In a Garden Library
NEW BOOKS FOR NORTHWEST GARDENERS
B y B r i a n R . T h o m p s o n
Native Edible and Medicinal Plants of Alaska Each spring for the past 15 years , the Elisabeth C . Miller Library has hosted an exhibit by the Pacific Northwest Botanical Artists . These artists keep alive a tradition of many centuries by creating scientifically accurate portrayals of the flowers , leaves , seeds , and other parts of plants , often with more detail and accuracy than a photograph .
One of the local , participating artists is Sharon Birzer . Recently , she illustrated many of the native plants of southwest Alaska featured in “ Yungcautnguuq Nunam Qainga Tamarmi = All the Land ’ s Surface Is Medicine .” Written by a consortium of experts in cultural anthropology , ethnobotany , and the Yup ’ ik language , this new book is based on a 20-year oral history project to preserve the stories of the Alaskan Yup ’ ik people and their traditional way of life .
The book is divided equally into two parts . The first is a catalog of the native plants used for food or medicine , organized by the time of harvest and starting with the plants that define
the spring after long , cold winters . An example is Mertensia maritima or neqnirliaraat , literally “ best-tasting things ,” a plant I grow in my own garden . Although the plant is not widely used , one Nelson Island woman reported collecting it before it flowered , “ cooking the stems briefly , and eating them with seal oil .” ( In the nursery trade , oyster leaf is a common name for the plant , because the edible foliage supposedly tastes like raw oysters , though that ’ s a bit of a stretch according to my taste buds !)
Traditional tales of the plants and the land in which they grow are collected in the second half of the book . Quoting many of the Yup ’ ik elders , these entries are published in English on the left page and in the Yup ’ ik language on the right . One such entry is “ mouse foods ,” which discusses caches of plant parts harvested and stored by voles and lemmings before the onset of winter , and used by the Yup ’ ik as an important source of food .
26 v Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin