(38) Aniseroot, Sweet Cicely – Osmorrhiza occidentalis
bloom time - May
Aniseroot in it’s river home
I first discovered Aniseroot while biking through the woods along the Poudre River. I had never seen, nor really even thought about, this plant before, and yet one day there it was! I saw it. It was hiding discreetly under a Box Elder tree, with whom it’s leaves share a striking resemblance. There were two of them, growing side by side. It was April or early May, and there were no flowers yet.
For the past few years I’ve had a mild obsession with plants in the carrot family (Umbelliferae). Mostly, and wisely so, due to the Hemlocks, people tend for the most part to leave plants in this family alone. But that leaves a growing void of knowledge and familiarity with these plants, and I intend to fill that void.
I recognized it as an umbelliferae at once, and knowing it was not Hemlock, broke off a stalk and smelled it. The unmistakable scent of anise hit my senses. I took a bite. Ahh! I brought the leaf specimen home and quickly found it in a new book on edible wild plants I’d just started reading. From there I kept a close eye on the two plants, returning to them often. I looked around for others, but to no avail. So where did these plants come from, and why were there only two of them? I love these kinds of questions. (Wise man once say, questions are better than answers)
Fast Forward a month or so: A hobo camp popped up near my two Aniseroot plants. It made me nervous, and with just cause. One day I found one of the plants trampled and covered with soiled toilet paper. So I did the only logical thing I could think of, I dug up (carefully) the other one and took it home. It grows in my garden to this day. The peed on plant died back, and I saw no more of them that year.
It’s hard to explain the sadness and frustration you feel when someone else treats with ignorance something you love and hold sacred. I don’t blame them for not knowing, or peeing on the plant, but still it hurt. And the decision to move the other one to my house was not made without careful forethought. This plant was still so very new to me, I didn’t know how or if it would transplant, and it was getting on into summer, not the best time to move things around. But I found a spot in my yard that most closely resembled where I found it, and happy to say it’s been there three years now and flourishing.
The next year the peed on plant actually grew back, and to my delight, there were two more plants growing there near it. This time they made flowers and went to seed.
At the time of this writing it is June, 2024, the third year after I discovered this gem of a plant, and there are now seven plants in this colony. Three mature ones that flower and fruit, and four first year plants. Plus three in my garden. About fifty yards upriver from this first colony I found another colony of about a dozen plants all of them growing at the base of an old Willow tree, right on the bank of the river, in nearly full shade. They do get a mottling of sunlight through the canopy of trees throughout the day, but it can hardly be more than an hour’s worth.
These are the only Aniseroot plants I’ve found growing along the Poudre, or in Fort Collins through which it flows. But the colonies are growing, and I am tending to them as they are to me. Andrew Peterson wisely said that when humans tend a garden, it’s not just the plants that grow better, the humans do too.
Besides being a beautiful plant and a surprisingly good food, Aniseroot plants have been shown to help moderate blood sugar levels, and inhibit fungal growth in the body. This is one of my favorite plants to share with people, especially when they don't know what it is. People almost never expect something so good to come from a wild plant, especially if they're used to me giving them bitter things to eat. The surprise on their faces is priceless.
