leaves that have a thick, leathery feel and a
smooth edge all around. The white, waxy flowers bloom from May to June in
clusters and the berries ripen in autumn becoming a bright red. (1)
Because bearberry is a common garden plant, it is often overlooked as a
powerful and prized medicinal herb for Astringent, antibacterial, or
hemostatic. Native Americans used Bearberry or
Kinnickinick alone or as a major ingredient mixed with other herbs for smoking. |
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Beargrass
is a beautiful blooming in the late spring especially at about 5,000 feet
around Mt Spokane. The grass part lasts through summer and then dies out
to start over in the spring. See Mt Kit Carson |
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Common
Camas consists of a stout stem arising 20 to 70 cm from a large
bulb. The ovoid bulb may be 2 to 5 cm long and 1 to 2.5 cm wide. The
leaves are primarily basal, and are about half as long as the height of
the stem, and may be 8 to 25 mm wide. They are linear in shape with
parallel venation.
Common Camas was a valuable food source
for the native peoples of the Pacific Northwest. The root may be eaten raw
although common practice was to grind it to a pulp and then bake cakes
that could be stored into winter. Today, its importance is
as meadow wildflower in gardens. It is expecially effective grown in dense
drifts. It self seeds readily, and care must be taken not to accidentally
weed out the seedlings. Several years must pass before the seedlings are
ready to flower, which is the case for most members of the lily family. |
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INDIAN
PAINTBRUSH,
common
name applied to annual, biennial, and perennial herbs constituting the
genus Castilleja, of the family Scrophulariaceae.
The genus, which contains about 200 species,
is native to the cooler portions of North and Central America and Asia,
and to the Andes. Because Indian paintbrushes, also called painted cups,
are parasitic on the roots of other plants, they have not been naturalized
and have rarely been cultivated away from their native habitat. The plants
have long, hairy, unbranched stems with alternate leaves. The uppermost
leaves, or bracts, are brilliantly colored and much showier than the
inconspicuous interspersed flowers. The flowers, which are borne in
spikes, have a two-lobed calyx, a two-lobed corolla, four stamens, and a
solitary pistil. The corolla, which is usually yellow, is encased within
the calyx, and is usually indiscernible. The fruit is a two-celled
capsule. The common painted cup, C. linariaefolia, is the state
flower of Wyoming. The calyx is greenish white, but the bracts are intense
vermilion. The scarlet paintbrush, C. coccinea, is a common wild
plant of the eastern U.S. The common Indian paintbrush, C.
septentrionalis, is a hardy herb found in Canada and in the
mountainous regions of the northern U.S. from New England to the Rocky
Mountains; its calyx is greenish white tinted with purplish red. |
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