salt the snail

August on the Mon River Trail is marked by towering stands of Joe Pye weed, bowed by the weight of their enormous flowerheads, curtains of bobbing sunflowers, and the creeping tendrils of our beautiful native legumes, including the maroon-flowered groundnut (Apios americana), also known as wild potato and Indian potato, whose edible tubers were once a staple food of Native Americans. But my favorite by far is hairy leafcup (Smallanthus uvedalia), a shrubby, sunflower-like aster that can produce up to one hundred flowers from a single plant. Its enormous leaves, which are opposite and palmately-lobed, are reminiscent of a large animal's paws, which have earned this perennial beauty an alternative common name - bear's foot.