Wild Licorice seedpods / Glycyrrhiza lepidota

This photo was taken on 23 December 2014, when a few of us were taking part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the Drumheller area. My small group covered the NE and E quadrants of the established 15-mile wide diameter circle. Part of our area included a walk along the edge of the Red Deer River. I'd forgotten that we would be doing this walk - too far for me, so I had to turn back just before the far end. This is when I noticed these Wild Licorice seedpods at the edge of the path. They always fascinate me and they add a splash of colour in winter. We also saw a Snowshoe Hare in its winter white coat along this path, hiding amongst the tangle of shrubs and plants.

"Glycyrrhiza lepidota (American Licorice) is a species of Glycyrrhiza (a genus in the pea/bean family, Fabaceae) native to most of North America, from central Canada south through the United States to California, Texas and Virginia, but absent from the southeastern states. It is also sometimes known in the United States as "wild licorice", to distinguish it from the related European Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) which is occasionally cultivated.

The plant grows in moist soils; although it will grow in heavy soil it prefers sandy soil. It grows to 40–100 cm (16–40 in) tall, and has long tough brown roots which are said to be sweet and were used as food and for medicinal purposes by Native Americans.

American Licorice is not sweet from sugar but from glycyrrhizin. Glycyrrhizin may increase blood pressure (aka hypertension) by interfering with cortisol conversion. The Zuni people chew the root to keep the mouth sweet and moist.

American Licorice is grazed by cattle, but not preferred and will increase under grazing as competing plants are grazed off. It has light green to white flowers in the spring which ripen in the fall to clusters of burs which contain pods of small bean like seeds.

It can be used as a pioneer species to revegetate bare or disturbed ground and is often the first species to invade a receding alkali flat.

There is a market for American Licorice root both for medicinal uses and flavoring; also the sweetening of tobacco products." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycyrrhiza_lepidota