Sow thistle (Sonchus spp.) is not a true thistle and also non-native here. Sometimes mistakenly called milk thistle, sow thistles are another edible and medicinal plant to gobble up or feed to the pigs. Sow thistles in these parts include field sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis), spiny-leaved sow thistle (Sonchus asper), common sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus), and sow-thistle … [Read more…]
Bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) is a common sight in sunny pastures and along the roadside here. Its (also euro) cousin Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) will be covered another time, even though the edible and medicinal usage is similar. Bull thistle is more edible. I’m going to interrupt this piece to invite you to join me … [Read more…]
Often called melilot, our sweet clovers (Melilotus spp.) are a settler imported edible and medicinal plant. But you’re going to need to be careful about mold. And you might want to report it. Around here white sweet clover (Melilotus alba) is common. We also have yellow sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis), identical in uses, but uncommon … [Read more…]
Queen Anne’s-lace (Daucus carota) is literally a wild carrot. It’s another likely garden escapee, naturalized to Haliburton, and a surprisingly edible and medicinal wild plant. (If you’re not possibly pregnant, anyway!) You’ll want to make sure to distinguish it from other carrots. A lookalike that comes to mind is goutweed. The purple dot in the … [Read more…]
These edible and medicinal fleabane (Erigeron spp.) are smaller daisies, that bloom earliest of daisies here, and they are quickly raggedly looking. From all that you can probably figure out why they’re called eri (early) and geron (old man) in greek. Around Haliburton, we have common fleabane, rough daisy (Erigeron strigosus) – more likely found … [Read more…]
There may not be a traditional word for wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) because this plant is an invasive settler introduced plant. Edible and medicinal carrot/parsley family plants are notorious on the internet. Their relation giant hogweed is especially villainized. My library of herbal books tends to focus on cow parsnip, and even then, these parsnip … [Read more…]