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Published on Healing Gardens (http://www2.evergreen.edu/healinggardens)

Proposed Plant Monographs - Winter 2007

Decorative Gardens Proposed Plant List


Campus Sign Area:

    Bear grass (Xerophyllum tenax)
        Habit: Perennial herb
        Size:  Large herb, 1.5 m tall
        Leaves:  Basal leaves grass-like, tough, wiry, evergreen, large clumps
        Flowers:  White, tiny, fragrant, showy, pyramidal cluster
        Fruit:  Oval 3-lobed capsules to 6 mm long
        Underground Parts:  Rhizomatous
        Habitat:  Open areas and open to fairly dense forests from near sea level to the subalpine (2:112).
        Uses:  Basketry (1:23).
        Procurement:  sayuyay

    Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris)
        Habit:  Perennial
        Size:  10-15 cm tall
        Leaves:  Opposite, relatively few
        Flowers:  Purplish to pink (occasionally white), 1-2 cm long, spike-like cluster atop
        Fruit:  4 nutlets
        Underground Parts:  Fibrous root
        Habitat:  Moist roadsides, clearings, fields, lawns, forest edges; low to middle elevations (2:246).
        Uses:  Fresh plant juice is used on boils and bites (1:45).
        Procurement:

    Red columbine (Aquilegia formosa)
        Habit: Perennial
        Size:   Up to 1 m tall
        Leaves: 3 deeply lobed leaflets
        Flowers:  red and yellow with reddish spurs, a central tuft of stamens and styles protruding
        Fruit:  5 erect follicles, numerous black wrinkled seeds
        Underground Parts:  Taproot
        Habitat: Moist, open to partially shady sites (2:180).
        Uses:  The root is scraped to makes a milky pulp that is applied to sores to form a scar (nature's band-aid) (1:30).
        Procurement:

    Common sweet grass (Hierochloe odorata)
        Habit:  Erect perennial
        Size:  30-60 cm tall
        Leaves:  Short and broad (8 mm wide)
        Spikelet:  Inflorescence, panicle open; lemmas awnless or awned
        Underground Parts:  Rhizomatous
        Habitat:  Moist-meadows, lake-shores, stream-banks, forest openings, beaches, and tidal marshes
        Uses:  Basketry, cleansing and purifying ceremonial incense, flavoring agent (2:369).
        Procurement: sayuyay

    Red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum)
        Habit: Erect perennial
        Size:  1-3 m tall
        Leaves:  Alternate, deciduous
        Flowers:  Rose colored, 7-10 mm long, in erect drooping clusters of 10-20 flowers
        Fruit:  Blue-black round berries with glandular hairs and a white waxy bloom
        Underground Parts:  Fibrous root  
        Habitat: Dry open woods, disturbed sites, low to middle elevations (2:84).
        Uses:  Berries for food (1:32).
        Procurement:  Thurston County Conservation District Plant Sale

    Sweet cicely (Osmorhiza chilensis)
        Habit:  Perennial
        Size:  30-100 cm tall
        Leaves:  Twice divided into 3’s, 9 leaflets coarsely toothed
        Flowers:  Greenish-white, inconspicuous
        Fruit:  Black, needle-like, 12-22 cm long
        Underground Parts:  Taproot
        Habitat:  Open forests, forest edges, thickets, glades; low to mid elevations
            (2:217).
        Uses:  Chewing the root as a very powerful love charm (1:41).
        Procurement:


Building Entrance Area:

    Redwood sorrel (Oxalis oregana)
        Habit:  Perennial
        Size:  5-15 cm tall
        Leaves:  Numerous, compound, clover-like
        Flowers:   White to pale-pinkish, 12-20 mm long
        Fruit:  Capsules, football-shaped, 5 chambered, 7-9 mm long
        Underground Parts:  Rhizomatous
        Habitat:  Moist, forested sites at low to middle elevations (2:315).
        Uses:  Leaves for food, fresh juice from the plant can be applied to sore eyes, and wilted leaves can be put on boils to draw them (1:39).
        Procurement:

    Golden-eyed-grass (Sisyrinchium californicum)
        Habit:
        Size:  40 cm tall
        Leaves:  Mostly basal, long (up to 30 cm) and narrow (5 mm), clumped
        Flowers:  Yellow with purplish-brown veins, short stalked, 6 tepals
        Fruit:  Egg shaped capsules to 12 mm long, with black, pitted seeds
        Underground Parts:  
        Habitat:  Moist to wet areas (2:115).
        Uses:  None found
        Procurement:

    Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris)
        Habit:  Perennial
        Size:  10-15 cm tall
        Leaves:  Opposite, relatively few
        Flowers:  Purplish to pink (occasionally white), 1-2 cm long, spike-like cluster atop
        Fruit:  4 nutlets
        Underground Parts:  Fibrous root
        Habitat:  Moist roadsides, clearings, fields, lawns, forest edges; low to                 middle elevations (2:246).
        Uses:  Fresh plant juice is used on boils and bites (1:45).
        Procurement:

    Red columbine (Aquilegia formosa)
        Habit: Perennial
        Size:   Up to 1 m tall
        Leaves: 3 deeply lobed leaflets
        Flowers:  red and yellow with reddish spurs, a central tuft of stamens and styles protruding
        Fruit:  5 erect follicles, numerous black wrinkled seeds
        Underground Parts:  Taproot
        Habitat: Moist, open to partially shady sites (2:180).
        Uses:  The root is scraped to makes a milky pulp that is applied to sores to form a scar (nature's band-aid) (1:30).
        Procurement:

Common sweet grass (Hierochloe odorata)
        Habit:  Erect perennial
        Size:  30-60 cm tall
        Leaves:  Short and broad (8 mm wide)
        Spikelet:  Inflorescence, panicle open; lemmas awnless or awned
        Underground Parts:  Rhizomatous
        Habitat:  Moist-meadows, lake-shores, stream-banks, forest openings, beaches, and tidal marshes
        Uses:  Basketry, cleansing and purifying ceremonial incense, flavoring agent (2:369).
        Procurement: sayuyay
    
    Maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum)
        Habit:  Delicate fern
        Size:  15-60 cm tall
        Leaves:  Palmately branched; at right angles to the leaf stalk, oblong or fan-shaped
        Sori:  Oblong, on the edges
        Underground Parts:  Rhizomatous
        Habitat:  Shady, humus-rich sites, moist soil, low to middle elevations
            (2:425).            
        Uses:  Basketry, leaves are used for making hair tonic, chewed leaves are used for sore chest and stomach problems (1:14).
        Procurement:  Thurston County Conservation District Plant Sale

    Red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum)
        Habit: Erect perennial
        Size:  1-3 m tall
        Leaves:  Alternate, deciduous
        Flowers:  Rose colored, 7-10 mm long, in erect drooping clusters of 10-20 flowers
        Fruit:  Blue-black round berries with glandular hairs and a white waxy bloom
        Underground Parts:  Fibrous root  
        Habitat: Dry open woods, disturbed sites, low to middle elevations (2:84).
        Uses:  Berries for food (1:32).
        Procurement:  Thurston County Conservation District Plant Sale

Citation:
1.  Gunther, Erna.  Ethnobotany of Western Washington: The Knowledge and Use of     Indigenous Plants by Native Americans.  Seattle: University of Washington Press,     1973.

2.  Mackinnon, Andy, and Jim Pojar.  Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast.  Vancouver,
    British Columbia: Ministry of Forest and Lone Pine Publishing, 1994.


Possible Procurement Sources:

Native Plant Salvage Project
WSU Cooperative Extension
1835 Black Lake Blvd. SW, Suite F
360.704.7785

Allyson Ruppenthal

Source URL:
http://www2.evergreen.edu/healinggardens/healinggardens/proposed-plant-monographs-winter-2007