Pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) is a unique looking edible and medicinal plant. While not used much these days for food or medicine, it’s still a hit for American Lady butterflies and florists alike. Pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) is especially common along roadsides and damp ditches. It’s named for its pearly colored flower bracts. Silver leaf, … [Read more…]
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), 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 … [Read more…]
Bluebead lily (Clintonia borealis) has toxic berries, but it’s still an edible and medicinal wild plant. It’s gorgeous too, with pretty yellow flowers and stunning blue berries that form a gradient and marbled cluster of blue as they ripen. Corn lily AKA bluebead lily is common around Halliburton in deciduous or mixed woods on moist … [Read more…]
Honeysuckles (Lonicera spp.) are sometimes poisonous, sometimes edible and sometimes medicinal. But always a favorite of nectar seekers like the ruby-throated hummingbird along with all-stars like scarlet bee balm and cardinal flower. Some human folks seek the nectar too. The most abundant native honeysuckle here is American/Canadian Fly (Lonicera canadensis), which likes openings in deciduous … [Read more…]
Salsifies (Tragopogon spp.) are edible and medicinal plants that look like taller, fluffier versions of dandelion. Their giant seed balls resemble dandelions too. They’re 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 … [Read more…]
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…]