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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
In Chippewa, gijib’inuskon meaning “it is round”, refers to scouring rush. Common horsetail is used to scrub and clean too, but it also has edible uses. And scouring rush is the equisetum plant preferred for medicinal uses. Related to ferns, common horsetail (sometimes called horsetail fern) is the only living genus of the subclass equisetidae. Its …
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Does anyone have an Anishinaabemowin word for salsifies? This edible and medicinal plant is like a tall, fluffier version of dandelion. It’s a non-native plant in Ontario and part of the sunflower family. In the reference book Haliburton Flora you’ll only find goatsbeard (tragopogon dubius), better called yellow salsify (there are unrelated plants called goatsbeard). …
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