Most local knapweeds (centaurea spp.) look similar to bull thistle. However, you’re more likely to find your knapweed in patches instead of lone like bull thistles. Spotted knapweed (c. maculosa) is noted in Haliburton Flora on the edge of the highway, which is where I’ve seen it too. Another centaurea is bachelor’s buttons, as pictured …
Dear Wood Folk, Lately, we’ve been covering a lot of overwintering butterflies, but this month’s sulphurs (colias spp.) are migrators. We have three species around Haliburton, Ontario, noted on iNaturalist. The clouded sulphur (c. philodice) is the species you are vastly more likely to see. It’s followed by the orange “alfalfa butterfly” (c. eurytheme) who …
In Chippewa, there’s name’g osibug meaning “sturgeon leaf”, referring to an aster that was served with fish. New England asters (symphyotrichum novae-angliae) names include wini’sikens and waanisikensiwang. Asters are all-stars for pollinators and they’re also somewhat edible and medicinal. The American asters (symphyotrichum spp. formerly included in aster spp.) are native to the Americas. A single …
Dear Wood Folk, I suppose northern viceroys get overlooked a lot due to their twin being perhaps the most popular butterfly in North America. At first glance they sure look like a petite monarch. Viceroy (limenitis archippus) is a poisonous butterfly mimicking another poisonous butterfly that mimics it. Or it goes something like that. They call …
Beggarsticks (bidens spp.) may look like flowers to choke on, but they are more edible and medicinal than they appear. We currently have around half a dozen species of beggarticks (bidens spp.) in Haliburton county, Ontario. But the only one I’ve noticed is devil’s beggarticks (bidens frondosa). It’s fairly common in waste areas, sand flats …
Most false bindweeds (calystegia spp.) you’ll find in Ontario are nonnative and not very edible or medicinal. However, some false bindweeds have been used for food around the world. False bindweeds (calystegia spp.) are very similar to related “true” bindweeds (convolvulus spp.) and are sometimes categorized with them and swamp dodder (cuscuta gronovii). But our …