Vegetable Ivory: The Dog’s Tooth Violet
Posted in Around the Garden, Learning Experiences on April 5th, 2012 by Daniel Atha – 3 CommentsDaniel Atha is an Associate Editor of NYBG’s systemic botany journal, Brittonia, and a researcher specializing in floristics, taxonomy, and economic botany. He has taught classes in anatomy and systemics at the Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture and is currently working on a project to develop identifying DNA barcodes for plants of the Northeastern United States.
Despite their reputation for having less-than-perfect breath, dogs do tend to have shiny white teeth, no matter what they eat. But dogs aren’t able to brush their own teeth to keep them shiny, so the next time you’re helping Rover with his dental hygiene, give them a good look, and then dig up a dog’s tooth violet–a beautiful native wildflower now in bloom–remove the bulb coat and note the perfect semblance to Rover’s canines in vegetal form!
Erythronium americanum Ker. Gawl. (Liliaceae) dog’s-tooth violet
These plants are so beautiful it seems a shame to eat them. But we gleefully eat strawberries, squash blossoms … and lamb for heaven’s sake, so why avoid these delicate, delicious plants? Dog’s tooth violets grow naturally in huge colonies, so rooting around and pulling out a few slender bulbs is actually just thinning–what every bulb fancier does lovingly. Go ahead, dig a few out of your woods and try them. You’ll be glad you did.
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