American licorice | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fabales |
Family: | Fabaceae |
Subfamily: | Faboideae |
Genus: | Glycyrrhiza |
Species: | G. lepidota |
Binomial name | |
Glycyrrhiza lepidota | |
Synonyms [2] | |
List
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Glycyrrhiza lepidota (American licorice) is a species of Glycyrrhiza (a genus in the pea/bean family, Fabaceae) native to most of North America, from central Canada south through the United States to California, Texas and Virginia, but absent from the southeastern states. It is also sometimes known in the United States as "wild licorice", to distinguish it from the related European licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) which is occasionally cultivated. [3] [4] [5] [6]
The plant grows in moist soils; although it will grow in heavy soil it prefers sandy soil. It grows to 40–100 cm (16–39 in) tall, and has long tough brown roots which are said to be sweet and were used as food and for medicinal purposes by Native Americans. After eating a roasted root in 1806, Meriwether Lewis described an "agreeable flavor not unlike the sweet pittaitoe (sweet potato)." [7]
American licorice is not sweet from sugar but from glycyrrhizin. Glycyrrhizin may increase blood pressure (aka hypertension) by interfering with cortisol conversion. The Zuni people chew the root to keep the mouth sweet and moist. [8]
American licorice is grazed by cattle, but not preferred and will increase under grazing as competing plants are grazed off. The new growth can be toxic. [9] It has light green to white flowers in the spring which ripen in the fall to clusters of burs which contain pods of small bean-like seeds.
It can be used as a pioneer species to revegetate bare or disturbed ground and is often the first species to invade a receding alkali flat.
There is a market for American licorice root both for medicinal uses and flavoring; also the sweetening of tobacco products. [3]
Liquorice or licorice is the common name of Glycyrrhiza glabra, a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring is extracted.
Polemonium reptans is a perennial herbaceous plant native to eastern North America. Common names include spreading Jacob's ladder, creeping Jacob's ladder, false Jacob's ladder, abscess root, American Greek valerian, blue bells, stairway to heaven, and sweatroot.
Gaultheria shallon is an evergreen shrub in the heather family (Ericaceae), native to western North America. In English, it is known as salal, shallon, or gaultheria.
Cleomella serrulata, commonly known as Rocky Mountain beeplant/beeweed, stinking-clover, bee spider-flower, skunk weed, Navajo spinach, and guaco, is a species of annual plant in the genus Cleomella. Many species of insects are attracted to it, especially bees, which helps in the pollination of nearby plants. It is native to southern Canada and the western and central United States. The plant has often been used for food, to make dyes for paint, and as a treatment in traditional medicine.
Pedicularis canadensis, commonly called Canadian lousewort or wood betony, is a flowering plant in the family Orobanchaceae. It is native to North America, where it is found in southeastern Canada, the eastern United States, and eastern Mexico. It has a wide-ranging natural habitat, being found in mesic to dry, forests, woodlands, and prairies.
Bouteloua gracilis, the blue grama, is a long-lived, warm-season (C4) perennial grass, native to North America.
Ligusticum porteri, also known as oshá, wild parsnip, Porter’s Lovage or wild celery, is a perennial herb found in parts of the Rocky Mountains and northern New Mexico, especially in the southwestern United States.
Glycyrrhiza uralensis, also known as Chinese liquorice, is a flowering plant native to Asia. It is used as a sweetener and in traditional Chinese medicine.
Helenium autumnale is a North American species of poisonous flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Common names include common sneezeweed and large-flowered sneezeweed.
Polypodium vulgare, the common polypody, is an evergreen fern of the family Polypodiaceae. The name is derived from poly (many) and pous, podos. Polypody has traditional uses in cooking for its aroma and sweet taste, and in herbal medicine as a purgative and vermifuge.
Lithospermum incisum is a species of flowering plant in the borage family known by several common names, including fringed puccoon, narrowleaf stoneseed, fringed gromwell, narrowleaf puccoon, and plains stoneseed. It is native to much of central Canada and the United States, where it is known from many types of habitat, but particularly piñon-juniper woodland. It is a hairy perennial herb growing from a narrow brown to black taproot and woody caudex. It produces a cluster of stems up to about 30 centimeters long. The stems are lined with narrow, pointed leaves up to 6 centimeters long. The slender, trumpet-shaped flowers are pale to bright yellow or gold, and may approach 4 centimeters long. The corolla face is 1 to 2 centimeters wide, its lobes sometimes ruffled. The smaller cleistogamous (closed) flowers are the main producers of seed.
Tephroseris palustris, also known by its common names swamp ragwort, northern swamp groundsel, marsh fleabane, marsh fleawort, clustered marsh ragwort and mastodon flower, a herbaceous species of the family Asteraceae. It can be seen most easily when its bright yellow umbel flowers appear from May to early July standing 3 to 4 feet along marshes, stream banks and slough areas where it likes to grow.
Equisetum hyemale is an evergreen perennial herbaceous pteridophyte in the horsetail family Equisetaceae. It is a native plant throughout the Holarctic Kingdom, found in North America, Europe, and northern Asia.
Polypodium glycyrrhiza, commonly known as licorice fern, many-footed fern, and sweet root, is a summer deciduous fern native to western North America, where it is found in shaded, damp locations.
Prosartes trachycarpa, the roughfruit fairybells, rough-fruited fairybells or rough-fruited mandarin, is a North American species of plants in the lily family. The species is widespread, known from British Columbia to Ontario and south to Arizona and New Mexico. One isolated population was reported from Isle Royale in Lake Superior.
Abronia fragrans, the sweet sand-verbena, snowball sand-verbena, prairie snowball or fragrant verbena, is a species of sand verbena.
Viola nephrophylla syn. Viola nephrophylla Greene f. albinea (Farw.), Viola pratincola Greene, Viola retusa Greene ) is an annual or perennial forb in the Violet family (Violaceae) native to North America.
Rubus pubescens is a herbaceous perennial widespread across much of Canada and the northern United States, from Alaska to Newfoundland, south as far as Oregon, Colorado, and West Virginia.
Polygala nana, commonly known as candyroot or low bachelors' buttons, is a small herbaceous plant native to the southeastern United States. The root has a sweet liquorice flavor when it is chewed, but it is usually hidden underground until the plant flowers. The seeds of candyroot are dispersed by ants.
Silphium terebinthinaceum is a member of the Asteraceae, a family that includes sunflowers, and is commonly referred to as prairie dock or prairie rosinweed. It is native to central and eastern North America. "Rosinweed" became one of the plant's common names due to the fact that upon injury, resin flows from the wound, giving the plant a sweet smell. Tea brewed from the roots of the prairie dock have a variety of medical applications in Native American culture. The smoke from this plant has also been used as a treatment for congestion and rheumatism.