Tarweed/Madia

[Margaret Stephens]

Not quite sure what kind of Madia this is but it is growing profusely around the Pintail marsh area at Ankeny NWR.  The sticky plant is catching willow fluff. It is also fun to see all the tree frogs resting on Wapato which is blooming along with the Water plantain.  

[Joel Geier]

Hi Margaret,

Thanks for sharing. I think this is Madia sativa, sometimes called Chilean tarweed, though in fact it is native to our region and is an important oilseed in Native cultures of our region and down through California. I've heard that harvesting the seeds of this plant was one of the main reasons for the Kalapuya agricultural practice of burning prairies in late summer, since fire made it easier to harvest the seeds without being totally "stickified."

The town of Pinole (I think it should actually be Pinolé) in California's East Bay region takes its name from an important food that was produced by grinding up these seeds, with mortar and pestle, together with pinyon pine nuts from east of the Sierras.

The plant is much less showy than Madia elegans ("Elegant tarweed," which I know sounds like a bit of an oxymoron) but it produces a heavier seed crop that is easier to harvest.

The reason why I'm hedging on this ID is that botanist Matt Blakeley-Smith tells me that there is a third species of Madia which (to me) looks very similar to Madia sativa, and grows on some of our Vesper Sparrow research sites. I can't recall the name off-hand but perhaps someone else will know.

Joel

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Joel Geier

Tampico neighborhood north of Corvallis

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From: "Margaret Stephens" <mls...@msn.com>
To: "Mid-Valley Nature" <mid-vall...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2023 5:15:37 PM
Subject: [MidValleyNature:7160] Tarweed/Madia

Not quite sure what kind of Madia this is but it is growing profusely around the Pintail marsh area at Ankeny NWR.  The sticky plant is catching willow fluff. It is also fun to see all the tree frogs resting on Wapato which is blooming along with the Water plantain.  

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[Margaret Stephens]

Thanks for the info about the plant and Native peoples uses.  

I am wondering now if these two photos are of two different Madias.  The first one does look like sativa, but most of the plants I saw looked more like the 2^nd photo - a cluster of flowers at the top of a stem.  

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From: Joel Geier <clear...@peak.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2023 5:50 PM
To: Margaret Stephens <mls...@msn.com>
Cc: Mid-Valley Nature <mid-vall...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [MidValleyNature:7160] Tarweed/Madia

 

[Joel Geier]

The other similar-looking Madia species that Matt has identified locally is Madia gracilis. But I couldn't say how he sorted this out from Madia sativa, except that maybe M. gracilis seems to have lower stature. It probably involves looking closely at the sepals, glands etc. but I haven't a clue.

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From: "Margaret Stephens" <mls...@msn.com>
To: "Joel Geier" <clear...@peak.org>
Cc: "Mid-Valley Nature" <mid-vall...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2023 6:05:48 PM

[Krtka]

Do the Madia seeds serve as a food source for wildlife?

Kate

[Matt Blakeley-Smith]

Looks like Madia sativa to me, with the caveat that it's always risky giving an ID from someone's random photo!

To differentiate between sativa and gracilis, the key point is the shape of the round structure below the flower head. They are both broadly ovid in shape, but if the center of balance is low (sativa) or high (gracilis). The keys also talk about how much more sticky and stinky Sativa is compared to gracilis. That being said, they can both be found on the same property sometimes.

And yes, I've seen lots of birds devouring the seed. It's a great food source,

Matt

On Fri, Jul 14, 2023 at 11:50 AM Krtka <coffee...@gmail.com> wrote:

Do the Madia seeds serve as a food source for wildlife?

Kate

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