Miner's Lettuce in Belgatos Park

Last week I took a couple of photos (with my treo) of Miner's Lettuce growing in Belgatos Park and I thought the readers here might like to see it.  Apparently the name was given because during the Gold Rush, minters (and other settlers) ate it to stave off scurvey. The native people, the Ohlone, ate it too, of course.  It can be eaten raw, in a salad, or cooked, something like spinach.

Apparently this plant springs up after heavy rains, so it's no surprise that they appeared recently.  Below is a closer view of Miner's Lettuce.

I didn't actually know this was Miner's Lettuce until my husband, Jim, told me. But I thought it was an interesting factoid with a connection to the past and worth sharing.

There's a wealth of information on the web about this plant.  One particularly good site is eNature.com. There you can input your zip code and find out about native plants, insects, wildlife etc. To see what's native to the Los Gatos 95032 zip code, click on this link.