Dead nettles (Lamium spp.) look like stinging nettles before flowering, but they don’t have the sting, hence the dead. Some of the species could be confused with other mint family plants; a common example being henbit and purple dead nettle resembling ground ivy/creeping charlie. It won’t take long in a foraging meme group to find …
American silverberries or wolf-willow (Elaeagnus commutata) is Ontario’s native mealy sour silverberry shrub. It does somewhat resemble willow. There are several nonnatives around too. Japanese silverberry AKA Autumn olive (E. umbellata) is invasive around Ontario, especially to the south. In cottage country, it’s more of an introduced small tree you’ll occasionally spot in someone’s lawn. …
In Chippewa, manido’bima’kwud, woodbine AKA American ivy AKA Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is a grape relation you can find around Ontario. Locally, it’s found mostly on roadsides and along abandoned railroad tracks. I’ve also found this vine in mixed woods. It’s gorgeously ornamental in Autumn, so you’re likely to find it in town too. In …
In our previous post, we covered tree lungwort, a lichen. Today’s lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) is an herb related to borage. Often in my herbal book collection, one will always be mentioned in the others entry. Perhaps they get confused? While the namesake lichen is native, the herb lungwort is introduced to Ontario. The species is …
This isn’t the herb lungwort, which we’ll be covering next month. This is a very special lichen also called lungwort. Tree lungwort AKA lung lichen (Lobaria pulmonaria) wowed me the instant I saw it. This is a large distinct lichen, named after its pulmonary appearance. I first spotted it on a tree in damp woods …
If you spend any time in public parks and woodlands you may be familiar with the notorious garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). While there are numerous nonnative plants in Ontario that are spreading into wild spaces, plants like garlic mustard, creeping jenny, dog strangling vine, “bamboo” that’s actually Japanese knotweed, and Lily-of-the-valley are some of the …