Shinleaf AKA white wintergreen (Pyrola elliptica) is overshadowed in foraging and herbal medicine by its relations wintergreen and to some extent its cousin pipsissewa. It’s not used by foragers that I know of, and it’s a weaker medicinal than American wintergreen. I might have waited to cover this one, except it’s so common in the …
Dead nettles (Lamium spp.) look like stinging nettles before flowering, but they don’t have the sting, hence the dead. Some of the species could be confused with other mint family plants; a common example being henbit and purple dead nettle resembling ground ivy/creeping charlie. It won’t take long in a foraging meme group to find …
Todays plant is chokeberries (Aronia spp.), not the more popular chokecherries. Sometimes chokeberry shrubs are included in the genus Photinia instead of Aronia. Chokeberries are one of the less popular native shrubs. Even unheard of. These under-the-radar native shrubs are related to roses. The only species listed in Haliburton Flora is purple chokeberry (Aronia x …
American silverberries or wolf-willow (Elaeagnus commutata) is Ontario’s native mealy sour silverberry shrub. It does somewhat resemble willow. There are several nonnatives around too. Japanese silverberry AKA Autumn olive (E. umbellata) is invasive around Ontario, especially to the south. In cottage country, it’s more of an introduced small tree you’ll occasionally spot in someone’s lawn. …
In Chippewa, manido’bima’kwud, woodbine AKA American ivy AKA Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is a grape relation you can find around Ontario. Locally, it’s found mostly on roadsides and along abandoned railroad tracks. I’ve also found this vine in mixed woods. It’s gorgeously ornamental in Autumn, so you’re likely to find it in town too. In …
Common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) has a much easier folk name to remember: butter-and-eggs. the flowers look just like the breakfast. Around Haliburton this nonnative plant is common on open sandy and gravelly ground. It’s got a lot of aggressive competition in these disturbed areas, but I usually find at least one when I’m walking down …