A Pleasant Sunday

Since we really celebrated Easter yesterday with the grandchildren, we had the day to ourselves (I needed some peace and quiet!). During our usual Sunday morning hike in the Arboretum I came across this fascinating wildflower, which I know I blipped last year at one point. But it's worth doing again. This is Northern Sweet Coltsfoot (Petasites frigidus). It's quite a common native perennial herb in the cooler northern regions of the US. 

Historically, it has many uses as a food. The leaves are used in salads and the young leaves and flowering stems also can be used in salads or made into sauerkraut. Indigenous people used the leaves to cover berries or rhubarb to prevent mold, or made buckets to hold berries. The leaves have also been dried and burned to use as a salt substitute...apparently it has a rather salty taste. Medicinally the plant was used by native tribes to make a congestion remedy, to create a wash for sore eyes, and also made a decoction of the root for itch. Obviously you should not take my word for any of this should you decide to go find yourself a patch. 

There's a good patch of it in the extra so you can see what it looks like. To me it looks dreadfully aggressive....you won't find it in my garden!

Thanks to Miranda for hosting Wildflower Week once again this year! I really enjoy seeing the entries.