A new project and a request......

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Apr 14, 2006
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Every year I say I'm going to focus more on wild edibles and every year something gets in the way, so hopefully, this year, I'm gonna get 'er done.

There are many Spring shoots that are edible, but because they are shoots, not full size, with full size leaves, and flowers, they can be more difficult to identify, and we all know the consequences of mistaking a poisonous plant for an edible one. :eek: So, to this end, I recently bought Shoots and Greens of Early Spring in Northeastern North America by Steve Brill. While it is quite a good book, I am still not satisfied, so I decided to do my own reference.

What I am planning on doing is taking pictures of early shoots as they come up out of the ground and continuing to take pictures of the same plants every week or so, so I can watch them as they develop. This helps to identify them at various stages of development and confirms their earlier identification. So for the last couple of weeks, I have been 'Stalking the Wild Asparagus', to quote Euell Gibbons. Not too much up yet. I should mention that my project includes only plants that are not readily identifiable (for me, at least)

These are my results so far:

WildGarlic.jpg


This is Wild Garlic (Allium canadense). Pretty easy to identify although, apparently, there are some poisonous look-alikes. Now all the wild food books say that the onion smell absolutely confirms that it is of the onion family, rather than a poisonous look- alike. Here's my problem with that - after handling a few of these plants. your hand smells like an onion, and it certainly isn't Wild Garlic, nor edible for that matter, unless you're Jeffrey Dahlmer (sp?) Reinforcement for the idea of good, comparative pictures.

The next one is (I think ???) Common Day Lily (Hemerocallis fulva).

maybeCommonDayLily.jpg

I have never identified it before at this stage of growth before, so this becomes one of the target plants. According to the books, some possible poisonous look-alikes include Daffodils and Irises. Now I don't have a garden, so I'm trying to find some pictures of these two plants for comparison.

If anybody out there can help me with this, I would appreciate it. If possible (yes, I know I'm being fussy), pictures at about the same stage of development as the suspected Day Lily would help.

A couple of other early season appearances that are more readily identified:

Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara). A lot of people misidentify this as a Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) because besides the yellow ray flower, it has the same kind of pappus (white seed fuzz) when it goes to seed. One quick identifying feature is the reddish scales on the sides of the stem. Interestingly, enough, early peoples apparently referred to this plant as 'Son before the father', because unlike most other plants, the flower appears, then the leaves.

DSC04694.jpg


Another picture, showing the scales

showingredscalesonstem.jpg


Coltsfoot has been used as a candy, cough syrup, tea, and seasoning (salt-like when the leaves are burnt) (reference - Edible Wild Plants, Lee Allan Peterson, Houghton Mifflin, 1977, ISBN# 0-395-31870-X, page 84). What this Peterson guide doesn't mention is that there is a caution about using this plant because of something called pyrrolizidine alkaloids which can adversely affect the liver (references: Medicinal Plants, Steven Foster/James A. Duke, Houghton Mifflin, 1990, ISBN# 0-395-46722-5, page 130 (another Peterson guide :rolleyes:) and Common Poisonous Plants and Mushrooms of North America, Nancy J. Turner/Adam F. Szczawinski, Timber Press, 2001, ISBN# 0-88192-312-5, page 277.

Another one is Motherwort ( Leonurus cardiaca) so-called because it's supposed to aid in childbirth. It's also credited with having other useful herbal medications. One thing I find interesting about this plant is the great difference between the appearance of the lower and upper leaves later in the year.
youngMotherwort.jpg


Here's a plant I don't recognize, but will continue the photo series. Anybody know what it is?

Idontknow.jpg



Since I am far from being an expert, any corrections, suggestions, etc. are extremely welcome and solicited - accuracy being more important than saving face. :o

I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for looking.

Doc
 
Doc,
I just wanted to commend you on an ambitious and worth while project. I need to do something similar this year.
Later,
Iz
 
G'day Doc

A big :thumbup::thumbup:

IMO, you are highlighting a very valuable skill which unfortunately doesn't receive the interest it deserves.


Looking forward to more installments :D


Kind regards
Mick
 
I dont know right now doc, but the two plants in question look extremely familiar to ones that grew everywhere back east, I can give my mother a call tomorrow and ask her to take a look, Ill try and get an answer to you tomorrow.
 
Doc- I'm a little slow this AM, but if I understand you correctly, you want pics of day lilies developing? If so I'll shoot some today.... BTW, great project!
 
Doc - unfortunately I have both tiger lilies and iris' in my flower box. I thought this one might be an iris because of the position in the box and my recollection of where the iris' flowers were last year. Looks mighty similar to your day lily shot though.

DSC_0070-5.jpg


DSC_0072-8.jpg
 
Great post G.P.

On the Colts Foot; isn't the stem more textured, and the Dandelion a smooth stem.

I will check around for some Daffodils and Irises around the neighborhood.

Great project by the way!
 
Doc,
I just wanted to commend you on an ambitious and worth while project. I need to do something similar this year.
Later,
Iz

G'day Doc

A big :thumbup::thumbup:

IMO, you are highlighting a very valuable skill which unfortunately doesn't receive the interest it deserves.


Looking forward to more installments :D


Kind regards
Mick

I dont know right now doc, but the two plants in question look extremely familiar to ones that grew everywhere back east, I can give my mother a call tomorrow and ask her to take a look, Ill try and get an answer to you tomorrow.

Thanks guys.

Doc- I'm a little slow this AM, but if I understand you correctly, you want pics of day lilies developing? If so I'll shoot some today.... BTW, great project!

Thanks mn. Yes, pictures of Day Lily shoots. Also pictures of Daffodil and Irises at the same approximate growth size.

Doc - unfortunately I have both tiger lilies and iris' in my flower box. I thought this one might be an iris because of the position in the box and my recollection of where the iris' flowers were last year. Looks mighty similar to your day lily shot though.

DSC_0070-5.jpg


DSC_0072-8.jpg

You're right, k, it looks pretty much the same. However, if it is the Tiger Lily, it would look the same, I think. In Brill's book, there are a couple pictures of Day Lily shoots and they look very similar to my picture and yours. He also has a drawing of Iris shoots and the tips of the leaves don't seem to curve away from the center the same way, that's why I need pictures of Irises and Daffodils to remove the doubt.

John and Tony, thanks guys. Tony on the Coltsfoot, there are the reddish scales shown in the picture above. They are spaced out more as the plant matures. On the Dandelion, there are none.

Actually, if this project works out it could prove to be a good resource for anybody that wants to learn more about plant ID. You could copy and save the pictures for each individual plant in their own folders. I have never seen a book that covers it very well. Brill's book comes close but not close enough for an intellectually-challenged person, such as myself. :o

Doc
 
Great stuff Doc, I look forward to seeing and reading more !!!!!

Hey Kgd if they are Tiger Lilies ( confirm first ) make sure and try the bulbs, you can steam or roast them but I quite like to eat them raw.....you have to dig the bulb out though because if you just pull up the plant the bulb breaks off underground !!!!
 
Doc,

These are day lilies... I believe these started coming up a couple weeks ago. I'll try to get daff pics later...

mike413.jpg


mike414.jpg


mike415.jpg


mike416.jpg
 
Great thing to do, learning the wild edibles and such. It has been on my to do list since I started getting interested, but I never can find enough time to actually do enough to learn them.
 
Thanks mn, they certainly look like my pictures except maybe a little bigger. And good thinking about taking pictures of the tubers.

From Brill's book (mentioned above) "Poisonous lilies, irises, and daffodils look similar above ground, but a distinctive root system consisting of a bunch of small, potato-like tubers (from which the true roots emanate) up to 2 inches long, each connected to the plant's base via 1 long, slender rhizome (underground stem), saves the day. If the root system consists of 1 long rhizome without the tubers, you've got the wrong plant!" (page 95)

I'm planning on getting out tomorrow (Sunday) to follow up and see what else I can find. I'm going to dig one up and check for tubers, if they have developed enough, although they should have.

BTW, beautiful looking knife!! :D

Doc
 
Great Stuff Doc, this is a resource that we can all benefit from. :thumbup:

I’ll keep my eye out when on the trail and try to add some photo’s.





"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
 
FIRST OF ALL, AS ALWAYS, THE FINAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR DETERMINING THE SAFETY AND SUITABILITY OF USING ANY WILD PLANT AS A FOOD OR MEDICINE IS YOURS!!

IN OTHER WORDS, YOU EAT IT, YOU GET SICK - YOUR FAULT!


Well, it was another beautiful day in Ontario, and I managed to get out for a few hours. Armed with a bit more knowledge, I went back to the suspected Day Lily patch and took some more pictures. I also added a new twist.

Let me digress, for a moment. For a long time, I have bad mouthed GPS' and for good reason. Too many people head out to the boonies armed with a GPS and that's it as far as navigational concerns go.

Case in point - a few years ago I did a hike for a local youth club. For mentors, there were several men, mostly hunters. I took the kids out, identified some plants, talked about how they were used by early peoples, and did some demonstrations - bow drill fire, cordage making, brought some atlatls along for them to try - that kind of thing.

Before the hike, one of the men, a hunter (so, presumably, spends some time in the bush), said to me that his wife had just bought him a GPS for his birthday and could I show him how to use it. I replied that I had no idea, as I didn't own one. Later, that day, I demonstrated one of the methods for solar navigation and explained that the shadow lay in a generally easterly direction. The new GPS-owning gentleman said to me, "OK, that's east, but how do you find North?" :eek: :eek:

So anyway, my long-suffering (and generous) buddies got tired of me bitching about GPS' so they bought me one - I'm pretty sure to shut me up. :rolleyes:. So here's the twist. I'm learning how to use it and thought that it would come in handy to locate plants, especially ones that form patches, like Day Lilies. So you see in this picture, a popsicle stick with my Point of Interest reference written on it. When I am finished taking the picture, I push it further into the ground so as not to attract any interest. Then, of course, I can later use the POI to find the plant.

maybeDayLily14.jpg


Here you can see what I am pretty sure, at this point, is Day Lily (Hemerocallis fulva) and the POI reference stick. Being the novice that I am, I thought the reference number was 1002 but later realized the 1 was an I for POI. :o. Oh well, I'm still learning.

Here's a couple of pictures of the tubers.

DayLilytubers8.jpg


DayLilytubers-resized.jpg


Here's one of the tubers sliced open.

tubercutopen.jpg



So, as I say, I'm pretty sure of the identification at this point, but I will continue the progression of growth up to and including the flowering (and proof positive ID)

Another plant, that I have no idea of the identification. Anybody?

Mysteryplant2-2.jpg


more to come
 
Here's one for kgd, as he recently mentioned it. (Sorry about the bad picture).
It's the only 2 I spotted all day but more will be up soon. The plant is Trout Lily, Yellow Fawn Lily and a whole bunch of other common names, but botanically it is Erythronium americanum. Apparently it is an edible plant, but I know of a guy who developed anaphalaxis from ingesting it. Luckily, his wife was a nurse, recognized what was happening, and got him to the hospital.

oneforkgd.jpg



This, I believe, is Wintercress (Barbarea vulgaris), a fairly common wild edible.

WinterCress2.jpg


And to round this post out, although it is not a Spring shoot but rather the dead stalk, is Cocklebur (Xanthium spp.), a highly variable (and poisonous) plant. The 'burs' stick to you like Burdock (Arctium spp.) but not quite as tightly.

Cocklebur.jpg


A closer look at the 'bur'.

Cockleburupclose-2.jpg


Well, I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and as always, please, any comments, suggestions, corrections, et al.

Doc
 
Great Stuff Doc, this is a resource that we can all benefit from. :thumbup:

I’ll keep my eye out when on the trail and try to add some photo’s.

Big Mike[/I][/COLOR][/B]

Thanks Big Mike.

pitdog; Great stuff Doc, I look forward to seeing and reading more !!!!!

and pitdog! :thumbup:

Doc
 
Great stuff Doc - but based on the picture below, I think you have to maintain your Bravo's a little bit more fastidiously :eek:


Seriously - that is a really good use for the GPS. If you want to get quantitative, grab an old hoola hoop ring and find and place it with your point of reference popsicle stick in the center. Then count and I dentify the plants you see. After a couple of seasons you can get an idea of the reproduction and successional patterns in your patches.
 
this is a dead giveaway to Doc... check the base of the stocks in the cross section is oval its good (Lilly or cattail) if its round, leave it in the ground(iris)

maybeCommonDayLily.jpg
 
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