In the Community: What's In Bloom
Strawberry Blite (Chenopodium capitatum)
This interesting plant grows here and there in the RSM’s native plant garden and in the wild in waste places and other areas where the soil has been disturbed. It is best observed in late July through August. It is an annual that belongs to the Goosefoot family, so named because of the webbed-foot shape of the leaves. The small flowers in the leaf axils are grouped into strawberry-like red clusters that look good enough to eat. Although they are quite edible and contain numerous vitamins and minerals like their domesticated cousins – spinach, beets, and chard – their flavour is bland and rather tasteless. First Nations people used this plant for dyeing leather and their own skin.
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