Welcome back to the Lost In the Farmer’s Market Blog. At the current time we have a long-running series that covers useful, edible and medicinal ‘weeds’ that you can commonly find in the southeastern states of the United States. While our survey area is just within Cumberland County North Carolina it’ is possible you can find some of these forage plants in other places. This series was begun to give folks a detailed look into the resources they might not have known were right there in their lawn. Given that the world situation is not that great and there are already shortages of critical grains and fertilizers forage foods may be the most useful answer on a local level. LITFM will keep this series going as long as we keep finding wild resources to photograph and write about. If you have any questions or comments about our articles please leave a comment either here or on our YouTube Channel (The link is at the end of the article). Thank you for reading, and remember just one thing, you can’t eat lawn grass.
As you can see, like other more cultivated species of Petunia, Garden Petunia has semi-erect stems that do eventually flop over. Sometimes they have shots of pink in the blooms but as you can see that isn't reliable. 
Note the poor disturbed soil here, it's reddish sandy soil with a bit of Iron-Oxide in it. When I sampled the soil I had trouble finding any visible organic matter except for chaff from recent lawn mowing and detritus left from very recent tree removal nearby. Garden Petunias can spring up almost anywhere given half a chance.
Common Name: Garden Petunia
Other Common Names: Large White Petunia, Wild White Petunia, White Moon Petunia.
Botanical Family: Solanaceae (The Tomato Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Petunia axillaris
Season to Harvest: This plant is not edible.
Habitat: While this plant is native to temperate South America it does appear as far north as North Carolina in zone 8A as an annual plant. The specimens pictured were found near a construction site near White evening Primrose, Ragweed, Mugwort and a few other weeds known for appearing when large quantities of topsoil are moved and then left to sit for a while. These plants have originally been sown in their location by the owners of the houses that used to be on the site in question decades back and have returned to their wild status naturally. From observations of them appearing in seemingly random spots in my region they don’t seem to prefer a soil type just that there is a reasonable amount of soil moisture. These flowers bloom from late spring through to frost.
Parts to Harvest: This plant is not edible.
Poisonous Lookalikes: No poisonous lookalikes are known.
Related Edible Species: All Petunia found in the wild in NC are inedible strains that can cause mild to moderate digestive upset if consumed.
Description: Garden Petunia is an annual herbaceous plant that is the only naturally occurring white petunia. It should not be confused with the ‘garden Petunia’ sold at garden centers which is a hybridized cross between P. axillaris and P. integrifolia. This plant is known to have three subspecies in specific P. a. axillaris, P.a. parodii and, P.a. subandina. As for appearance this plant will typically appear as a somewhat rangy looking Petunia when it appears in weedy lots and former homesteads. It has the somewhat sticky hairy foliage like it’s more cultivated cousins and it’s flowers are quite large, enough to be spotted while driving past at 45 or more miles per hour making it easy to detect. The flowers can be 3 to 7 centimeters long and may have a slight sweet scent in the cool morning or in the cool of early evening.
Recipe: While this particular member of the Tomato family is not edible it’s flowers can be used for decoration on baked goods or as inedible garnish or alternately added to a vase with other cut flowers for overall presentation.
With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 2:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.
Fresh Produce:
Garlic Bulbs
Soup Kit – Parsnip
Soup Kit – Turnip
Holiday Houseplants:
3” Square pot – Spear Sansevieria (Dracaena angolensis)
3” Round Bowl – Dragon Haworthia (Haworthia coarctata)
3” Round Bowl – Queen Victoria Agave
3” Round Bowl – Rebutia rauschii
3” Round Bowl – Windowpane Plant
3” Tree Trunk Pot – Dragon Haworthia (Haworthia coarctata)
3.25” Urn Pot – Haworthia emelyae
3.5” Lattice pot – Mini Aloe (Aloe descoingsii)
5” Large Hex pot – Sausage Plant (Euphorbia guentheri)
Coming Soon:
MOAR HOUSEPLANTS!
How to stay in Contact with Us!
Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.
Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville
Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:
The Videos: Look Here
>Newest videos (6): Hardy Mums, Butcher’s Broom, Garlic Chives, Giant Bugleweed, Perennial Silver Dollar Plant, Chives, Tricolor Sage.
Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClair’s General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on January 5th 2023, between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.
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