WILD PIE-PLANT. CANAIGRE.
Rumex hymenosepalus, Torr. Buckwheat Family.
Root.—A cluster of Dahlia-like tubers. Stems.—About two feet high. Leaves.—Narrowly oblong or lanceolate; a foot long or less; acute; undulate; narrowed into a short, very thick petiole. Flowers.—Light raisin-color; in a large panicle a foot or so long. Perianth.—Of six sepals; the outer minute; the inner about five lines long, appressed to the ovary. Stamens.—Six. Ovary.—Three-angled; one-celled. Styles three; short. Stigmas tufted. Hab.—Dry, sandy plains of Southern California.
The wild pie-plant is closely related to the garden rhubarb, and also to the dock and the sorrel. In early days in both Utah and Southern California housewives used its stems as a substitute for the cultivated pie-plant, finding them quite acceptable. The Indians have long used the root in the tanning of buckskins, and they have also found in it a bright mahogany-brown dye, with which to paint their bodies.
Of late this plant has been attracting much notice under the name "canaigre," and it is hoped that it will prove a valuable substitute for tanbark. If it does, we shall hail it with delight as the savior of our beautiful oak forests. Tannin exists in large quantities in the thick roots; but it is yet a question whether it will prove remunerative to the farmer as a crop. At Rialto a company has been formed, which employs many men to gather and prepare the roots, and there will soon be thousands of acres of it under cultivation. The tops of the plants, with the small upper portions of the roots, which have all the eyes upon them, are cut off and replanted for the next year's crop, while the remainder of the root is sliced, dried, pulverized, and leached to extract the tannin, which is then ready for use.
[CANAIGRE—Rumex hymenosepalus.]
![[CANAIGRE—Rumex hymenosepalus.]](#3624944100741987669_f146.png.id-28680198460586481.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
The plant is a very noticeable one, with its red leaf-stems and veins and its large, dense cluster of small raisin-colored flowers, and it is often seen upon our southern plains. But I am told that over the border in Lower California it grows in great abundance, covering the ground for miles. It would seem as though its cultivation might be carried on with best results where nature produces it so freely.