In Chippewa, me’skwana’kuk bu’giso’win meaning swimming, Joe-Pye weed grows well along ponds, wetlands and streams, but any damp sunny area will do. It is one of the pollinator all-stars of edible and medicinal plants. Joe-Pye weed is common around Haliburton in low wet areas by ponds, marshes, streams, and even damp ditches. One spontaneously appeared by …
Continue reading “Joe-Pye Weed – Eupatorium Maculatum: Bee Bed of Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants”
In Anishnabe, odotaagaans+ag, bluebead lily has toxic berries, but it’s still an edible and medicinal wild plant. It’s gorgeous too, with pretty yellow flowers and stunning blue berries that form a gradient and marbled cluster of blue as they ripen. Corn lily AKA bluebead lily (clintonia borealis) is common around Halliburton in deciduous or mixed woods …
Continue reading “Bluebead Lily – Clintonia Borealis: Poisonberry of Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants”
In Ojibwe, makominagaawanzh, mountain ash isn’t a true ash tree, but a rose family tree. It’s one of a few edible and medicinal plants with berries that look like tiny apples. Sorb apples for short. When Haliburton Flora was compiled, mountain ash (sorbus Americana) was fairly common on wet or moist lakeshores, and roadsides with shrubs …
Continue reading “Mountain-Ashes – Sorbus SPP.: Rose Tree of Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants”
In Ojibwe, ozaawaaskined, honeysuckles are sometimes edible and sometimes medicinal. But always a favorite of nectar seekers like the ruby-throated hummingbird along with all-stars like scarlet bee balm and cardinal flower. Some human folks seek the nectar too. The most abundant native honeysuckle here is American/Canadian Fly (lonicera canadensis), which likes openings in deciduous and mixed …
Continue reading “Honeysuckles – Lonicera SPP.: Nectar of Edible & Medicinal Plants”
In Chippewa, muj’ota’buk meaning “moose leaf”, arrowhead is an edible and medicinal plant in the humans case as well as moose. Not to be confused with arrowroot, which you can find at health food stores, you’ll find arrowhead in the marsh instead. Usually surrounded by cattail and the like, arrowhead (sagittaria SPP.) is a common aquatic …
Continue reading “Arrowheads – Sagittaria SPP.: Marsh Potato of Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants”
In Ojibwe, wiinizik, yellow birch has a lot in common with other birches, but along with black/sweet birch (which isn’t in Haliburton) yellow birch has a subtle wintergreen scent and taste, making it one of the few wintergreen-y edible and medicinal plants around Haliburton. Yellow birch is common around Haliburton in tall mixed woods. I notice …
