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Updated 11:31pm - Mar 18, 2010
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Opinion Columns Gopher Gulch: Enjoy the roadside flowers
Gopher Gulch: Enjoy the roadside flowers
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While the wild rhodies rightfully capture attention, every roadside is covered with blooming plants these days, and that’s especially good for those who can’t hike. It’s nice to know what you’re looking at, so here’s the scoop on a few of the most noticeable flowers. Those big white blooms made of a gazillion tiny blossoms that grow on 2-foot stalks along Highway 101 between Crescent City and Klamath are coltsfoot, a powerful medicinal herb. If you’re using medicinal herbs, be aware that while coltsfoot makes a great poultice for sprains and bruises, not everyone can safely take it internally. Heading north on Highway 101, you’ll notice waves of blossoms lapping at the pavement. There are dandelions, chickweed, and foxgloves. Near the beach are verbena, yarrow and kinnikinnick. Inland you’ll find the glorious blue of chicory. And every single one of these plants is useful either as food or as medicine. That doesn’t mean you should harvest your pharmacy from public or private property. It’s illegal and a dog may have been the watering agent.
Laura, my favorite botanist, reminds me that “wild” and “native” are
not synonymous terms. It’s difficult, but I have to accept that just
because foxgloves were here before I was doesn’t make them native.
More than half the flowers you see along the highway where the sun shines are wild mustard. That mustard isn’t native, but it’s a very useful plant, and even big agri-business is learning to use it. Farmers in Idaho, including many leasing land from the Shoshone-Bannock tribes, are using a crop rotation of mustard as a less toxic and less expensive alternative to chemical fumigants in potato production. Dr. Susan Kegley, a chemist employed by the Pesticide Action Network of North America, explains it this way. “Mustard plants produce small amounts of MITC, the same active fumigant that is produced when metam sodium reacts with water.” Unlike synthetic MITC, the mustard plant produces very small amounts of this chemical over the entire growing season, so the levels emitted pose less toxic risk than chemical-based farming methods. “As we transition away from chemical farming, biological methods that reduce reliance on synthetic pesticides and improve soil quality are important,” she said. “Mustard is proving especially effective at curbing nematodes and ‘early die’ in potatoes. The crop also helps hold soil in place, and plowing in this green manure enhances soil percolation.” In other words, you can righteously claim that mustard in your garden is a good thing, not the result of haphazard gardening. On top of that, every part of the plant is edible, with the blossoms especially good in salads or sandwiches. While you’re driving around looking at flowers both wild and native, be aware that the bird on the pavement in your lane is probably a fledgling, the avian equivalent of a human toddler. Slow down and give it extra time to get out of the road so that it, too, may live to enjoy the flowers. |
