Traditional Uses of Plants, part 1

 Chocolate Lily

There are only two brown flowers in Alaska and the Chocolate Lily is one of them.  Brown flowers are rare, not only here, but around the world. The Chocolate Lily has an unusual smell. The Lily is a beautiful flower to look at but you will only want to smell it once. Because of its ghastly smell, the Chocolate Lily is also called  Skunk Lily, Dirty Diaper and Outhouse Lily.

This plant can grow anywhere from 5 to 18 inches depending on the habitat. Other nicknames for the Chocolate Lily are Indian Rice, Wild Rice, Northern Rice Root, and Rice Lily, due to the fact that it reproduces by tiny rice like that form around the plant. The flowers bloom in mid-June to mid-July.

This plant is found in damp woodlands and open coastal meadows.  Look for it when you are hiking out to the Cowee Meadow cabin on the Point Bridget trail.

The bulbs of the chocolate lily were eaten by most coastal peoples, either boiled or steamed in pits.  The bulbs grow relatively close to the surface and are easily extracted.  Bulbs were dug in the spring before the flowering, or in the summer and fall after flowering using a digging stick.  Chocolate lily bulbs were cooked immediately or could be partially dried, then stored in a cool place for winter use.  They were cooked for about 30 minutes in a cedarwood box, by boiling for a short time then mashing to a paste or baked in ashes.  The bulbs were also used as items in trade.

Fireweed

Although when Fireweed covers the hillside it looks like fire, fireweed actually gets it’s name because it is often the first plant to grow back after a fire. Meadows and open woods are filled to overflowing with beautiful Fireweed because they reproduce with underground stems called rhizomes, which are protected from a fire and allow them to reproduce rapidly. Common Fireweed stems are thick and woody and can grow between two to four feet tall.

Leaves that are reddish and orange means that it’s autumn and the long seed pods will open soon. After the seed pods open it looks like downy feathers have replaced the blossom. Along comes the wind, down is dispersed, and the ground turns white.

Common Fireweed’s stem’s long slender leaves, and flowers are edible raw and cooked. The blossoms are used to make jellies, syrup, and when making homemade honey. Bees are attracted to the brilliant color and make a delicious honey from Fireweed. One effect of eating to much Fireweed is drowsiness. Alaskan Natives used Fireweed tea made from the leaves for stomach aches and for restlessness. The greens when young are tender and can be used cooked or in salads.

Thimbleberry

 The Thimbleberry is a low, scrambling shrub that commonly grows on open, wooded hillsides, along streambanks and canyons, on borders, and roadsides.  I have seen it at Auk Rec and along the Perseverance trail road. The flowers are white and in clusters of 2-7.  The berry is "thimblelike" with hairy, red or scarlet nodules. These nodules are nearly dry at maturity and fall apart readily when picked.

Fruit is eaten by black bears and numerous smaller mammals, including coyote, chipmunk, raccoon, red fox, gray fox, red squirrel, and skunks. Provides cover for rabbits, red squirrel, black bear, and beaver.

Traditionally used by indigenous peoples throughout its range. The fruit was eaten fresh in summer and dried for winter use. The bark was boiled and made into soap, and leaves were used to make a medicinal tea. Leaves were powdered and applied to burns to minimize scarring.  Today people use it to make excellent jelly but it is too seedy for jam.  The young shoots may be eaten as greens; leaves have been used in making teas.