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Hedysarum alpinum
Also called Alpine Sweet Vetch, Sweet Broom
Alpine sweetvetch is a hardy northern perennial legume with pink or purple flower spikes, grown mainly for its edible starchy root. It thrives in cold climates in well-drained, lime-rich soil and needs little care once established.
Hedysarum alpinum is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name alpine sweetvetch, bear root, or eskimo potato. It is called masu, mashu, masru or mazu in the Iñupiaq language, and as food aigak, meaning edible root. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the northern latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. In North America it is widespread in Canada and the northernmost United States, including Alaska.
This plant generally grows in the boreal and northern temperate climates. It occurs in tundra and taiga habitat types, in floodplains, grasslands, and dry forests. It is well adapted to calcareous soils. It is usually not a dominant species but it is considered dominant in several river deltas and plains in Alaska. It is a pioneer species on floodplains that have been recently scoured by water and ice. It grows with willows and birches along waterways and in forests dominated by spruces. It grows on grasslands with grass species such as little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Canada bluegrass (Poa compressa), and American dunegrass (Leymus mollis).
Alaska Natives have traditionally and continue to use the plant for food, particularly the fleshy roots. The roots are said to taste somewhat like young carrots. The Inupiat people call the plant wild potato and obtain dietary fiber from the roots. Alpine sweetvetch is the most important food source for the Dena'ina people after wild fruit species. The Eskimo train dogs to locate stores of roots that have been cached by mice. The roots may be eaten raw or prepared in a number of ways, including boiling, roasting, and frying in grease. They are stored in lard or oil and eaten when other food stores run out.
Utah sweetvetch · Alpine French Honeysuckle · Hedysarum spinosissimum · White sweetvetch · Hedysarum zundukii · Sweetvetch
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hedysarum alpinum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
