FRIENDS OF EDGEWOOD NATURAL PRESERVE
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FRIENDS OF EDGEWOOD NATURAL PRESERVE
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A CLOSER LOOK AT WESTERN HOUND’S TONGUE By Bob Young This is the nineteenth of a series of articles describing the flowers pictured in our wildflower brochure. —ed.
Western Hound’s Tongue (Cynoglossum grande) is shown in the brochure “Common Native Wildflowers of Edgewood,” published jointly by the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and Friends of Edgewood Natural Preserve. Western Hound’s Tongue is a tap-rooted perennial plant in the Borage family. It blooms in Edgewood in shady woods from February to April, with a varying height of from one foot to thirty inches. Each of its bright blue flowers is about ˝ inch wide and has an inner row of white teeth. The flowers are found grouped in a loose, irregularly branching inflorescence. In summer the plant dies back to its heavy underground root. Almost all genera in the Borage family may be toxic from alkaloids or accumulated nitrates. Western Hound’s Tongue is found from British Columbia to the south coast ranges of California under 4500 feet elevation. It is sometimes found in the Sierra Nevada foothills, but is not common there. The scientific name of the genus, Cynoglossum, comes from two Greek words: cyno, meaning dog or hound and glossa, meaning the tongue or language. Both the scientific and the common names were bestowed because the shape of the leaves is similar to a dog’s tongue. Mary Elizabeth Parsons, in her book The Wild Flowers of California, gives this description: “Among the first plants to respond to the quickening influence of the early winter rains, is the hound’s-tongue, whose large, pointed leaves begin to push their way aboveground usually in January…. The favorite haunts of this welcome blossom are half-shaded woods, where it rears its tall stalk in almost sole possession at this early season.” Parsons also describes the seed: “The distribution of the seed is most cunningly provided for, as the upper surfaces of the nutlets are covered with tiny barbs, which a magnifying glass reveals to be quite perfect little anchors, admirably adapted for catching in the hair of animals.” This bur quality of the seed has given the common name of Stickseed to two related genera in the Borage family: Hackelia and Lappula, usually found in mountain meadows. |
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