Devil’s Claw: America’s Forgotton Gourmet Native Pickling Vegetable

[embed]Archive of strange and unusual food plants - Pull Up Your Plants! Devil's claw (Martynia) was once widely pickled in America. Discover the forgotten native plant that disappeared from…www.pullupyourplants.com

For more than a hundred years — from the early 1800s to the early 1900s — martynias were regarded as one of America’s gourmet pickling fruits. Though often described as “common” pickling vegetables in their day, they were also mentioned alongside delicacies such as spiced cantaloupe slices and celery stuffed with Roquefort — items no doubt served in restaurants with a dutiful French waiter hiding behind every fern.

By 1896, The Evening Bulletin (Maysville, Ky., August 30) noted that martynias were “a rare thing nowadays… an old‑fashioned and aristocratic pickle… very few old Virginia and Kentucky families were without them.”

Today, we unearth a small piece of botanical history. Proboscidea species, native to the American Southwest, are drought‑tolerant, ornamental plants whose flower parts even move in response to touch. If they could hoist themselves out of the soil and start dancing, they would be only slightly more fascinating.

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