Mountain sorrel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mountain sorrel |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Oxyria
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| Species: |
digyna
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Oxyria digyna is a cool plant often called mountain sorrel. You might also hear it called wood sorrel or Alpine sorrel. It's a type of flowering plant that belongs to the buckwheat family, called Polygonaceae. This plant loves cold places! You can find it in the Arctic regions and high up in the mountains across the Northern Hemisphere.
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What Mountain Sorrel Looks Like
Mountain sorrel is a plant that lives for many years. It has a strong root that helps it stay in place. This plant usually grows to be about 10 to 30 centimeters tall, which is roughly the size of a ruler. It often grows in thick bunches. Its stems are usually straight and smooth, without branches.
Both the stems that hold the flowers and the stalks of the leaves are a bit reddish. The leaves are shaped like a kidney and feel a little bit thick. They grow on stalks from the bottom part of the plant.
The flowers are small and green, but they turn reddish as they get older. They grow together in an open, upright bunch. The fruit of the plant is a tiny nut. This nut is surrounded by a wide, flat wing that eventually turns red. Because it forms thick, red bunches, mountain sorrel is easy to spot! The name Oxyria comes from the Greek word for "sour." This plant likes to grow in wet spots that are protected by snow in winter.
Where Mountain Sorrel Lives
Mountain sorrel is very common in the tundra areas of the Arctic. Further south, you can find it all around the Northern Hemisphere. It grows in high mountain areas like the Alps in Europe, and the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range in North America. It usually grows in high mountain meadows, on rocky slopes, in places where snow stays for a long time, and next to streams.
Scientists have found pollen from this plant in very old peat bogs on the coast of Norway. This pollen is about 12,600 years old! This tells us that mountain sorrel was one of the first plants to grow in that area after the huge ice age glaciers melted away.
Animals like deer and elk really enjoy eating this plant.
How People Use Mountain Sorrel
The leaves of mountain sorrel have a sour or fresh, tangy taste. This is because they contain something called oxalic acid. They are also full of vitamin C, with about 36 milligrams in every 100 grams. You can eat the leaves raw or cook them.
The Inuit people used this plant to stop and cure a sickness called scurvy. Scurvy happens when you don't get enough vitamin C. Mountain sorrel is also an important food source for insects and larger animals that live in the Arctic and high mountain regions where it grows.
Images for kids
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Svalbard
See also
In Spanish: Oxyria digyna para niños
