Miner’s lettuce (Montia perfoliata), an edible plant, is widely distributed throughout the high desert areas of Central Oregon. Learn how to recognize this plant, and you’ll be able to come up with a tasty salad in the wilderness!
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Miner’s lettuce
by Linda Stephenson
I have been wanting to send out this information on a plant that I noticed in my gardens this spring. I can’t believe I haven’t paid more attention to it before this! I just considered it a weed and removed it from my gardens.
This plant is one of those things in life that you can go for years without noticing, and then find it hard to imagine how you could have missed it. It is hard to hike anywhere around here in Central Oregon in the spring without coming across it.
The trail up to Paulina Peak, just north of La Pine, is thick with Miner’s Lettuce between late May through July. It appears first in the sunlit areas, but the best stands are under shade. I just found a whole bed of it under our travel trailer.
As the days get hotter, the leaves turn a deep red color as they dry out. Once you get to know it, you will begin to notice the first shoots, even in your own yard after the first heavy rains.
Lettuce? Yes, you can eat it–raw in salads or boiled like spinach. Early settlers and Indians collected and ate it. It is said that California Indians used to place it by red ant hills to pick up formic acid as a dressing. I would be worried that the ants would eat it.
I rarely pass the young plants without pulling off a leaf to nibble on. It tastes a lot like raw spinach to me, not as delicate as lettuce. It has none of the peppery kick of the the somewhat similar garden plant nasturtium Tropaeolum majus, which is also in the Purslane family.
Take a hike around your property and see if you can find some of this low growing plant. It usually gets about 6 inches tall and 12 inches wide.
Miner’s lettuce is probably one of the most recognized wild edibles, yet many of you have probably never heard of it.Let me know if you find some on your property and what you think of the taste! (Editor’s Note: Don’t consume ANY plant unless you’re positive of what it is!)
I have known the author, Linda Stephenson, of La Pine Oregon, for years, and she is a superb cook and close
Linda Stephenson at a Dutch oven cookoff.
friend. I have competed with and against Linda in Dutch Oven cooking contests, and she’s always a contender!
Linda and I teamed up to win the 2003 La Pine Frontier Days Dutch Oven Cookoff, then went on compete in the 2004 IDOS (International Dutch Oven Society) World Championships, where we finished eighth.
Linda is the owner of L&S Gardens in La Pine Oregon, and recognized expert in cold climate gardening and native plants. She has written numerous Dutch oven cookbooks and gardening books for Central Oregon plants.
