Hedysarum Sp. - Sweetvetch

Family: Fabaceae [E-flora]

Hedysarum occidentale 5652
Hedysarum occidentale
(Wikimedia)1
Hedysarum occidentale (29169631546)
Hedysarum occidentale
(Wikimedia)2
Hedysarum occidentale (28915806450)
Hedysarum occidentale
(Wikimedia)3

"Hedysarum (Sweetvetch) is a genus of the botanical family Fabaceae, consisting of about 309 species of annual or perennial herbs in Asia, Europe, North Africa, and North America. Species within Hedysarum genus may be herbaceous plants or deciduous shrubs. They have odd-pinnate leaves, with entire leaflets (no notches or indentations). These leaves resemble the leaves of sweet peas. The stipules may be free or connate, and stipels (secondary stipules) are absent. The inflorescences are peduncled racemes or heads. Bracts are small, with bracteoles below the calyx, and calyx teeth subequal. The petals may be pink, purplish, yellow, or whitish. Vexillum is longer than the wings, with an obtuse keel longer or rarely shorter than the wings. Stamens are diadelphous, 9+1, and anthers uniform. Ovary is 2-8-ovuled. Fruit is a lomentum, with segments that are glabrous, pubescent, bristly, or spiny. [2]" [Wiki]

"Seed- pods of genus Hedysarum have joints that break apart into 1- seed sections when ripe." [WildPNW]

Local Sp.

Non-Local Sp. (of particular noteworthiness)

Species Mentioned: " Hedysarum occidentale, sulphurescens, and alpinum (boreale)" [Kirk WEP] "Eskimo potato, masru, Alaska carrot, licorice root (H. alpinum,H. hedysaroides); wild sweetpea (H. mackenzii)" [Schofield]

Hazards

Poisonous Look-alikes

"(Hedysarum alpinum). Also known as Eskimo potato, licorice root, Alaska carrot, or bearroot; the roots are widely eaten but easily confused with a toxic relative, Mackenzie's sweetvetch (H. boreale ssp. mackenziei), also known as wild sweet pea, boreal sweetvetch, or brown bear's Indian potato, a plant well known among indigenous peoples of the north for its poisonous qualities (Moerman 2003)." [CPPlantMush]

"Many traditional foods were known by the informants, but they had not been harvested for years. For instance, Hedysarum alpinum roots had been har- vested in large quantities many years ago, but they have since been supplanted by cultivated crops such as the white potato. Some of the informants who knew of its usefulness, failed to identify the plant and distinguish it from the apparently poisonous, H. mackenzii (Heller 1981). Both species grow together throughout the Fort Yukon area." [Holloway&Alexander]

"Unlike many genera where some species are more tasty than others but all are harmless, the Hedysarums have distinct differences in safety. To harvest, you must be aware, noting subtle variations in leaf and flower structure between species. Foragers careless in identifica- tion are risking digestive disturbances. Though H. mackenzii isn't apt to be lethal, it is unsuited for human consumption. Athabas- cans refer to mackenzii as "brown bear food."" [Schofield]

Food Use

"The 3 species listed above have nourishing, edible roots, tasting faintly like carrots when cooked." [Kirk WEP]

Wildlife

Bear Food: "Between 75 and 100% of all grizzly bear feces contained roots of legumes such as Hedysarum (Muric 1962)." [Esser PRB]

Hedysarum occidentale - western hedysarum 

"Hedysarum occidentale is a PERENNIAL growing to 0.1 m (0ft 4in) by 0.5 m (1ft 8in).
It is hardy to zone (UK) 4. It is in flower from Jul to August. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Insects.It can fix Nitrogen.
Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and prefers well-drained soil. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers moist soil" [PFAF]

"General: Perennial herb from a branched, woody stem-base and heavy taproot; stems several, erect, 40-80 cm tall, branched above, sparsely short-hairy." [IFBC-E-flora]

"Habitat / Range: Moist to mesic meadows and rocky slopes in the subalpine and alpine zones; rare, known only from N and C Vancouver Island; S to ID, MT, CO and N WA." [IFBC-E-flora]

"The native range of this species is W. Canada (Vancouver Island) to NW. & W. Central U.S.A. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the temperate biome." [POWO]

Status: Native [E-flora]

Edible Uses

Root

"Root - raw or cooked[212]. Long and sweet with a liquorice-like flavour[183]. Used in the spring it is crisp and juicy' but it becomes tough and woody as the season advances." [PFAF] Roots used in the same way as reported for H. boreale [EMNMPV.10]

Propagation
"Seed - sow in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe or in the spring[200]. Stored seed should be pre-soaked for 24 hours in warm water. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots as soon as they are large enough to handle and plant them out into their permanent positions in the summer. Division in spring. Great care is needed since the plant dislikes root disturbance[200]." [PFAF]

Cultivation
"Easily grown in ordinary garden soil in a sunny position, preferring a deep well-drained sandy loam[1, 200]. Plants strongly resent root disturbance and should be placed in their permanent positions as soon as possible[1]. This species is closely related to H. boreale[212]. Does well in the rock garden or border[1]. This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby[200]." [PFAF]

Uses of other Hedysarum Sp.

Food Use

Hedysarum sp. · Food-Eskimo, Alaska Vegetable Fleshy roots used the same as potatoes. (4:715)[NAEth Moerman]

Cultivation

Journals of Interest

References

Hedysarum alpinum - Alpine sweetvetch 

"The native range of this species is E. Europe to N. Korea and Indian Subcontinent, Subarctic America to N. U.S.A. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the temperate biome." [POWO]

Hazards

May contain dangerous levels of beta-N-oxalyl-L-alpha-beta diaminoproprionic acid, a neurotoxin, which can cause lathyrism. (Krakauer)

"Care must be taken not to confuse this species with the closely related Hedysarum boreale (syn. H. mackenzii), known as "wild sweetpea," or "brown bear's Indian potato," which is said to be quite poisonous. The leaves of the edible species (H. alpinum) are conspicuously veined, and the flowers are usually reddish-purple, and smaller (typically under 1.5 cm long), whereas the leaves of H. boreale are obscurely veined, and the flowers usually darker (carmine, magenta or purple) and larger, to slightly over 2 cm long. In the early days of Arctic exploration, Sir John Richardson and his men mistook Hedysarum boreale for the edible H. alpinum and all those who ate it became ill (Heller, 1976)." [Turner&Kuhnlein]

"According to Inupiat teachings, masru should always be eaten with oil. Eating the root plain can cause constipation." [Schofield]

Food Use

Roots

"Root - raw or cooked[61, 177]. A carrot-like flavour[105]. The root can be harvested from autumn until spring, it tastes best after some frosts[172]. Possibly toxic." [PFAF]

"Hedysarum alpinum (Eskimo Potato, licorice root, Indian carrot); Fabaceae—herbaceous perennial of moist open woods and meadows, Arctic and S in mountains; long roots eaten raw or cooked (WARNING, similar species are toxic)." [ETWP]

"Roots eaten by northern peoples of Canada and Alaska; see detailed discussion" [Turner&Kuhnlein]

"Hedysarum alpinum L. ssp. americanum (Michx.) Fedtsch. (Indian-potato, sweetroots, old-fashioned-potatoes, trih). Formerly, roots were collected in au- tumn just before the ground froze and eaten fresh like celery or cooked like potatoes. Large quantities were harvested from mouse caches in autumn and spring. (No. 828)." [Holloway&Alexander]

"The long, fleshy roots, which may be over 1 cm thick (0.5 in.) in mature plants, are edible, and are said to taste like young carrots when cooked (Porsild, 1964). They were eaten by northern peoples, and were especially important to the Fisherman Lake Slave of the Northwest Territories. In September, people went up to the mountaintops to dig them, and brought them back to camp in quantity. The fresh roots were used for soup. Birch-bark baskets full of the roots were placed in holes in the ground and covered over with moss and leaves for winter storage, in the same manner as berries. The stored roots were then boiled with meat or sliced and fried in animal grease (Lamont, 1977). The Stoney (Assiniboin) of Alberta also ate the roots. The young women picked them in May and early June at the beginning of flowering. The roots were usually eaten raw (Scott-Brown, 1977)." [Turner&Kuhnlein]

"Eskimo and Indian peoples of Alaska also ate the roots, usually digging them from just before freeze-up, after the first hard frosts, until the ground was too hard to dig. They are said to be particularly soft and juicy during this period. The roots could also be dug in spring, and sometimes they were collected from the caches of mice and other small rodents. People stored them in barrels, boxes, or sacks buried in the ground near the house or cache site, and also kept them in seal oil, fish oil, or bear fat, sometimes with kinnikinnick berries. They were always eaten with seal oil or some kind of fat or oil to prevent constipation, and sometimes berries were added (Heller, 1976; Jones, 1983; Kari, 1987). The roots are said to keep well, both raw and cooked, and were used as a winter starvation food, as well as a staple. They were also traded from one group to another (Lamont, 1977; Kari, 1987). Tanaina people of Lime Village make a tea by steeping a piece of the fried root in hot water, and use it as baby food for babies who cannot nurse (Kari, 1987)." [Turner&Kuhnlein]

"Root vegetable: dry, well-drained places such as old gravel bars; sweet-tasting roots; fall or spring; eaten raw, boiled, or roasted by Alaska Inuit and Interior Dene (Athabaskan) peoples; preserved frozen in underground cache or in bear fat or seal oil; H. alpinum eaten by First Peoples and Inuit of Alaska; H. hedysaroides eaten in Kamchatka; roots obtained from mouse storehouses (Gülden 1992; Jochelson 1975)" [APAK Turner]

"Many plants, like masru {Hedysarum alpinum}, are adapted to withstand and renew themselves with moder- ate levels of disturbance, such as caused by animals..." [APAK Turner]

"For the edible root masru (“Indian potato,” Hedysarum alpinum), the Kotzebue Inuit, just north of the study area in Alaska, harvested the plants based on their age as a way of perpetuating the populations; fast-growing, medium- to small- sized clumps usually had the best roots – white, crisp, sweet, tender, and of good size, which is 2.2 centimetres in diameter and 30 to 45 centimetres long: “That first year we had easy digging in the loose, sandy soil of an old river channel. Only masru plants grew there, in clumps of all ages and sizes. We didn’t dig every plant. Only a third of these were the proper age. This left older plants to re-seed the garden” (A. Jones 1983, 117)." [APAK Turner]

"...among the Fisherman Lake Slave, the root vegetable Hedysarum alpinum L. was used as a winter starvation food. as well as stuple (Lamont 1977)." [TurnerDavis]

Hedysarum alpinum s. lat.; "The half-inch thick root tubersare sweet and taste somewhat like young carrots; they mature in August but may be gathered until the ground freezes. Inspring,beforethenew growth starts, they taste even better than in the autumn, but soon become tough and woody. The root tubers during spring and early summer formthe principal food of brown and black bears; and several kinds of meadow mice in autumn harvest and storet het ubers for winter use. Inordert o obtain a supply of this muchf avoured vegetable, the Eskimo of Alaska rob the mice “caches” which they locate by means of a dog specially trained for this purpose. Bogoras (1904) reportst hat this method is also practiced by the Chukchi.
The species, which includes several geographical races, is circumpolar, and from the arctic tundra ranges south far beyond the tree-line; it is common in loamy soil along the banks of rivers and lakes where it often forms large clumps." [Porsild EPA]

"Interior Athabascans gather Indian potato in fall and store the roots (mixed with fish oil and Rubus chamaemorus berries) in cellars for winter use. Flora Kokrine, an Athabascan born in Tanana, Alaska, favors roots fried in oil." [Schofield]

References

Hedysarum arcticum

Hedysarum arcticum is listed as Hedysarum hedysaroides subsp. arcticum (B.Fedtsch.) P.W.Ball [POWO]

"The native range of this subspecies is European Russia to Mongolia. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the temperate biome." [POWO]

Food Use

Root

"Root - raw or cooked. Dried, ground into a powder and used as a flour[74]." [PFAF]

Hedysarum boreale - Northern sweetvetch 

"The native range of this species is N. Russian Far East to W. & Central U.S.A. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the temperate biome." [POWO]

Accepted Infraspecifics;

Hazards

"The sub-species H. boreale mackenzii is said to have a slightly toxic root, but no mention about toxicity for this species has been found." [PFAF]

Food Use

"Young tender roots - raw or cooked[183]. Sliced and eaten raw, boiled, baked or added to soups[183]. A sweet carrot[105] or liquorice-like flavour[183]." [PFAF]

Hedysarum boreale Nutt.; "Young sweet root have a licorice flavour and are eaten raw, boiled, baked or added in soups" [EMNMPV.10]

Cultivation

"Redente and Reeves (1981) showed that sweetvetch (Hedysarum boreale) plants inoculated with a combination of a mycorrhizal fungus (Glomusfasciculatum) and a species of Rhizobium grew taller and produced more biomass than plants infected with Rhizobium alone. However, this relationship is not always so simple, since plant growth also can be inhibited by intersymbiont competition for phosphorus and photosynthate, resulting in im- paired nitrogen fixation and nitrogen stress upon the host plant (Bethlenfalvay et al. 1982)." [Curl Rhizo]

Allelopathy

Cultivation

Hedysarum boreale Nutt. - Shade intolerant [PSW-GTR-181]

Hedysarum boreale subsp. mackenziei -  Licorice root

Hedysarum boreale subsp. mackenziei (Richardson) S.L.Welsh; "The native range of this subspecies is N. Russian Far East to NW. U.S.A. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the subalpine or subarctic biome." [POWO]

Hazards

"The root is said to be slightly toxic." [PFAF]

Food Use

"Root - raw or cooked[177]. Long and sweet[46, 61] with a liquorice-like flavour[183]. Used in spring, the root is crisp and juicy but it becomes tough and woody as the season advances[2, 183]." [PFAF]

"Licorice Root, Hedysarum Mackenzii, is found in central Canada west to Alaska. Its long flexible roots are sweet, resembling licorice and are much eaten in spring by the Indians. This is the wild licorice of the trappers of the Northwest. Hedysarum boreale, a closely related species, is found in southern Canada and the extreme northern United States. It can probably be used in the same way as the northwestern species." [EWP]

"Hedysarum mackenzii Richards. Leguminosae. LICORICE-ROOT. North America. Richardson says at Fort Good Hope, Mackenzie River, this plant furnishes long, flexible roots'which taste sweet like licorice and are much eaten in the spring by the natives but become woody and lose their juiciness and crispness as the season advances. This is the licorice-root of the trappers of the Northwest and is also used as a food by the Indians of Alaska." [Sturtevant EWP]

Hedysarum mackenzii Richardson = Hedysarum boreale subsp. mackenzii (Richardson) S.L. Welsh; "Young sweet root have a licorice flavour and are eaten" [EMNMPV.10]

Hedysarum hedysaroides - Alpine French Honeysuckle

"The native range of this species is Subarctic & Subalpine Eurasia to Alaska. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the temperate biome." It is not shown to be found in Canada. [POWO]

Food Use

Root

"Root - raw or cooked. Sweet and highly nutritious. Harvested from late autumn to spring, it is sweetened by frost[172]." [PFAF]

Hedysarum polybotrys - Manyraceme Sweetvetch

"The native range of this species is China. It is a perennial or subshrub and grows primarily in the temperate biome." [POWO]

Medicinal Use

Herbal Medicines Contained in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia of 1985, Vol. I; Hedysarum polybotrys Hand.-Mazz. = Radix Hedysari [Tang CDPO]

PIM YIN name; DUO XU YAN HUANG QI.
Used in TCM to; "constrain sweat and secure exterior", "draw toxin and close sores", "supplement qi and disinhibit water"
Traditional Indications; "blood vacuity with yellow complexion", "enduring welling abscess and flat abscess", "flooding and spotting [ = metrorrhagia and metrostaxis]", "hematochezia", "prolapse of rectum due to enduring diarrhea", "qi vacuity and hypodynamia", "qi vacuity edema", "reduced food intake and sloppy stool" and "spontaneous sweating due to exterior vacuity". [EncyTCM V6]

Anti-Cancer: Listed as one of serveral species that "are the most important polysaccharide containing plants, which have been revealed to show anticancer effect." [Saeidnia, NANAD]

Phytochemicals

y-Aminobutyric acid [EncyTCM V1]
Hedysalignan A [EncyTCM V3]

Hedysarum sachalinense

"The native range of this species is Sakhalin {An island in the Russian Far East/North Pacific}. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the temperate biome." [POWO]

Food Use

Root

"Root - raw or cooked[74]." [PFAF]

Hedysarum sulphurescens

"The native range of this species is W. Canada to NW. U.S.A. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the temperate biome." [POWO]

Hedysarum vicioides

"The native range of this species is E. Siberia to Japan and N. & Central China. It is a perennial." [POWO]

Food Use

Root

"Root - raw, cooked or dried and ground into a powder[74]." [PFAF]

References

Image References

  1. Walter Siegmund, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
  2. Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
  3. Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons