Caffeine: the most potent artificial intelligence drink!

Caffeine: the most potent artificial intelligence drink!
Deep in the Lair of the Perpetually Curious Fox

Friday 25 July 2014

Grass-leaved Orache: Atriplex littoralis

I had to wait until the plant flowered before I can be certain of the species. This is Grass-Leaved Orache (Atriplex littoralis) which is another edible wild plant, very popular once, but now has been forgotten.

The leaves of most Orache (or Orach, both spellings are acceptable) usually have a Goose-foot-ey look, which is no surprise, as they are both in the Chenopodioideae subfamily, within the Amaranthacaea  family. In fact, it is the Amaranth-like leaf/flower bract arrangements that cued me that this is the Orache plant. I need to take more close up photos of the leaves, to show the "grass-like" blades of leaves, as opposed to the Goosefoot shape that most orache subspecies have.

As with other uncultivated Amaranthacaea, don't overdo eating the seeds. They have higher quantitiy of saponin, which have surfactant activity (i.e. soap-like). The leaves should be fine. Some species of Oraches are also known as Saltbush, as they can thrive in salty, brackish areas, and retain the salt in their leaves. Hence the name.

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