The Wood Folk Diaries: Volume 4 (Poisonous Plants), Chapter 4: Blue Flag Iris

The Wood Folk Diaries: Volume 4 (Poisonous Plants), Chapter 4: Blue Flag Iris

Dear Wood Folk, We’ve covered a tinier iris before: blue-eyed grass. It’s a miniature lookalike you might find in your lawn around cottage country Ontario. Our title iris on the other hand can grow close to a few feet tall. Common along wetlands here, Northern blue flag (Iris versicolor) is our native blue flag iris. …

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Bogbean – Menyanthes Trifoliata: Edible & Medicinal Uses of the Marsh Clover of Wild Plants

Bogbean - Menyanthes Trifoliata

Bogbean AKA Buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) is native to Ontario and found in wet, boggy habitats. It’s used for brewing and medicinally. Bogbean is closely related to gentian and it shows. Called buckbean in Haliburton Flora, bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) is uncommon here. It likes sphagnum mats in bogs and shallow, boggy edges of small lakes, and …

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Joe-Pye Weed – Eupatorium Maculatum: Edible & Medicinal Uses of the Bee Bed of Wild Plants

Joe-Pye Weed – Eupatorium Maculatum

Joe-Pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum) 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 my rain barrel …

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Arrowheads – Sagittaria SPP.: Edible & Medicinal Uses of the Marsh Potato of Wild Plants

Arrowheads – Sagittaria SPP.

Arrowhead (Sagittaria spp.) 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 plant in North …

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Alder – Alnus SPP.: Edible & Medicinal Uses of the Oak-like of Wild Plants

Alder – Alnus SPP.

Alder (Alnus spp.) is a highly astringent edible and medicinal wild plant. Its usage is similar to oak. Alder means red in German, so named because the bark makes your saliva red. But don’t go nibbling on the bark now – it’s emetic (it could make you throw up!) Speckled alder (Alnus rugosa) as listed …

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Common Cat-Tail – Thypha Latifolia: Edible & Medicinal Uses of the Multi-Tool of Wild Plants

Common Cat-Tail - Thypha Latifolia

In Chippewa, apuk’we, perhaps meaning “shelter” (muskrat is supporting me on this idea), common cat-tail (Thypha latifolia) is the multi-tool of the woods. Its uses reach far beyond the edible and medicinal. Sometimes cat-tails are mistakenly called bulrush, but that’s a separate species entirely here, yet they seem to use these terms interchangeably in Great …

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