Lilac blossoms in spring.
Pink lilac blossoms on a bush in spring.
Everyone loves lilac bushes with their sweet smell & lovely blossoms, gracing boulevards & yards. The Latin name is Syringa vulgaris, in the olive family. Did you know you can eat the flowers? Pull off, rinse and add to salads, soups, & sweets. #foraging #edibleflowers #photography #gardening
Skunk cabbage growing in a swampy area in the forest.
A cluster of skunk cabbage growing in the woods.
Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is popping up in the woods. It tends to grow in swampy wet areas. Native Americans used this plant medicinally as an expectorant. Like many plants in the Araceae family, the roots have toxic calcium oxalate crystals. #foraging #medicinalplants #photography
Purple dead nettle growing in a field.
Purple dead nettle in a salad.
Purple dead nettle (lamium purpurium in the mint family) is a common spring plant popping up in fields, & along woodland edges. The young plants are edible & delicious! The plant can also be made into a salve for skin sores. I gathered a bunch & made a nice salad. #foraging #edibleweeds #photography
Yellow forsythia flowers on a branch.
A forsythia bush in full bloom.
Forsythia is a common landscape bush with bright yellow spring flowers. Latin name: Forsythia × intermedia, in the olive family. The flowers are edible; add them to salads, soups, & stirfries or make forsythia syrup by soaking flowers in sugar water for 12 hrs. #foraging #photography #edibleflowers
The white flower of blood root, which emerges in early spring.
Bloodroot is one of my favorite spring perennials. Latin name is Sanguinaria canadensis in the poppy family. Its white flowers pop up before the leaves emerge. The reddish-orange sap is toxic & can damage flesh, leaving scars. Be careful to enjoy from afar. #photography #gardening #wildflowers
A yellow Lenten rose flower
Yellow lenten rose flowers
Lenten rose (Helleborus orientalis, in the buttercup family), is a Turkish native that blooms around Easter. Perennial & evergreen, its blossoms brighten still-dormant gardens. With toxic cardiac glycosides & saponins, don't experiment on yourself by ingesting. #springflowers #photography #gardening
The leaf buds of a red buckeye tree in spring are ready to open up and greet the world.
The red buckeye tree (Aesculus pavia in the Sapindaceae family) is native to the eastern US. Its inedible chestnut-like nuts in fall can be cooked down into soap, due to high levels of saponins. In spring its large buds are eager to leaf out into its 5 large palmate leaflets. #photography #foraging
Tiny blue flowers and leaves of Birds Eye Speedwell.
One little Birds Eye Speedwell flower.
Birds eye speedwell is a tiny Eurasian native herb & harbinger of spring. The Latin name is Veronica persica, in the Plantaginaceae family. It is not edible, but has been used to treat asthma & arthritis. It will go dormant in a couple weeks so catch it now. #photography #foraging #herbalmedicine
Hazelnut tree catkins
Hazelnut tree catkins
The bark of a hazelnut tree is distinct.
Male catkins of American hazelnut are a sure sign spring is coming. Tiny red female flowers are not yet out. Corylus americana is the Latin name, in the birch family. Edible nuts emerge in late summer. Bark tea treats fevers; bark poultice treats skin sores. #foraging #photograghy #ediblewildfood
Yellow winter aconite flower
Yellow winter aconite flowers growing around stones
Field of winter aconite flowers
Winter aconite eases the winter blues with bright flowers in late February. Eranthis hyemalis, a European native in the buttercup family, has toxic cardiac glycosides, so don't eat. Just enjoy the splash of color & watch bees getting an early pollen rush on. #photography #flowers #nomorewinterblues
A pink rose in a Valentine's Day bouquet.
Happy Valentine's Day to all! Roses are often given to show love & affection. In the Rosaceae family, rose hips and petals are eaten as a fruit, made into a tea & used as medicine. Also, they smell nice & make us smile. #foraging #photography #medicinalplants
A tiny dragonfruit seed germinating next to a tiny stonecrop.
A pot of string stonecrop sedum.
One of my tiny dragonfruit seeds has germinated in a pot of stringy stonecrop sedum (Sedum sarmentosum), with a baby sedum to keep it company The dragonfruit I took seeds from was Selenicereus undatus, in the Cactaceae family. #gardening #cacti #photography
Most wild greens I make pesto, or add to a salad. You can add to soup or stew also. Add at the last minute so they don't overcook.
I write about edible plants and wrote about hairy bittercress about a year ago. See here: bsky.app/profile/karh...
I like the symmetry as well. Also this little mustard is edible!
I use this phrase often, and should probably be more precise. To me, it means a non-native plant that grows robustly enough to crowd out natives. Barberi and honeysuckle come to mind...
"What’s the definition of 'invasive plant'? There's no consensus" is a recent posting by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume. "But what is the official definition of an an 'invasive species,' whether plant or otherwise? The short answer is that there is none."
kollibri.substack.com/p/whats-the-...
Tom Morello
Are you going to this concert? I hear there may be a special guest there. Maybe the boss hinself?
Shellbark hickory nuts in a glass bowl
Shellbark hickory nut in outer shell
Shellbark hickory nuts on a forest floor in Maryland in January.
Shellbark hickory trees (Carya laciniosa in walnut family) are common in Maryland, with large sweet edible nuts, if you can crack them open. The shell is super hard. Use a lever nut cracker with a towel over to avoid shard missiles. Free wild food is the best! #foraging #freewildfood #ediblenuts
Wild onion grass growing in the woods in January. Nothing stops these perennial invasive plants from reproducing and spreading. They are edible and delicious.
Wild onion (Allium vineale in amaryllis family) is an invasive perennial. Winter has no effect on this hardy little jerk. Lucky for us it's edible. Underground bulbs can be used like garlic. Add leaves, flowers & aerial bulblets to soup. Edible invasives are the best! #foraging #wildedibleinvasives
Gray wood ear fungi growing on log in woods in Maryland.
Underside of wood ear fungus growing in Maryland.
Due to recent rains in Maryland, these sweet little wood ears are popping up on logs. Most likely Auricularia polytricha - fuzzy gray on top & maroon underneath. If my ID is correct, these are edible, used in Asian cuisine. Be certain of ID before eating, please. #foraging #fungifriends #photography
Bright purple berries of the Beautyberry bush last into winter and provide food for people, birds, and animals.
Bright purple berries of the Beautyberry bush stay on bush through most of winter. People, birds, and animals can eat the edible berries.
Beautyberry comes by its name honestly; these bright berries are a welcome sight in a bleak winter landscape. Extra bonus: edible fruit for both man & beast. Callicarpa americana is a native mint family member. The crushed leaves also repel mosquitos. #foraging #photography #naturalinsectrepellent
Lacy Eastern white cedar leaves in sun, with small cones present.
Eastern white cedar tree, with flat lacy leaves.
White cedar tree has attractive flat evergreen leaves.
White cedar, with flat lacy leaves, is easily recognizable. These coniferous evergreens (Thuja Occidentalis in the Cupressaceae family) have fragrant wood that keeps insects away. The leaf tea is high in vit C but should be drunk sparingly. The Ojibwe hold this tree sacred. #foraging #photography
Agreed. Bluesky word limits didn't let me elaborate that this is not toxic but also not edible because it's rather tough.
Gilled polypore growing on a log in a Martland woods, white with faint orange rings.
Underside of gilled polypore, with white gills.
Gilled pilypore is an eye-catching fungus that decorates forest logs in late fall. They have gills underneath, unlike look-alikes turkeytail (smooth underside) & false turkeytail (pores). Latin name is Trametes betulina, in Polyporaceae family. Not edible. #fungifriends #photography
A burl on a mature oak tree
Bark pattern on a hickory tree
Beech trees often show patterns in bark that look like eyes.
American persimmon trees have bark that resembles huge corn kernels on a cob
Burl on oak tree; green bark on hickory tree; forest eye on beech tree: corn-kernal bark on American persimmon tree. The forest holds wonders to behold amd lessons to be learned. #trees #coolbark #photography
I found success only by planting seedlings. No seeds have ever grown, as far as I've seen. I save seeds in fall in fridge, plant in spring in cardboard milk cartons, and transplant in woods in fall.
I love pawpaws and have been sneak-planting them in the woods here in Maryland for years.
Pipsissewa, aka spotted or striped wintergreen, is a low-growing evergreen native of the northeast part of North America. In this picture, it is growing next to a Christmas fern in a Maryland woods.
Pipsissewa is a sweet little evergreen, growing low to the ground, with dark green variegated leaves. Latin name - Chimaphila maculata, in the heather (Ericaceae) family. Eat leaves raw as snack; drink leaf tea to treat fevers & infections; use infusion to treat rhematism. #foraging #medicinalplants