Bogbean – Menyanthes Trifoliata: Edible & Medicinal Uses of the Marsh Clover of Wild Plants

Bogbean - Menyanthes Trifoliata

Bogbean AKA Buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) is native to Ontario and found in wet, boggy habitats. It’s used for brewing and medicinally. Bogbean is closely related to gentian and it shows. Called buckbean in Haliburton Flora, bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) is uncommon here. It likes sphagnum mats in bogs and shallow, boggy edges of small lakes, and …

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Pickerel-weed – Pontederia Cordata: Edible & Medicinal Uses of the Purple Sea of Wild Plants

Pickerel-weed – Pontederia Cordata

Pickerelweed is another edible aquatic plant in Ontario. Many will notice its lush purple blooms covering the shorelines in our area in the summertime. The bees notice too! Pickerel-weed (Pontederia cordata) is a common sight around Haliburton in shallow water, usually in large dense colonies. When flowering it’s a sea of floating purple. Edible Uses …

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Variegated Pond-lily – Nuphar Variegata: Edible & Medicinal Uses of the Yellow Lake Rose of Wild Plants

Variegated Pond-lily – Nuphar Variegata

Variegated pond-lily is not just an edible and medicinal plant to the 2-leggeds, but a favourite of aquatic wildlife. It’s also visited by many pollinators. Variegated or yellow water-lily (Nuphar variegata) is common here in gently flowering shallow waters, up to a few metres deep. There was one small yellow water lily (Nuphar pumila) spotted …

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White Water-Lily – Nymphaea Odorata: Edible & Medicinal Uses of the Lotus of Wild Plants

White Water-Lily – Nymphaea Odorata

White water-lily (Nymphaea odorata) is one of our stand out edible and medicinal aquatic plants. The flower itself is widely recognizable: a lotus. Around Haliburton we have white water-lily (Nymphaea odorata) and the yellow ones you spot should be variegated (Nymphaea varigeta). In Haliburton Flora, there is one rare account of another sort of yellow …

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Common Cat-Tail – Thypha Latifolia: Edible & Medicinal Uses of the Multi-Tool of Wild Plants

Common Cat-Tail - Thypha Latifolia

In Chippewa, apuk’we, perhaps meaning “shelter” (muskrat is supporting me on this idea), common cat-tail (Thypha latifolia) is the multi-tool of the woods. Its uses reach far beyond the edible and medicinal. Sometimes cat-tails are mistakenly called bulrush, but that’s a separate species entirely here, yet they seem to use these terms interchangeably in Great …

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