24 February 2008 - 17:48, Tinman said:
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Here’s another fascinating discussion by Jake Sigg about another native plant now much in evidence on Mt Davidson, Corona Heights, McLaren Park, Twin Peaks, Edgehill Mt, and Bayview Hill. This photo is from Mt D:

Jake says:

I wrote the following article several years ago; it is timely, as you can see the cucumber vine emerging in our natural areas, especially where shrubs are dominant. It is that plant that is sending up numerous green shoots, with long tendrils splaying out in all directions looking for something to grab onto for climbing. It will be in evidence for the next two-three months, but will close up shop shortly after rains stop. It will die down to its storage tuber, waiting for the next rainy season.

While working in a wild area today, our volunteers exposed a tuber, which looked like an enormous tree root, except that there weren’t any trees close by. We were puzzled by it, until we decided that it was the manroot, or wild cucumber. The tuber we saw would be the size of at least a large boy, even if not a man. It was big.

Restoration is so much fun. We constantly discover surprises, mysteries, interesting phenomena. The earth is an inexhaustible teacher, teaching effortlessly.

Wild cucumbers (Marah)

“So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea…and when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; and therefore the name of it was called Marah.”

—Exodus XV: 22

Many people refer to plants of the genus Marah as manroot, a suitable name. I have always preferred the name wild cucumber because of its obvious relationship to the family that gives us our cucumbers, melons, squashes, pumpkins, gourds, and chayotes. There are five species of Marah in California, the most widespread being California cucumber or manroot, M. fabaceus — which is what we have in San Francisco. California cucumber is one of the earliest plants to start growth after the first rains. Its survival depends on this early start while water is available. Growth is exceedingly rapid and you can measure it day-to-day — you can almost see it grow. It needs to do this so that it can climb (by sensitive tendrils) to overtop shrubs and other plants and spread out its blanket of foliage to absorb the sun’s rays. The plant is 99%+ water; break a growing stem and watch the water leak out. Water seems to be its only limiting factor; after the rains stop it goes dormant. Summer drought is seemingly what keeps it in balance in nature. In copiously-watered Golden Gate Park, for example, it can be an evergreen pest, smothering shrubs and small trees under blankets of foliage.

This blanket of foliage traps a lot of energy from the sun. Where does the energy go? Into the root, which in this case is a large tuber, a very large tuber. The tuber on older plants can exceed a large man’s size. Sometimes the tuber will divide, appearing to have legs. A specimen tuber of M. macrocarpus of unknown age dug at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont stood for many years at the entrance to the Administration Building there. It was encountered when a bulldozer was constructing the garden; it was transported on a flatbed truck to the Administration Building, was several feet in diameter, and weighed 467 pounds, excluding several basal tuber shoots left in the ground.

While I was a gardener in Golden Gate Park, there was an unwanted plant growing beside my toolbox. I continually pulled up its new shoots, attempting to starve the root. It showed no signs of giving up after five-and-a-half years, so I decided to dig it up. Although not a rival for the RSABG tuber, it was big enough—about three feet long and one foot diameter. Being deprived of ability to photosynthesize during that period had had no apparent effect on it. It was firm of flesh and sound in every fiber. Good thing I decided to take that shortcut of digging it up, otherwise it would have outlasted me.

Plants in San Francisco are California manroot, Marah fabaceus, except for a single plant of the coast manroot, M. oreganus, off Sunnydale Avenue in McLaren Park. Coast manroot is plentiful on San Bruno Mountain and Montara Mountain. The name Marah suits it; all parts are exceedingly bitter; touch your tongue to a cut root and your jaw will lock. This strong a chemical defense indicates potential medicinal use. The cucumber family in California, which includes five species of Marah and the desert members Brandegea and the gourds, coyote melon, and calabazilla, were a pharmacopoeia, a veritable drugstore for native people. Roots were used as a purgative, as were seeds. Stroughton’s Bitters, a laxative, was made from California manroot. Natives threw crushed root into waterbodies to stun fish and used its seed oil for a variety of purposes. I am unsure what wildlife make use of this plant, except that rodents and scrub jays cache its seed. You can be sure that there are creatures which have found a use for this common and widespread a plant.

A note on the derivation of its scientific name: Munz in his Flora of California incorrectly states that Marah was from an aboriginal name. Another biblical citation is Ruth 1:20: “Call me not Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.” Other sources say it is Latin, but perhaps the Romans used the biblical reference for the origin of their word for bitter?

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Comments

2008-03-22 23:20:45 -0700, jfred decker said:

Oh, the Manroot. We volunteers have been well indoctrinated into the beneficial Cal Cuke, aka Manroot. It is not a simple matter to remove the invasive Ivies and their patron, Himalayan Blackberry, and still leave the Manroot’s vines in place.

One has good reason to expect that laboriously cutting back Cape Ivy, English Ivy and Himalayan Blackberry will not kill off the Manroot, even if her vines are for the moment removed with the invasives no?

Gardeners in the Oak Woodlands who prune back Ivy and Himalayan Blackberry, taking away the Manroot’s vines along with them, are creating space for Manroot to thrive, are we not? [hope, hope]

Try as I might, the watery vines of Manroot are so delicate that I cannot find a practical compromise that allows one to thoroughly remove Cape Ivy while leaving the California Cucumber intact.

In the absence of Ivy, it is no great problem to bless the California Cucumber wherever it climbs.

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2008-04-07 15:30:41 -0700, Jack hesotian said:

Reguarding the SF Natural position on the Sharp Park golf course.

Why does your organization feel that it has the right to dictate the use of a piece of land that is outside the City and County limits of San Francisco?

I am an environmentalist, I have worked 30 years in the environmental contracting field and have studied and earned a graduate degree at the University of San Francisco in Environmental Management. When I am not working, I like to play golf. My friends and I enjoy the course very much, it is a joy to play even though the course conditions are not allways up to par. Why does your organization feel that they have the right to tell all the people that enjoy playing at Sharp Park to go somewhere else or do something else?

I am a resident of San Francisco and I pay taxes. I don’t tell others how or where to spend their time. Why does your organization feel they have the right to have such a position on Sharp Park?

Thank you, Jack Hesotian

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2008-04-07 16:35:50 -0700, Tinman said:

Jack, no doubt you meant to comment on the Sharp Park post, not this discussion of miner’s lettuce.

In any case, there’s no “organization” here — just a bunch of volunteers who, when we’re not working, contribute our sweat and tears to improving the public spaces. You and your friends use the parks; we volunteers improve them.

Still, at no point did I say that people shouldn’t golf at Sharp Park. They’re abandoning the course entirely on their own without any urging from those of us who think it’s a stupid place for a golf course. If some of you still want to golf there as long as the course is open, that’s fine with me; have fun.

The whole point is that it simply doesn’t make sense for the golf course to continue to be there — particularly given the huge capital investments that would have to be made in order to try to keep both the Pacific ocean and Sanchez Creek out of the course. And of course, ultimately those investments will fail.

But you golf fans shouldn’t get so exercised about this. I put the odds that San Francisco “decision makers” will actually close the course at well under 10%. Whether it will happen is quite a different topic from whether it should.

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23 February 2008 - 17:01, Tinman said:
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Periodically we’re going to showcase here musings by Jake Sigg, dean of the San Francisco native plant community. Here are his comments about a common native plant, miner’s lettuce, shown in this photo from Edgehill Mt:

and in this even more spectacular view from Edgehill Mt

Jake says:

Miner’s lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata, is a native annual herb that is common in disturbed, often shady areas. It is a cheerful light green, and it holds its clusters of tiny white flowers above a saucer-like leaf that completely surrounds the supporting stem. All the plant’s succulent and juicy parts are edible, and were used by native peoples and European settlers for salad. They would put the plants on ant nests, the ants would walk all over them, and the formic acid on ants’ feet — used to establish their trails — provided a slightly vinegary dressing.

The plant has been abundant at least up until now, and you find them as waifs in vacant lots, waste areas, in gardens, roadsides, and parks, providing charm, beauty, and variety to otherwise drab areas. But miner’s lettuce may be less abundant in the future, as its favored habitats are being usurped by weeds, in particular yellow oxalis, Oxalis pes-caprae, and ehrharta, Ehrharta erecta, an aggressive perennial grass. Both plants are from South Africa and they lack the natural agents which keep them under control in their native range, whereas the native plants must share their energy with the food chain-an unequal contest. I have been seeing patches of miner’s lettuce disappearing under the onslaught of these invaders, and it is only a matter of time before it will disappear entirely, save where human intervention maintains little refuges.

How ironic for such a common, ubiquitous, weedy plant.

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