A relation of quinoa, lamb’s quarters (Chenopodium album) 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 … [Read more…]
A type of buckwheat, lady’s-thumb (Polygonum persicaria syn. Persicaria maculosa) 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. Check out the nice, clearest “thumb”print, bottom-left: There are lookalikes throughout Ontario, primarily also 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…]
Lowbush blueberry AKA “low sweet” blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) is common here, as is velvet-leaf blueberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides) which thrives around marshes. I’ve heard a few personal anecdotes from locals about picking blueberries all the while watching a black bear or bears doing the same nearby. There’s a myth (I originally believed!) that blackflies pollinate blueberry … [Read more…]
White trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) is Ontario’s official flower and the standard-bearer of spring. It’s also a traditional edible and mostly medicinal plant. However, it needs our protection. Also called birth root, a hint at its medicinal qualities. And wake-robin, due to being a spring herald. It heralds the black flies too, who I personally suspect … [Read more…]
In Chippewa, ini’niwunj meaning “man like”, common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is a monarch of the edible and medicinal wild plant kingdom. Let’s cultivate this king of herbs for the butterflies more than we eat it, please! Milkweeds folk names are somewhat all over the place, as there are tons of varieties, and many probably don’t … [Read more…]