What's up Doc?

DOC-CANADA said:
T-storm yesterday, so didn't get out.



P.W. Blandford. If you're looking for a good book for self teaching net making, my recommendation is Net Making by Charles Holdgate. It's out of print, but it is available, quite often, as a used book for about $10-$20, (and more), as seen by this link. It may also be at your local library, which is where I found it first, and thanks to the web, I found a copy to purchase.

Doc
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Thanks Doc :thumbup: I like reading your knot threads too, so I thought I'd ask. Great tip on the bottle carrier as well.

Posts with info like this one are a big reason I keep coming back to this site. Thanks for the effort & info!

They also make me wonder what I'm contributing myself... now I just have to figure out something I know that would be useful/interesting to people *other than me* (that's the catch :D).
 
DOC-CANADA said:
I don't know. No experience with Comfrey for the same reasons.





Doc
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Just looked it up:

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale ) is used to treat wounds and reduce the inflammation associated with sprains and broken bones. The roots and leaves contain allantoin, a substance that helps new skin cells grow, along with other substances that reduce inflammation and keep skin healthy. Comfrey ointments were often applied to the surface of the skin to heal bruises as well as pulled muscles and ligaments, fractures, sprains, strains, and osteoarthritis.

Historically, comfrey was also used to treat gastrointestinal illness. However, the herb contains dangerous substances called pyrrolizidine alkaloids that are highly toxic to the liver and can cause death. In July 2001, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration required that dietary supplement manufacturers immediately remove all oral comfrey products from the market. The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Germany also have banned the sale of oral products containing comfrey.

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are also absorbed through the skin, and harmful amounts may build up in the body. You should take care when using an ointment containing comfrey (see "How to Take It" section), and you should never use it on broken skin.
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chopchop said:
Thanks Doc :thumbup: I like reading your knot threads too, so I thought I'd ask. Great tip on the bottle carrier as well.

Posts with info like this one are a big reason I keep coming back to this site. Thanks for the effort & info!

They also make me wonder what I'm contributing myself... now I just have to figure out something I know that would be useful/interesting to people *other than me* (that's the catch :D).
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chopchop, it's posts like yours that makes the effort worthwhile.

hollowdweller said:
Just looked it up:
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Thanks for looking that up, HD. Once I hear enough negative stuff about a plant, I file it away with a skull and bones imprint in my brain, and other than identifying it, I ignore it. The other great foraging maxim: "When in doubt, leave it out".

Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Thanks for looking that up, HD. Once I hear enough negative stuff about a plant, I file it away with a skull and bones imprint in my brain, and other than identifying it, I ignore it. The other great foraging maxim: "When in doubt, leave it out".

Doc
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I still use it externally. I've had goats with injured legs and made external poltices of comfrey and it seemed to help.

Also have made Comfrey/Goldenseal salve again used externally that seemed to be really healing and antiseptic.
 
This may be a little odd.

When I was 8, I was hit by a truck and broke my femur. I ended up having to be in traction for six weeks and it was a big suckfest. My mother was into plant essence healing and other holistic voodoo and insisted on putting Comfrey poltices on my leg to heal it. I'm not sure that it did anything and I think a broken femur may be a little out of Comfrey's league but I thought I'd share.
:D
 
I got out for a quickee tonight and since I've missed a couple of nights, I decided to do two plants. It was fairly late in the day, so I apologize for the quality of the pictures. I guess, from now on for the evening hikes, I'm going to have to take pictures with and without flash and pick the best.

This is the first one.

resizedj.jpg


This, of course is a dead plant, from last year. Quite often you can use the previous year's dead plant, to indicate where to find new plants growing.

Here's the questions:

1. What is it (be specific)?
2. What are the uses of this plant?
3. What warnings, if any, for usage?

-------------------------------------

This is the next plant:

forquiz.jpg


1. What is the plant?
2. What are the uses of this plant?
3. What warnings, if any, for usage?

I think from now on, I won't comment on the answers until I'm ready to post the items from the next hike. This way, more people can participate, before the answer is given. Worth a try anyway.

Doc
 
On the second one.

Poison Ivy. (Toxicodendren radicans)

Not for use as toilet paper.

Causes a severe rash which can spread. Avoid!!!
 
Im wondering Doc if that 1st one is chickory.
If it is young leaves can be eaten (tried that Ok but bitter)
the root can be used for a coffee subsitute when roasted (also tried with dismal results)
do not know of any warnings if indeed this is chickory- blue sailors
Dan'l
 
On second thought Im thinking Im wrong on that guess.The flowers when they were in bloom are too close together to be chickory and the leftover pods are too long
Have to do more thinking.Its something Ive seen but it isnt registering
Dan'l
 
dttomcat said:
On the second one.

Poison Ivy. (Toxicodendren radicans)

Not for use as toilet paper.

Causes a severe rash which can spread. Avoid!!!
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dttomcat, I really appreciate your enthusiasm and participation. Yours too, Dan'l. Because of that, I regret, dttomcat, to tell you you're incorrect. Here's a hint:

addhinttothispicture.jpg


dboles said:
Im wondering Doc if that 1st one is chickory.
If it is young leaves can be eaten (tried that Ok but bitter)
the root can be used for a coffee subsitute when roasted (also tried with dismal results)
do not know of any warnings if indeed this is chickory- blue sailors
Dan'l
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No cigar, yet, Dan'l.

Here's a range map of plant #1, so, supposedly, it grows in your area.

distributionofplant12.jpg


BTW, didn't get out for a hike tonight - raining.

Doc
 
I think the one is Box Elder Acer Negundo

If it IS box elder then it has sugar in it just like sugar maple (acer=maple) but the concentration of sugar is LOW in box elder.

The other I have no idea. The green foliage near it is similar to Vipers Bugloss but can't recall ever seeing vipers bugloss dried because it's mainly in the mountains here.
 
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hollowdweller said:
I think the one is Box Elder Acer Negundo

If it IS box elder then it has sugar in it just like sugar maple (acer=maple) but the concentration of sugar is LOW in box elder.

The other I have no idea. The green foliage near it is similar to Vipers Bugloss but can't recall ever seeing vipers bugloss dried because it's mainly in the mountains here.
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Very good, hd. It is indeed Box Elder - Acer negundo (AKA Manitoba Maple). I thought it was appropriate to do Box Elder, considering there is another thread about Poison Ivy. Young Box Elder is a spitting image of Toxicodendron rydbergii - the shrub version of Poison Ivy. The quick check is whether the leaves are opposite or alternate (Poison Ivy leaves are alternate). That's what I was trying to show with the last picture.

As far as uses: · Early peoples tapped Manitoba Maple for its sap which was boiled down into syrup for its sugar. It should be noted that Manitoba Maple sap has only half the sugar content of Sugar Maple - 2% as compared to 4%. (VO-101) but it was used, nonetheless

They used branches for pipestems (UE-39), the wood for bowls and dishes (UE-39) & KS-82), large trunk burls or knots for drums (UE-39), the wood for firewood, and the charcoal for ceremonial painting and tattooing. (UE-39) The wood was also used as the drill and hearth for friction fire making. It was used medicinally. (VK-26) In fact, in a current thread, abo4ster talks about using Box Elder for a hand drill.

More recently, it has been used occasionally for crates, boxes, paper pulp, and firewood. (WA-201) It was extensively planted in the Midwest for a quick spot of shade where it is one of the few trees capable of tolerating the harsh conditions. (SN-42) As a shade tree, it has 4 virtues, it's fast growing, very hardy, drought resistant, and grows just about anywhere. (VK-25)

I've read about survival students roasting and eating the winged seeds and pounding the inner bark for an emergency flour substitute. (KK-77)

-"As a firewood, Boxelder ranks rather low in heat value, on a par with Red Pine, and Black Spruce, and a little better than the Aspens". (VK-26)

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Now as for the first plant, a picture (not mine) of the plant in flower. This will probably help.

1stplantforquiz.jpg


We'll see if it does. :D

Hopefully, I'll get out tonight for the next one.

Doc
 
Well I did get out tonight, but old business first.

Well HD, good thing I'm not giving out prizes. The plant is indeed, Evening Primrose (Oenonthera biennis). It is an edible plant, a medicinal plant and you can use it to make half decent cordage, as long as you get a plant that is largely unbranched. If it has a lot of branches it interrupts the length of fibres available.

OK here is the next plant - a very important one to early peoples, in my region, at least.

maybethisone.jpg


Now I realize this is not the most comprehensive picture of a plant, for you to identify. But, quite often, you're lucky if you catch a glimpse this good to alert you of the possibilities, and it is unique looking. Besides. I told you they wouldn't all be easy :rolleyes: Please note: there are no hairs on the stalk.

The questions:

1. What is it (be specific)?
2. What are its uses?
3. What warnings, if any, apply to the plant?

Good luck - this may be a bit tricky.

It's supposed to rain again tomorrow, so I took a couple of extra pictures in case.

Doc
 
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1) Common Milkweed??? :o (Asclepias syriaca)

if so:

2) Several parts (i.e. young shoots and leaves) are edible but ONLY after being properly prepared. Boiling it several times with clean water changes in between should work to remove the toxins. It has a number of different medicinal uses. As I mentioned previously in one of my many incorrect answers, the seed pods can be broken open to obtain tinder material.

3) MAY BE TOXIC WHEN TAKEN INTERNALLY WITHOUT SUFFICIENT PREPARATION.
 
dttomcat said:
1) Common Milkweed??? :o (Asclepias syriaca)

if so:

2) Several parts (i.e. young shoots and leaves) are edible but ONLY after being properly prepared. Boiling it several times with clean water changes in between should work to remove the toxins. It has a number of different medicinal uses. As I mentioned previously in one of my many incorrect answers, the seed pods can be broken open to obtain tinder material.

3) MAY BE TOXIC WHEN TAKEN INTERNALLY WITHOUT SUFFICIENT PREPARATION.
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Hey dttomcat, you would be perfectly correct, except for one thing, which may have been added after you read the post - there are no hairs on the stalk.

Doc
 
Hey Doc, I admire you're knowledge of plants and stuff. Very impressive. Could you recommend a good book with pics that I can get easily to improve my knowledge? I have the usual stores here( Chapters, Coles, Lee Valley, etc.)
Thanks for any help.

Pete
 
hiwa said:
Hey Doc, I admire you're knowledge of plants and stuff. Very impressive. Could you recommend a good book with pics that I can get easily to improve my knowledge? I have the usual stores here( Chapters, Coles, Lee Valley, etc.)
Thanks for any help.

Pete
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Hey Hiwa,

The ID books I use, mostly, are:

A Field Guide to Wildflowers, Roger Tory Peterson/ Margaret McKenny, Houghton Mifflin, 1968, ISBN# 0-395-183251

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers - Eastern, Wm. A. Niering/Nancy C. Olmstead, Alfred A. Knopf, 1995, ISBN#
0-394-50432-1

Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, Lawrence Newcomb, Little Brown & Co., 1977, ISBN# 0-316-60442-9

However, because you live in Alberta, pitdog or dboles might be able to advise you better.

Doc
 
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