Enough Miner’s lettuce for a salad
Much about Miner’s lettuce
It may seem a weed in many California gardens, but you’ll find that miner’s lettuce, or Claytonia, is beautiful, useful and edible!
Claytonia parviflora is a species of wildflower in the Purslane family known by the common name Streambank Springbeauty or Miners’ Lettuce. It is very closely related to Claytonia perfoliata which is also commonly known as Miners’ Lettuce.
Mentioned in the Lewis and Clark Herbarium, a specimen of Claytonia parviflora was collected along the lower Columbia River probably in Columbia Co., Oregon, on 26 Mar 1806.
“The Claytonia perfoliata, a close ‘relative’ was discovered on the northwest coast of America, by Mr. Archibald Menzies, and introduced by him into the Kew Garden, in the year 1796, where it has maintained itself ever since, and whence it has been communicated to most of the Botanic Gardens in the kingdom.
Flowers nearly all the summer; and in a moist soil, not too much exposed, will sow itself, and the young plants will come up in the spring, requiring no other care than to prevent their being choked by more powerful weeds, or cut off by that destructive instrument the hoe. Our drawing was taken at Mr. Salisbury’s Botanic Garden, Brompton.” Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, 1811 *
Miner’s lettuce is the most recognizable wild edible plant now.
The genus, Claytonia, had been named for 18th century botanist , John Clayton**, by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. ‘Perfoliate’, means having a leaf with the base united around, and apparently pierced by, the stem.…