Roseroot (Rhodiola Rosea)
Our Time Line
If Claytonia Tuberosa, or Springbeauty, seems confined in North America to the west, to Alaska and the Yukon, then Roseroot is its opposite number. In North America, Roseroot's range is northern Labrador and Quebec and part of the Eastern Seaboard, but it extends no further west than the eastern parts of the Canadian Nunavut territory. It exists in only a fraction of the territory of Sweetvetch, and does not overlap at all with Claytonia.
Interestingly, where Claytonia is also found in Siberia, Roseroot's to be found in northern Europe, and mountainous areas in Europe and Central Asia. The two plants come to North America from opposite directions.
Like Sweetvetch and Claytonia, Roseroot is a flowering arctic perrenial. Neither the flower nor the root resembles a rose in any way, the name comes from the faint rose petal scent that the dried roots have. The plant grows about a foot and a half in height, a central bole grows numerous leafy stems which are edible. Instead of a single taproot, Roseroot produces a nest of thick edible rootlets. The thick root system requires more work in extraction and cleaning than Claytonia or Sweetvetch.
During winter, the stems die off and become animal fodder, and the plant reproduces new stems from buds at its base. The plant takes four to five years to mature.
Due to the large root system, Roseroot requires deeper soils than Sweetvetch or Claytonia, but is extremely cold tolerant, tends to favour loam or sandy loam soils. It is noted that it grows well or tolerates soils with low fertility. It is notably drought resistant and appears to require less water than Claytonia or Sweetvetch. Overall, it seems to prefer a more specialized habitat than Sweetvetch or even Claytonia, but seems to balance that with being more generally cold and drought tolerant.
While all three plants overlap to some degree, it appears that their qualities, requirements and habitat differ enough that the plants arent customarily in direct competition with each other. To put it another way, a pound of roseroot does not mean that there is a pound less of Sweetvetch or Claytonia.
Like Claytonia or Sweetvetch, the plant can reproduce from root fragments as well as seeds, and tends to grow close together in great density. Cultivation per acre is similar to corn or potatoes.
In OTL, Roseroot has been identified as a favourable plant for arctic agriculture, believe it or not. This is largely due to the herbal or medicinal properties of the plant, rather than its potential food value. Studies indicate that it improves physical and mental performance, may reduce fatigue, and may be effective in improving mood and alleviating depression. Typically, the roots are harvested, washed, chipped and dried, after which extracts are taken. You can probably find Roseroot at any health food store, the extracts at least.
In Europe, from before medieval times, Roseroot was known to the Norse and to mountain peoples as an important medicinal plant, and harvested frequently. It's penchant for flourishing in harsh environments tended to work against cultivation. In modern times, the demand for the plant outstrips the wild harvest and intensive cultivation work is being done in Alberta, Norway and Finland. It is estimated that the income of an acre of roseroot is equivalent to the value of 250 acres of canola, even adjusting for a four or five year maturation period, that's still a net of approximately 50 times the worth of Canola. There's actually a substantial amount of literature online available about this plant, and about growing and cultivation efforts.
There's significantly less information as to the edible qualities of Roseroot as food. Most of the cultures in Europe that sought it out had already ample supplies of domesticated, annual edibles. There was no particular need to domesticate Roseroot as an edible - that would involve establishing yourself in very inhospitable locations to cultivate a plant that would turn in a crop once every four or five years, and the medicinal applications were such that harvesting wild specimens was satisfactory.
By the time that the Inuit had reached Nunavut, plants had largely vanished as a significant part of their diet. It appears that both the roots and the young stems were eaten from time to time, but there to, the plant was noted for medicinal qualities.
Guessing from what I can determine of the more specialized habitat, edible root mass and the apparently longer maturation period, I would assume that Roseroots food production potential, while being significant, would be less than either Sweetvetch or Claytonia. But I would also guess that the roots rejuvenative qualities would tend to balance that out a bit.
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Alternate Time Line
Among the Thule, the key root crops were known as the Three Gifts From the Spirits, or colloquially, The Three Gifts.
Roseroot was the last of the Three Gifts to be adopted by the Thule. In doing so, we see yet another cultural innovation, as the practice of harvest of Sweetvetch and Claytonia was substantially adapted to the requirements of Roseroot.
Of the Three Gifts, Roseroot was the only one not native to or adjacent to the Thule homeland. There was no accumulated cultural lore to rely upon with regard to the harvesting of the plant, the timing of harvesting, the preparation, cooking or storage of the roots, or even such things as finding and identifying the plant, determining maturity or identifying its preferred growing habitats and requirements had to be literally developed from scratch. In all of these ways, it differed from the other two gifts.
Roseroots food and medicinal value, the rejuvenative effect that seemed to come from eating it, however, provided significant cultural motivation to pursue it. And while the requirements and characteristics of Roseroot were somewhat different, the Thule culture had adapted and incorporated harvesting and plant lore for the first two gifts, so the cultural leap involved was simply one of detail rather than a major shift.
And of course, in an important key particular, Roseroot was like the other gifts, in that it could be readily spread by seed planting or root sections, something which the Thule culture by this time had mastered thoroughly.
All they needed was to master the particular requirements of Roseroot habitat, and in this, they had received the cultural lesson of having to learn Claytonias peculiar habitat preferences. Once again, this was a situation where their previous experience, while not directly applicable, was still in the same ballpark, rather than being completely alien. So it was a cultural innovation that was well within social tolerances.
The result was that after a period of delay, Roseroot distribution began to expand as well, moving steadily west and north until all Three Gifts had overlapping ranges throughout most of the Thule territories.
Each gift on its own represented a measurable shift of available plant biomass towards human edible material. Each gift represented a separate and measurable increase in the amount of food available for human consumption in an area. And of course, with this, came increased human population.
There were other significant, if less obvious effects. The adaptations, lore and accumulating cultural practices that were evolving around and with the Three Gifts were, together with increasing population, pushing Thule society towards an agricultural revolution.
Further, adaptation of accumulated lore and cultural practices to Roseroot, opened the door for further cultural adaptation and domestication of the Thule second wave of less valuable plants during and following the agricultural revolution.