Wintercress is a nonnative garden vegetable that has escaped into the wild in Ontario. The subtitle was a toss up between broccoli and arugula of edible wild plants. Which would you have picked? Winter cress (barbarea vulgaris) is common here along moist roadsides and in fields among flowers and grasses. Its bright yellow flower clusters …
In Chippewa, caca’gomin or spelled zhakaagomin, bunchberry (cornus canadensis) is a small, creeping dogwood. And just like the other native dogwoods, it’s a great nectar and pollen plant and somewhat of an edible and medicinal plant for humans too. Bunchberry (cornus canadensis) is common around cottage country, Ontario. This dogwood likes wet and cool deciduous and …
In Chippewa, oja’cidji’bik meaning “slippery root”, fireweed (epilobium angustifolium) derives its common name from colonizing the charred sites of wildfires. It’s an edible and medicinal plant that is native to Ontario. Fireweed (epilobium angustifolium syn. chamerion angustifolium syn. chamaenerion angustifolium) is common along roadsides, in logged bush, and in fire scourged acres here in central …
Dear Wood Folk, For readers in Haliburton area, it’s not impossible we could see a black swallowtail (papilio polyxenes). Their range mostly stops in southern Ontario, but they are often seen in Peterborough. Because it’s such a longshot and I don’t spend much time to the south, I don’t have a picture of this butterfly. …
Bush cranberries are a common sight in Cottage country, Ontario. These berried shrubs include hobblebush, wild raisin, nannyberry, maple-leaved viburnum and highbush cranberry. All mentioned have edible and medicinal uses. Bush-cranberries (viburnum SPP.) are common here around Haliburton. Hobblebush (viburnum lantanoides), pictured in the featured image, is common along wooded roadsides and edges of woods. …
Sweetgale AKA bog myrtle (myrica gale) is edible and medicinal, but it can induce an abortion. So excited moms-to-be will want to stick with enjoying its beauty and the beauty of the gorgeous moths who use it as a host plant. Sweetgale AKA bog myrtle (myrica gale) is common in central Ontario, in shores and …