302 Minnesota Plant Life. 



Ground-plums. The common ground-plum of the prairies 

 is one meml^er of a little group of pulses including about ten 

 species in Minnesota. Most of them have slender, purplish, 

 lilac or whitish flowers in rather loose racemes. The leaflets 

 are much like those of the smaller shrubby false indigos: that 

 is, they are composed of numerous small oval leaflets on each 

 side of a slender axis. In the ground-plum the pod, when it 

 matures, is fleshy and may be eaten when cooked. Not all of 

 the Minnesota varieties of groimd-plum have this fleshy pod. 

 In others the pod is c|uite dry. 



Two plants closely related to the ground-plum may be dis- 

 tinguished from it by the longer, more conspicuous racemes 

 of showy flowers. One of them in particular, which grows in 

 the western part of the state, has bluish-purple flowers on a tall, 

 central, erect stalk and is a very prominent flower of the prairie. 

 This plant is sometimes called loco-weed or loco-vetch. The 

 other member of its genus is of a beautiful silvery lustre, owing 

 to the soft white hairs that cover the leaflets and their axes. 

 In neither of these loco-weeds is there a branching plant-body 

 above ground, but the leaves seem to spring in a tuft from the 

 roots, while in the centre the erect flowering axis lifts itself 

 above their tips. The pods are incom])letely di\ided into two 

 chambers bv a deep partition extending lengthwise through the 

 ])od almost to the back. 



Wild licorice. A common herb of the Minnesota prairie is 

 the wild licorice. This j^lant may always be recognized when 

 in fruit by the ovoid pods covered with hooked bristles. Xo 

 other Minnesota pulse has just this sort of pod, which is. indeed, 

 not unlike a small cockle-bur head. The flowers, produced in 

 rather dense spikes, are of a cream color varying to white. In 

 these plants the roots are thick and sweet to the taste and are 

 sometimes used as a sul)stitutc for licorice. The tla\or. how- 

 ever, is difl'erent from that of the true licorice and is scarcely 

 so agreeable. The leaves are of the same general character as 

 those of the last plant mentioned, excei)t that they are not sil- 

 very in color, and are marked 1)\ minute glandular dots. 



Tick-trefoils. The tick-trefoils are characterized by their 

 pods which are constricted between the seeds and sei)arate into 



