The edible roots were valued by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.

Preferring salt marshes, river estuaries and shorelines, they are often seen growing alongside springbank clover.

As an important vegetable, families maintained rights to access patches through potlatch.

[6] New plants can grow from small root fragments, and with some attention families could guarantee patches persisted for generations, perhaps over thousands of years.

[7] Northwest Coast peoples used to dig them in spring with yew-wood shovels before pit-cooking them or boiling them with eulachon grease.