A hike yesterday at Little City of Rocks near Gooding turned out to be a beautiful walk in Biscuit Root Country.
Biscuit Roots, or Lomatium, are a large group of highly medicinal and edible plants that have been used for centuries by native Americans. Some species of Lomatium were commonly used as food staples, thus the name Biscuit Root.
The plants are most famous for their miracle result in curing members of the Nevada Washoe tribe during the virulent 1918 flu epidemic. The tribe used the root of the particular Lomatium in this photo to treat members who fell sick with the disease and not a single patient died. Many consider Lomatiums to be extremely potent anti-virals, and tinctures are available–but they have not been embraced by mainstream medicine.
Lomatiums are a large genus of plants that typically grow in hot, dry regions of the West. One of the most recent additions to the group, and one that grows in the Boise foothills, is Andrus’ Lomatium, named in honor of our former Governor Cecil Andrus.