(Claytonia sibirica)
Siberian Lettuce grows all over the BC coast. It’s a pretty little plant that has dainty white to pink flowers on multiple stems. The flowers are present from February to September.
Siberian Lettuce is often called a candy flower, as its five white to pink petals are often lined with deep pink and look like little candies. These petals can vary in size from 0.5cm to 2 cm in length. This lettuce is a native plant; it grows in shaded forest conditions and may be found in bloom from early spring to late summer.
This plant grows from a slender taproot or rhizome and likes to grow on stream banks, in the shade, where it’s moist.
It can be found from Alaska south to California, in southern British Columbia and all of Vancouver Island.
Siberian lettuce has been used as a food plant by First Peoples for thousands of years. Miners during the California gold rush in the middle 1800s ate these plants to prevent scurvy; they learned of the plant from the First Peoples.