With the coming winter my eye wanders to the vegetation that remains somewhat green against the straw-colored sun cured grasses. Because green=still nutritious. The tiny trident shaped leaves of the antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentate) catch my eye. The bush at my feet has been visibly pruned from many winters of passing browsers. Bitterbrush is the best winter forage for pronghorn, moose, elk, and deer. At 53 years of age, I realize I have known this plant for 35 years. However, this fall was the first time I tasted the fruit in spite of a full awareness of the probable derivation of the plants name.  Man is it B-I-T-T-E-R!  All I did was lick the hard but syrupy fruit with the tip of my tongue and my mouth was filled with an acrid, drying, awful taste.  It kept me spitting for a good 15 minutes to get rid of the taste. Guess that goes to show the difference between my palette and that of an ungulate. Highly nutritious for animals and is either apparently more tasty to animals, or they avoid the fruit and just eat the leaves and stems. Bitterbrush has many medicinal properties for humans. Parts of the bitterbrush are good in poultice form for skin irritation, as tonic for colds and pneumonia, and as tea for stomach disease. 

 

This fall we collected bitterbrush seeds along with the seed of Indian rice grass at the Spring Creek Ranch Quarry on East Gros Ventre Butte with volunteers. The seeds will be cultivated by the Teton Science Schools Conservation Research Center in their new native seed test plots around the Valley. Bitterbrush is an important native shrub in our ecology and one that could be used more often when considering what natives you might want in your yard and can be found through native seed companies. ~ Tom Segerstrom