Balsamorhiza sagittata, arrow leaf balsam root
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Balsam, from balm, an aromatic ointment
Balsam, an aromatic resinous substance exuded by various
trees and shrubs.
The root is said to have a balsam odor.
Rhiza is said to be Greek for root.
Sagittarius is Latin for arrow as in Sagittarius, the
archer.
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B. sagittata is a perennial from a taproot.
Perennial with a deep-seated, woody taproot and multicipital
caudex.] Milticipital – many stems from one root.] Many basal leaves and many
flower stalks rise from a single root.
It is native.
Burke has it in most counties east of the Cascades with one
observation in Whatcom
County
Other sources have it in the western states to the Dakotas
and Kansas but not in Nebraska .
It is said to need 9 inches of annual precipitation. In Utah it is found from
1,000 to 9,000 feet.
Seedling grow slowly taking 3 or 4 years to develop in
optimum conditions, up to 8 years in low precipitation.
Lewis & Clark collected it in 1806. In 1814 Bursh named
it Buphthalmum sagittatum. In 1834 Nuttall renamed it Balsamorhiza sagittata.
Leaves
Large basal leaves on long stems are shaped like arrowheads.
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Burke says no leaves on the stem [no cauline leaves]. Other
sources suggest stem leaves are frequent. I have a photo of a pair of stem
leaves, in alternate pattern. I saw a Robert Carr’s photo on the Burke website
with cauline leaves that look to be opposite. Paul Slichter says they usually
have several ‘very reduced’ narrow leaves on the stems.
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The leaves are very hairy and rather whitish when young. The
hair on the leaves and on the involucre distinguish the species. However, B.
sagittata hybridizes with almost all other Balsamorhiza species at its contact
point with them.
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Turner says the leaves become hairless soon after blooming.
Later they twist and become papery.
Paul Slichter says younger leaves are hairy and silvery,
older leaves greener and smoother.
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Kathy Lloyd, Montana Native Plant Society, says the leaves
arise from branched underground caudex, or persistent woody stem, to form dense
rosettes.
Flowers
The inflorescence is a flowerhead of ray flowers and disk
flowers on a large, flat receptacle [receptacle - the swollen top of the stem from
which flowers of a flowerhead rise].
You can’t see the flat receptacle on the photo below. It’s
hidden by the hairy calyx.
This is a flowerhead not a flower. The flowerhead is made up
of many flowers. They are two kinds of flowers.
What seem to be bright yellow petals really are petals but
each one is the fused petals of an individual flower, a ray flower. They are
female flowers. The botanists call the fused petals a ligule. The ligule has a
small pocket it its base containing a pistil, a female reproductive organ.
Notice the notches at the apex of the ligules. In other
photos the lines of fusion are clear to see.
The brown stalks with curls rising from them are disk
flowers. Disk flowers are hermaphroditic, they contain both male and female
reproductive organs.
Disk flowers are quite complicated. They are a tube within a
tube within a tube.
The outer tube, the corolla, is fused petals. In other photos
you will see the tips of the petals curved away from the corolla tube.
The next tube is fused stamen, the male reproductive organ,
it looks brown in the photo.
The inner tube is the style. It rises from the ovary, it
opens, curls away from itself exposing the stigma, a sticky surface for
capturing pollen. A particle of pollen will grow down the tube of the style to
fertilize the egg in the ovum.
At the edge of the photo below you can barely see the style
and stigma of the ray flowers. As above, it is female, the male reproductive
organ is not present, there is no brown tube. And, as above, the corolla is
only a tube at the base. The corolla is the fused petals of the ligule.
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The image below is the same photo cropped for closeup. At
the bottom of the image is the yellow style and stigma of a female ray flower.
The disk flowers with the female style and stigma coming out of brown tubes of
fused male stamen are best developed near the outside of the disk, those nearer
the center of the disk are less well developed till later.
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The tips of the ligules of the ray flowers are sometimes
quite round. Even so, notice the notches and the linear texture indicating
fusing.
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The ligules are sometimes quite pointed.
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The pale ligules seen here are rare.
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A female ray flower can be seen in the bottom center of this
image rising from the pouch at the base of its ligule. The petals at the top of
the corolla tube of disk flowers are turned back. This is an image to be
improved next year.
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Another view of ray flowers rising from the pouch of their
ligule. The three tubes of the disk flower are visible in a well developed disk
flower center-left.
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Older ray flowers
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A ray flower and a disk flower
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Disc flowers in various stages of development, more
developed near the ray flowers. Notice the well developed disk flower, center
right, the apex of the petals of the corolla tube are turned back, the brown
stamen tube is open permitting the style tube to rise, its stigma opening and
curling back exposing their sticky surfaces.
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A cut away view of disk flowers. Notice the receptacle, the
thickened, flattened top of the flower stalk, exposed below the disk flowers.
The pale green structures below the yellow structures will be the fruit. All
above the pale green will wither away.
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The fused stamen of the brown tube are more clearly in evidence. The turned back petals are not clear but can be seen at the base of the image. The curled stigma are reaching out for pollen.
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Jepson Herbarium says the receptacle is ‘paleate’. It has
Paleae. The Paleae are ‘folded around fruits’. Apparently palea are present in
many if not all Asteraceae. They are yet another ‘bract’. They are described as
chaffy scales.
[Many dictionaries have paleae as ‘… the inner of two bracts
surrounding each floret in a grass spikelet.’ Perhaps there are two paleae in
Asteraceae, also?]
It’s a pure guess, but I suppose the dark brown bracts in
the photos below are paleae. I don’t think I have photos showing them ‘folded
around fruits’, but maybe.
The old disclaimer is required. We didn’t know what we, my
daughter, April, and I were photographing when we photographed many of these.
We just took images of this and that.
Ok, I still don’t know what I’m looking at here. Maybe the
dark brown points are paleae.
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The image below looks like it might be the fruit of a disk
flower wrapped in a paleae. If so, where is the dark brown point?
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This image is clearly a ray flower with its fruit. The
accompanying bract must be an involucre bract, a phyllary.
Hmm. I had to search Google for the correct spelling. The
definition of phyllary may be helpful. ‘… with a green base and a broad, papery
margin at the tip.’ I wonder if the idea of a papery margin helps with the dark
color of the palaea.
Now that I think about it, the tips of the involucre bracts
look fleshy, not papery.
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This ray flower seems to have a fruit that didn’t develop.
The bract looks dark brown but that may be mere age.
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I pulled away the phyllaries of the involucre in this photo
and exposed what I suppose to be paleae. Dark colored and pointed paleae look
to be associated with ray flowers here.
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Mystery. These seem to be disk flowers. There are the points
looking dark green rather than dark brown but the location of the points is
wrong … unless they are two objects, the pointed bracts laying at the base of
the disk flowers.
I have a collection of bract photos below.
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The inflorescence has a hairy involucre with 2 to 4 rows of
bracts [phylleries]. The outer row is much longer than inner rows.
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Both the phyllaries of the involucre and the paleae seem to
be showing.
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The notes and photos of the apparent paleae are reminders to
me to pay attention next year.
Roots
The tap root may be up to 8 feet deep and it may weigh up to
30 pounds. Plants for a Future says the
root has ‘a thick crown’. The crown is edible raw.
I am reluctant to dig up a B. sagittata to look at its root.
Maybe I’ll drop my reluctance next year if I find a small one that looks easy
to dig up. Digging a hole 8 feet deep is not my idea of a good time. I saw one
root photo in an internet resource. I’ll see if I can find the reference. [I
failed.]
From the Forest
Not a good photo – roots for sale
Methow Valey Herbs
many photos of roots but they aren’t as helpful as they
could be
“It’s during this time of year however, that I
am searching out the roots for medicine. The vibrant foliage of the balsam root
has long since died away, but the plethora of crispy brown leaves and flowers
stalks radiate from the center root leading to the resinous root beneath the
surface.
The amount of foliage indicates how big the root will be. I search for one that is big enough to fill my jars with their strong roots, but small enough that I can easily work with it.”
The amount of foliage indicates how big the root will be. I search for one that is big enough to fill my jars with their strong roots, but small enough that I can easily work with it.”
. . .
“The root consists of a fibery center and a hard
outer bark. Depending on the age of the balsamroot it can be a small as a
pencil to even as large as seven feet. My preferred sized to harvest is about
the size of a large carrot. Much bigger than that and I don’t have the
appropriate tools to cut it down in size.
Cutting into the root you will find it oozing
with resins. The scent is reminiscent of the sap that oozes from pine trees.
Aromatic and sticky this makes for potent plant medicine.”
Kathy Lloyd, Montana Native Plant Society, says the root has
a ‘branched underground caudex or persistent woody stem. She says the root is a
taproot that may be as large as four inches in diameter and can be as much as
eight feet deep.
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I noticed this bibliography sort of site. Perhaps it is of
interest to you:
Results
of search – Native American Ethnobotany
Database
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Fruit
The fruit, as with other Asteraceae is an achene. Achenes do
not open on maturity. The fruit of many Asteraceae have pappus, bracts that are
hair like that help them disperse with the wind. More than one source says the
fruit of B. sagittata is dispersed by the wind … and by animals. But the fruit
of B. sagittata has no pappus.
“The fruit of the family Asteraceae is also so similar to an
achene that it is often considered to be one, although it derives from a
compound inferior ovary (with one locule). A special term for the Asteraceae
fruit is cypsela (plural cypselae or cypselas). …”
Its seeds are said not to survive long in the ‘seedbank’.
[Seedbank – ‘The collective term for all viable seeds stored in the soil.’]
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It may be that inhibitors keep the seed from germinating
unless they experience a period of cold. One seed company suggests 40 degrees.
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Kathy Lloyd, Montana Native Plant Society says B. sagittata
may benefit from occasional moderate fire.
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Balsamorhiza
sagittata as food
The roots are sweetest when slow cooked for long periods,
otherwise they are bitter.
Do not confuse B. sagittata with poisonous Arnica species.
Arnica can cause internal blistering and sever stomach upset.
Plants for a Future:
Eat raw or cooked.
Root has a thick crown that is edible raw, sweet taste when
cooked. Long slow baking is best. Flathead Indians would bake them in a fire
pit for at least 3 days. Roots are resinous and woody with a taste like balsam.
Young shoots raw or cooked.
The large leaves and petioles are boiled and eaten. When
eaten in large quantities they act like sleeping pills.
The young flowering stem can be peeled and eaten raw like
celery.
Seed raw or cooked. A highly prized source of food. It can
be roasted, ground into powder. Raw seed can also be ground into powder then
formed into cakes and eaten without cooking.
The seed is rich in oil.
Roasted root a coffee substitute.
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Native Americans relied on all parts of arrow-leaf
balsamroot for food. Young leaves and shoots were
peeled and eaten raw, boiled or steamed. The peeled
roots have a bitter, strongly pine-scented sap. When
cooked for several days (roasted or steamed) the root
became edible and was often ground into meal and
mixed with grease and made into cakes, or mixed
with powdered berries and eaten with a spoon. The
small, sunflower-like seeds were dried or roasted
and pounded.
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Wildlife
Deer, elk, mule deer, big horned sheep, small mammals such
as Columbia
ground squirrels. [And domestic cattle, sheep and goats.]
The flowers are especially sought after. It is most
palatable in spring and summer but wildlife will braze it throughout the
winter.
B. sagittata is tolerant of grazing but extensive grazing by
sheep reduces production.
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On July 7, 1806 on their return from the
group of nine men followed the Nez Perce trail up
the Blackfoot River to today’s Alice Creek
of the creek, and then switched back a couple of
times. Along the trail Lewis collected arrow-leaf
balsamroot, a large, showy wildflower, and several
other plant species. Today the specimens collected
by the explorers can be found in the Lewis & Clark
Herbarium in Philadelphia .
. . .
Arrow-leaf balsamroot was collected on two dates.
The first collection, likely made by William Clark,
was on April 14, 1806 along the Columbia
River in
present-day Washington .
Pursh’s label for these
plants reads, “The stem is eaten by the natives, with
out any preparation. On the Columbia . Aprl. 14th
1806.”
. . .
On April 14 Lewis and Clark were along what they
called Canoe Creek, the present White Salmon
River, a tributary of the Columbia River, in Washington state. Clark wrote in his journal on April 14,
1806, “after dinner we proceeded on our voyage. I
walked on Shore with Shabono on the N. Side
through a handsome bottom. met Several parties of
women and boys in Serch of herbs & roots to Subsist on
maney of them had parcels of the Stems of the Sun flower [arrow-leaf
balsamroot]. I joined
Capt. Lewis and the party at 6 miles, at which place
the river washed the bottom of high Clifts on the N.
side.”
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