![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/FalseSarsaparillaThreeBloomsRattrayMarshonNaturalCrooksDotCom.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTraining Your Eyes to See What\u2019s Always Been There In Front of You<\/h2>\n
I\u2019ve noticed this quirk about my eyes before: Once I \u201ctune\u201d them to look for a particular shape or type of object, they suddenly spot them almost everywhere. A typical example is searching for frogs in the bulrushes and along the muddy banks of a narrow cut through the swamp near my parents\u2019 cottage. At first, I have trouble finding a single frog. Once I spot one, though, I suddenly can see a dozen more. My eyes need to remember what to look for: the slightly round bump for the eyes, the jutting shape of the head, and the sheen of the skin.<\/p>\n
This time I was looking for a woodland plant with round white see-through clusters of flowers. I kept an eye out at Riverwood but the first place I spotted them was actually at the Rattray Marsh in Mississauga.<\/p>\n Walking around the Knoll path that borders Sheridan Creek and part of the marsh, I looked down and saw my first flowers. What I had mistakenly vaguely believed to be the leaves of young shrubs or possibly tick-trefoil, were actually False Sarsaparilla. The proof was the stem rising underneath each plant; the stem divided into 3 separate stalks and at the end of each was a sphere of tiny white flowers.<\/p>\n This wildflower has many names: Small Spikenard, Aralia, Wild Sarsaparilla and False Sarsaparilla are some of the more \u201ccommon\u201d ones. Some sources suggest Wild Licorice and Rabbit Root are other names, although they have been used for different plants, too.<\/p>\n The wild plant in Ontario is not related to the Sarsaparilla vine which was used to flavour soft drinks. Nor is it Sassafras which was also used to flavour Root Beer before artificial flavourings were developed. This Canadian wildflower has had its roots used in herbal medicine but I would never suggest using wild plants this way. Too often the plant is NOT the one being discussed in the old herbals.<\/p>\n According to the University of Texas at Austin website<\/strong><\/a>, the fruit are dark purple berries.\u00a0 They may take until the fall to develop. I haven\u2019t noticed these before so I\u2019ll try to look for them in August. It\u2019s possible, though, that like the Jack in the Pulpit berries they may get eaten very quickly by the marsh wildlife.<\/p>\n Looking for this one spring wildflower made me notice several others on my recent walks. That\u2019s a bonus especially when the bloom-time is so short for these spring ephemerals that try to grow, flower and set seed before the leaves of the mature maples and oaks overhead cut out most of the light. I\u2019m glad I bought the book as it\u2019s already brought me several interesting morning\u2019s worth of plants to study. Like this one:<\/p>\n Related Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n Join In<\/strong> Sufferin’ Succotash, is that Sarsaparilla? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[525,522,527,529,524,528,526,523],"class_list":["post-4849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focus","tag-aralia","tag-false-sarsaparilla","tag-rabbit-root","tag-sassparilla","tag-spikenard","tag-tick-trefoil","tag-wild-licorice","tag-wild-sarsaparilla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4849"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8425,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions\/8425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
\nThe newer flowers seem more subdued.<\/em><\/p>\nSufferin\u2019 Sassafras, False Sarsaparilla Sounds Like a Bugs Bunny Show Phrase<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nOnce I found the first one, I noticed the plants were everywhere.<\/em><\/p>\nIsn\u2019t Sarsaparilla a Soda Pop?<\/h2>\n
<\/a>
\nThe flowers remind me of fireworks exploding outwards with their green and white colours and long stamens.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThere is also another totally different Australian plant called False Sarsaparilla.<\/p>\nDoes False Sarsaparilla Have Berries or Seeds?<\/h2>\n
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\nThe leaflets have fine teeth along the edges and shade the flowers.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThe flower stalk is attached to the leaf stalk just above the ground.<\/em><\/p>\nMy Woodland-Flower-Tuned Eye Finds More Blossoms to Admire<\/h2>\n
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\nHave you seen these white \u201cfireworks\u201d shaped blossoms in a forest near you? Please share your sighting with a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"