Hedysarum mackenzii.
Botanical name:
Hedysarum mackenzii Richards. Leguminosae. Licorice-Root.
North America. Richardson says at Fort Good Hope, Mackenzie River, this plant furnishes long, flexible roots which taste sweet like licorice and are much eaten in the spring by the natives but become woody and lose their juiciness and crispness as the season advances. This is the licorice-root of the trappers of the Northwest and is also used as a food by the Indians of Alaska.
Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick.
Comments
Mis-information on poisonous plant.
A comment from Charles Bier:
Excuse me, but I believe you have the wrong information listed for the plant: Hedysarum mackenzii. That plant is reported to be poisonous to some extent and can be mistaken for Hedysarum alpinum, which has an edible root. The information at your site listed under H. mackenzii is what I have read every where else as characteristics of H. alpinum.