Maybe it’s the name “weed”. Or maybe it’s the location; weedy parking lots and driveways. But I always assumed horseweed was a nonnative plant. Surprise! It’s actually native to Ontario and a powerhouse for small pollinators. Horseweed (conyza canadensis syn. erigeron canadensis) is fairly common around Haliburton county in sand flats, disturbed ground, and roadsides. …
Black-eyed Susan, while not edible like most plants we’ve featured, is a medicinal herb and a butterfly favourite that is so easy to plant. It adds bountiful pops of sunny yellow to meadows and path sides. For the most part I’m covering plants that are both edible and medicinal, but it’d be “sow easy” to …
Motherwort is an edible and medicinal wild plant that I wish was native to Ontario. This herb is so popular it has been planted all around the world. Motherwort is uncommon here, yet it spontaneously showed up in my brush pile beside my driveway one year. It does have lookalikes, particularly in the mint family. …
A relation of quinoa, lamb’s quarters is another wild edible and medicinal plant that likes to take over disturbed soil, like the plot you just tilled for your garden! It was a toss up between quinoa and wild spinach for the subtitle. But there are so many “spinach substitutes”! This is the entry in Stalking …
A type of buckwheat, lady’s-thumb is a common garden “smartweed” here. It’s a smart beginner wild edible and medicinal green because of the distinguished triangular purple spot on the leaf making it easily identifiable. Syn. persicaria maculosa. Check out the nice, clearest “thumb”print, bottom-left: There are lookalikes throughout Ontario, primarily also in the buckwheat family, …
In Chippewa, a’djidamo’wano meaning ajidamoo (squirrel or red squirrel) and wano (tail), yarrow is a “wounderful” edible and medicinal herb. A yarrow salve for healing cuts and scrapes was my first ever herbal medicine maker’s recipe! Yarrow is another European import. It’s most descriptive folk name is woundwort. It’s not the only “woundwort”, so cheers …