Candy Flower, also known as miner’s lettuce, is a native groundcover plant with semi-succulent leaves that are edible and white to pink flowers.
Historically, miner’s would use it as a food source and hiker’s of the Pacific Northwest would use it as a trailside tonic!
Claytonia sibirica
Candy Flower
Description:
Spreading to erect, with stolons (horizontal stems that help plants spread and reproduce asexually) that sometimes form new plants.
Stems are few to several and the foliage color varies from green to bronze.
Leaves at the base are egg-shaped, with long petioles; stem leaves are opposite, and heart-shaped
Flowers in open clusters of 1 to 3, each cluster with a small elliptical bract (a leaf extending from the base of the flower). Petals are 1/4 to 1/2 inch and white with pink pencil markings
Grows in moist places in forests, streambanks, along coast and to mid-elevations. At upper elevations, it grows in shaded swamps, seeps, and wet meadows
Is similar Claytonia cordifolia, which has no bracts below the inflorescence and has white flowers without pencil markings
Rarity: Locally Common
Flowering Time: Mid Spring
Life Cycle: Annual, Perennial
Height: 6 to 14 inches
Habitat: Coastal, Vernal Wet, West-Side Forest, Meadow, East-Side Forest
Found In: Olympic Np, Mt. Rainier Np, N Cascades Np, Wallowas, Columbia Basin, West Gorge, Siskiyous
Native: Yes
Source: https://www.pnwflowers.com/flower/claytonia-sibirica
Additional resource: Oregon Flora Project