Psoralea esculenta
The prairie turnip ( Psoralea esculenta ) is a lupine -like plant of the legume family ( Fabaceae ). It is a characteristic plant of the prairie, which also represented a major crop in earlier times that was harvested by the Indians and later by the first settlers wild. Nowadays, these legume only plays in the diet of the inhabitants of Indian reservations a certain role, but it was probably also tentatively grown on various occasions.
Species profile
The prairie turnip is a low, erect herb with one or more firm flower stems that are about 15 to 20 cm high. The main stem growing from an egg to up spindle-shaped, bulbous thickened root, which can reach up to about 5 cm in diameter and is covered by a thick, brown, slightly leathery crust.
The densely silvery hairy, green foliage is similar to lupine, fingered fünfzählig.
The dark blue flowers are crowded in ear-like tufts. With increasing age, the flowers fade and take on a lavender -like color. The flower buds are also strongly silvery hairy. The flower is from May to June.
The fruits are slender pods, each with a pea -like seeds. Since the above-ground parts of plants sammy soon after pollination and then are very fragile, they are torn by the wind, and so spreads the seeds. The plant is perennial enduring.
Special
This Schmetterlingsblütler has nährstoffspeichernde tubers, formerly represented an important period provisions of the Plains Indians and are still used today for the traditional cuisine. When the trappers this tuber as " pomme blanche " was known in today's reserve -English it is referred to as " wild turnip " or simply as " turnip ".
The radish tubers are large ( but before aborting the wilting plants) dug up after flowering, peeled and eaten. They can be eaten raw or cooked. Peeled they are dried whitish bright they are braided on their individual roots, such as garlic chains, and can be kept for so long. They are still around in the trading post commercially available. The taste is slightly nutty, mealy consistency and slightly tacky.
Dissemination
The prairie turnip is in the prairie habitats from southern Canada to Oklahoma, Wisconsin and the whole area of the Great Plains spread, but never in dense deposits. To the west is the prairie turnip to find up to Colorado and Montana. Preferred locations are hill slopes in the prairie, in the lowlands, it is rare to find.
Surnames
- English: Wild Turnip, Prairie Turnip, Breadrood ( scurfpea )
- Lakota: thíŋpsiŋla ( roughly: , Prairie strength nodules ')
- Dakota: thíŋpsiŋna
Swell
- Gilmore, Melvin R., Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region, Lincoln / Nebraska, 2nd edition 1991
- Johnson, James R. / Larson, Gary E., Grassland Plants of South Dakota and the Northern Great Plains, Brookings, SD 1999
- Netzel, Rebecca, Animal Nation and Plant Nation, A Field Guide for Lakota Children and for All Those adults who care about breastfeeding Creation, Trier 2007
- Venning, Frank D., A Guide to Field Identification - Wild Flowers of North America, New York / Racine, Wisconsin 1984