Streptopus amplexifolius

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit, Leaves, Root, Stem

The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked in soups and stews. It is juicy with a cucumber flavour, though it can be slightly cathartic in certain growing areas, and eating it in large quantities is reported to be laxative. The oval berries grow up to 15mm long. Tender young shoots can be eaten raw in salads or cooked like asparagus and share the same cucumber-like flavour. The root is edible raw and is also used in salads for its cucumber flavour.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant. It grows in moist woods and shady places near streams. It suits hardiness zones 3-8.

Alaska, Asia, Canada, Europe, France, Hungary, Korea, Myanmar, North America, SE Asia, USA,

How to Identify

A herb that keeps growing from year to year. It has a short, fleshy underground stem. It grows 25-90 cm high. There are several leaves. They are at the base and grass-like. They are 5-20 cm long. The flowers are white and small. They are in dense clusters or spikes at the end of the stem. They hang on delicate, twisted stalks. The stem is sticky. The fruit is a yellow or orange capsule. It has many seeds.

How to Grow

Propagation: Sow seed in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe in summer. Stored seed should also be sown in a cold frame as soon as received, but may be very slow to germinate — sometimes taking 18 months or more. Prick out seedlings into individual pots once large enough to handle and grow on in a shaded greenhouse or cold frame. Plants typically need 2 or more growing seasons before roots are large enough to plant out, which is best done when dormant in autumn. Divide as the plant comes into growth in early spring. Larger divisions can go directly into permanent positions; smaller ones are best potted and grown on in light shade for their first year before planting out the following spring.

Medicinal Uses

The fruit is cathartic. An infusion of the stems and fruit has been used to treat general illness. The plant is considered tonic, and an infusion of the whole plant has been used to address stomach complaints and loss of appetite. A compound infusion of the plant has been used for spitting up blood, kidney problems, and gonorrhoea. The root has been chewed to induce labour in cases of prolonged delay, and a compound infusion of the root has been used as an analgesic for internal pain.

Other Uses

The plant has been tied to clothing, the body, or hair and used as a scent or incense.

Streptopus amplexifolius (twistedstalk, clasping twistedstalk, claspleaf twistedstalk, white twisted-stalk, or watermelon berry) is a species of flowering plant in the family Liliaceae, native to North America, Europe and Asia. It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 40–100 cm tall, with alternate, oblong-lanceolate leaves 5–14 cm long. The greenish-white flowers hang from axils on 1–2 cm thin kinked pedicels, each flower with six white tepals, 9–15 mm long. The plants leaves completely encircle the stem, and the stems have a kink at each leaf axil giving the plants stem a "twisted" and wiry appearance. The plants grow in a creeping habit in moist, dense undergrowth.

Notes

There are about 10 Streptopus species. Also put in the family Convallariaceae.

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