[Spring Beauties and Miner's Lettuce: The Genus Claytonia in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington]

Miner's Lettuce

Claytonia perfoliata ssp. perfoliata

Synonym: Montia perfoliata var. perfoliata

Miner's lettuce (ssp. perfoliata) as seen at left under oak trees in the Labyrinth, mid-Columbia River Gorge.........April 15, 2010. Note the erect basal leaves. The photo at right shows miner's lettuce (ssp. perfoliata) beginning to bloom in the planted area along sidewalks at the Chamberlain Lake Rest Area on Washington Highway 14 several miles west of Lyle, WA.......January 13, 2018.

Miner's Lettuce: Claytonia perfoliata ssp. perfoliata (Synonyms: Claytonia perfoliata var. angustifolia, Claytonia perfoliata var. perfoliata, Limnia perfoliata, Montia perfoliata ssp. perfoliata, Montia perfoliata var. perfoliata)

Characteristics:

Miner's lettuce is an annual with several to many stems either lax or ascending from 3-35 cm high. The basal leaves are linear-spatulate to long-petiolate with oblanceolate to rhombic-obovate blades up to 3 cm wide and roughly the same length as the flower stems. The two stem leaves are found at the distal end of the stem, where they adjoin together to form a disk through which the stem passes (hence the species name perfoliata, meaning the stem passing through the leaf). This is a key diagnostic characteristics for this species. This disc range from 0.6-5 cm wide.

The inflorescence is a short raceme found directly above the disc. Individual flowers are white or pink with 5 short petals, 2 green petals, and 5 stamens.

Current classification has changed the genus name from Montia to Claytonia.

Habitat:

Miner's lettuce is found in seasonally moist places in open to shady woods in the bottom lands to the lower mountains.

Range:

Miner's lettuce is found from British Columbia south along both sides of the Cascade Mts. to Baja California and east to Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and the Dakotas.

It may be found throughout the length of the Columbia River Gorge between the elevations of 100'-3000'.

Note from the photos that the fused leaves extend roughly equally in all directions from the stem (unlike Claytonia rubra, in which the leaves are unequally fused, at least on one side.) and that the stem leaves may be entirely round or oval, or with several points on the edges.

These photos show how fleshy this uppermost, fused stem leaf of miner's lettuce is.

Miner's lettuce as seen near Sherar's Bridge on the Deschutes River..........mid April, 2004.

Paul Slichter