Glycyrrhiza lepidota

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the candy company, see American Licorice Company.

American licorice
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Glycyrrhiza
Species:
G. lepidota
Binomial name
Glycyrrhiza lepidota
(
Nutt.) Pursh
Sierra Nevada

Glycyrrhiza lepidota (American licorice) is a species of

European licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) which is occasionally cultivated.[1][2][3][4]

The plant grows in moist soils; although it will grow in heavy soil it prefers sandy soil. It grows to 40–100 cm (16–39 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. After eating a roasted root in 1806, Meriwether Lewis described an "agreeable flavor not unlike the sweet pittaitoe (sweet potato)."[5]

Burr (seeds) of the wild licorice growing along the South Saskatchewan River bank near Saskatoon, SK

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.[6]

American licorice is grazed by cattle, but not preferred and will increase under grazing as competing plants are grazed off. The new growth can be toxic.[7] 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

alkali flat
.

There is a market for American licorice root both for medicinal uses and flavoring; also the sweetening of tobacco products.[1]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Glycyrrhiza lepidota.
  1. ^
    LCCN 2004380541
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  2. ISBN 1-55054-703-8
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  3. ISBN 0-88864-298-9
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  4. OCLC 19487479
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  5. ^ Schiemann, Donald Anthony (2005). Wildflowers of Montana. Missoula: Mountain Press Publishing Company. p. 182.
  6. PMID 6893476
    .
  7. ^ "Glycyrrhiza lepidota". Plants for a Future. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
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