Heavenly Bamboo

 Note from the Author: This was supposed to be posted last week and something went wrong so here it is.

 

 

This 'mini forest' is how Nandina can crowd out native species.

This was what was on the other side of that cement walk in the picture above, a Nandina Jail break.

A closeup of the bark on the plant's trunk, only the foliage makes it look passingly like Bamboo.

The bright berries are pretty but dangerous.

Common Name: Heavenly Bamboo

 

Other Common Names: Sacred Bamboo

 

Botanical Family: Berberidaeae (The Barberry Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Nandina domestica

 

Description & Habitat: Heavenly Bamboo is a nonnative evergreen perennial that was brought over to the United States in in the early 1800s. Since then as with a lot of plants that were not properly evaluated for invasive traits Heavenly bamboo has proven it is anything but heavenly. By the way, Heavenly Bamboo isn’t a true Bamboo it is in the Barberry Family and the word ‘nadina’ is the Latin form of the Japanese name for this plant ‘nanten’ while the specific epithet ‘domestica’ means domesticated or of a home site. Heavenly Bamboo is a non-native as its original range was central and southern China and Japan. Now if you know anything about Barberries, you know they can be literal and figurative pains in the rear end. Barberries are often best identified by the fact their roots once you scrape the skin off have a bright yellow coloration and this is due to high concentrations of Berberine which is a bright yellow nitrogen-containing compound that acts a natural defense against pests and disease. Heavenly Bamboo, if you scrape off the root bark has yellow roots for the same reason as other members of the Barberry Family. In general Heavenly Bamboo is well regarded for its evergreen foliage, interesting bark on its trunks and its flowers and berries. The use of Nandina fronds and berries in holiday dried arrangements is a common thing around the region and they definitely are a great alternative if you cannot get Holly.  Fortunately, the newer hybrids such as Obsession, Blush Pink, Flirt, Lemon-Lime, Cool Glow, Tuskin Flame and, Twilight have all been bred and selected to not have the two biggest problems with Nandina. This is where this article takes a turn, because I now have to talk about the bad side of Heavenly Bamboo. Firstly, a distinction has to be made, older varieties like the ones in the included photographs are of the old types, and may not even have a specific variety. Older Heavenly Bamboo installations can be found all over Fayetteville and some of them may even be wild types that were planted or escaped and formed their own colony. Older varieties can aggressively sucker and produce large numbers of offsets allowing them to crowd out competition. This problem alone is why Heavenly Bamboo is classified as an Invasive plant by numerous groups in North Carolina. The berries these Nadina’s produce are viable and their bright color makes them a tempting snack to animals, birds and small children. The problem is that they are highly toxic to birds, cats, dogs and livestock. Not even Pigs can eat the berries which should give you more than enough reason to not plant old school Nandinas nor allow existing stands of them to remain. The dangerous ingredient in question is Hydrogen Cyanide, and some of you who read this undoubtedly know how bad that is. Nandinas are responsible for killing a lot of North American Songbirds who mistook their berries for an easy meal and Cedar Waxwings were hit noticeably hard. The odd balance there is that when Heavenly Bamboo blooms in spring the pretty flowers are often crawling with various types of bees because the bees are immune to the poison or, the poison is not present in the nectar and pollen. I am not sure this is an acceptable tradeoff for a plant that can kill wild birds and also can easily escape captivity. The good news is that modern hybrids have been selected and bred not to produce berries however the stability of that breeding and selection under field conditions is still worthy of debate because; nature finds a way. Now personally, I have a few of the old school Nandinas that were planted on the property by my Great Grand Parents in the late 70’s if not early 80’s. Before any of you get the pitchforks and torches out over that revelation, I cut off and dispose of the berries so songbirds aren’t harmed and also the population of Nandinas has been reduced to two specimens that are managed. They haven’t gone colonial and honestly this works for me but I also understand not everyone will bother to undertake this kind of management which also includes making sure there are alternate food sources for wild birds that feed on berries in the property I own. It’s more work than you might expect but having a specimen or two to use as a cautionary tale is how we got this article. As a final note for this post, you will see Nandinas sold in nurseries and garden centers, these are usually hybrids selected to be less of a problem. Always check the tag to see what variety you are getting and if it’s not a cultivar you recognize or it just says Nandina domestica don’t buy it.

 

Special Toxicity Note:  All parts of this plant are inedible and toxic due to a compound called Hydrogen Cyanide.

 

 

When & What to Harvest: When the berries ripen and have a good red color you can harvest them for dried arrangements along with the foliage but you might have to spray them with something like Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane to preserve them. Do NOT eat any part of this plant.

 

Related Plants: There are many hybrids of this plant that have selectively bred out the bad traits…in theory.

 

Recipe:

-None, this plant is toxic if eaten.

 

 

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/nandina-domestica/

 

Where to get Seed or Bare Root Plants:

Unfortunately you can still find hybrids of this plant at garden centers and nurseries.

 

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 my 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 1:00 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.

 

Spring Plants:

Elephant Garlic

Soft Neck Garlic

Egyptian Walking Onion

Arugula, Astro

Salad Mix

Kale-ypso Mix

Lettuce, Romaine Parris Island

Corn, Glass Gem

 

Plants Coming Soon:

Yellow Onions

Spineless Prickly Pear

Formosa Lilies

 

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

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 (1): Black Rabbit’s Foot Fern

 

Meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is February 28^th at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm. If you can’t make it to the City Market come on down to the North South Brewery Market which is at 304 Williams Street (Right off West Russel Street), between 1pm and 5pm every Saturday.

 

Poison Ivy

 

The Poison Ivy is in the center next to some Virginia Creeper, a plant that is frequently mistaken for Poison Ivy.

In this picture the Poison Ivy is next to the pine straw in the middle on the left. With it is Trumpet Vine, Raspberries (another plant mistaken for Posion Ivy), and Green Briar.

 

 

Common Name: Eastern Poison Ivy

 

Other Common Names: Poison Oak (Incorrect)

 

Botanical Family: Anacardiaceae (The Cashew/Pistachio Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Toxicodenron radicans

 

Description & Habitat: In North Carolina Poison ivy is the one member of the ‘itchy trio’ that is most likely to be found in an urban environment. Its seeds are dispersed by birds and in general it can be found in fields, pastures, yards, the woods, and in gardens. Sometimes this noxious plant is even found growing out of cracks in the cement and up the sides of buildings, telephone poles and infesting more desirable shrubs in the landscape. In general this plant has leaflets in pairs of three new growths may be glossy and may have a reddish color. One way to verify this plant’s presence is to take a close look at the two side leaflets. The side leaflets often have an outward pointed lobe that makes the side-leaflet look kind of like a mitten with ones thumb pressed against the hand. Poison Ivy is a vine in the truest sense of the word and uses numerous hairy looking roots to cling to and climb up hard surfaces leading to the old boy scout saying ‘hairy rope don’t be a dope’.  In general Poison Ivy can spread sexually via it’s berries or asexually through its vines rooting in new places, it flowers from May through July and the greyish-white berries are ripe and present between August and November. Occasionally you will find this plant has killed the shrub it was growing in and essentially has become the shrub. Poison Ivy if free-standing can be up to four feet tall. It should also be mentioned that the active dangerous compound on all parts of Poison ivy called Urushiol can be active for up to five years on surfaces and burning this plant can create airborne oil droplets that pose an inhalation danger.

 

A botanical Latin synonym for this plant is Rhus radicans.

 

When & What to Harvest: Nothing, there is nothing that is safe to harvest unless you’re a fan of suffering.

 

Non-Dangerous Lookalikes: Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), Boston Ivy (P. tricuspidata), Boxelder (Acer negundo), Raspberries (Rubus sp.), Mock Strawberries (Duchenea indica), Barren Strawberries (Waldsteinia fragarioides), Hog Peanuts (Amphicarpaea bracteata), English Ivy (Hedera helix), Virgin’s Bower (Clematis virginiana), Kudzu (Pueraria lobata), Riverbank Grape (Vitis riparia), Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica), Hop Tree (Ptelea trifoliata) and, Strawberries (Fragraria sp.).

 

Related Dangerous Species:  Asian Poison Ivy (T. orientale), Western Poison Ivy (T. rydbergii), Poison Oak (T. pubescens), Poison Sumac (T. vernix).

 

Recipe:  What?! If you’re considering eating this you are crazy.

 

 

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/toxicodendron-radicans/common-name/eastern-poison-ivy/

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/toxicodendron-pubescens/

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/toxicodendron-vernix/

 

 

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 my 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 1:00 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 Foods:

Soup Kit – Parsnip

Soup Kit – Turnip

Garlic Bulbs

 

Soil Amendment Products:

Live Mushroom Compost – 18 Gallon Tote*

Live Mushroom Compost – 3 Gallon Bag

Live Mushroom Compost – 1 Gallon Bag

 

Sandhills Mushroom Farms – Lion’s Mane Tincture Sample size

Sandhills Mushroom Farms – Lion’s Mane Tincture

Sandhills Mushroom Farms – Turkey Tail Tincture

 

 

Garden Plants, Fall Foods:

Arugula, Astro

Cabbage, Pac Choi ‘Rosie’

Collards, Green Glaze

Kale, Prizm

Kale, Redbor

Sorrel, Raspberry Dressing

 

Coming Soon:

Houseplants for the holidays

 

*The 18 gallon tote is by special order only and is delivered to any address within the Fayetteville city area.

 

 

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 (3): Aromatic Ginger, A Weird Cat, Parts 1 & 2.

 

Meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is November 2^nd at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.

Pokeweed, the Pokemon that got away.

Greetings and Salutations to all you intrepid gardeners out there, welcome back to another installment of the Forage Foods series on Lost In The Farmer’s Market. As you might already know the current Geo-Political situation coupled with inflation and supply shortages has prompted a series on foods you can forage for just in case things go sideways. Even if they don’t, forage foods may have added nutritional benefits and may also have medicinal benefits that can help you out.

 

 

This picture gives you an idea of what the basic morphology of a Pokeweed looks like.

 

 

At this stage of growth the plant is not edible. It's defensive compounds cannot be removed through boiling in several changes of water and it is now dangerous.

 

Common Name: Pokeweed

Other Common Names: American Pokeweed, Poke Sallet, Dragonberries, Inkberry, Pokeberry, Poke root, Virginia Poke, Pigeonberry, Redweed, Red Ink Plant, Polk Salad.

Botanical Family: Phytolaccaceae (The Pokeweed Family)

Botanical Latin Name: Phytolacca americana

Season to Harvest: Late spring.

Habitat: Pokeweed is an odd one, it is commonly found on the margins of wooded areas, areas with disturbed soil, waste grounds on roadsides and fence rows. However the specimens photographed were found in none of those areas. You see Pokeweed like other plants with a taproot can often grow in cracks in cement or asphalt, and in the two examples photographed which are just feet from each other they emerged in a gap between a building and a concrete driveway. These two have been appearing there for years clearly and not even herbicide seems to stop them.

Parts to Harvest: Pokeweed is a plant with a narrow harvesting window and you only want to harvest young shoots 6” or shorter as they first emerge in spring for consumption.

Poisonous Lookalikes: None known, however Pokeweed itself is poisonous all parts are dangerous, see recipe section for safe preparation.

Related Edible Species: There is a ‘cultivated’ version of pokeweed that has all the same features as its wild cousin, but it’s foliage is a bright Chartreuse-green. You may find this in some garden centers but I am not sure of its viability in the garden or as a food source.

                                                      

Description: Pokeweed is a potentially large deciduous perennial herb that can grow to heights of almost ten feet tall. The leaves are roughly elliptical fairly bright creen and have entire margins with no lobes, serrations or other traits. Branching at the ends of the stems will typically be in threes and white non-descript flowers are born in potentially long clusters that can be about 5 inches long. The berries that come after the flowers are typically a deep purplish red and a flower talk can bear dozens of berries which are very attractive to birds that are not affected by the poisonous nature of these plants. These berries are a hazard to livestock and should be kept away from children who may mistake them for safe food. Pokeweed also can form a massive taproot with age and even small plants can have a taproot that goes down almost a foot. The stems of pokeweed can be bright green or bright red sometimes both are present on the same plant.

How to Harvest: Pokeweed shoots should be harvested in spring before they are 6” long and their leaves have unfurled. The process is simple enough, you can locate where a pokeweed plant is by looking for last year’s dead stalks and then cutting those away to find the plant’s crown. New shoots will merge from the top of the taproot and to keep them pale you can cover over the crown with pine straw and check on the emergence of shoots in early spring in weekly intervals. Shoots can be cut off the crown with a knife or a pruner in the same way you would harvest Broccoli, Cauliflower or Asparagus.

 

Recipe:

Remember folks, this plant is poisonous, LITFM is not responsible for medical mishaps if you opt to make poke salad. It’s risky business but, carefully done it could spell the difference between starvation and survival.

 

How to make Poke Salad

Harvest as many Pokeweed shoots as you can in spring that are no longer than 6” long. You want shoots where the leaves have not really unfurled and the foliage is pale green. Firstly you clean your shoots as best you can and then boil them for ten minutes in two changes of water. Ideally you want to do this at the four minute and seven minute mark. Afterwards drain off the (second change) then proceed with the third change of water and season the shoots to taste and finish cooking. I recommend serving the shoots like asparagus and topping it with butter, cheese, a white sauce, cream pasta sauce or a robust brown gravy. You can serve the cooked shoots over rice or with actual pasta. An alternative recipe is to cook the shoots in the noted changes of water and then layer the sliced shoots in alternating layers of shoots, white sauce and boiled eggs and then top with bread crumbs to make a casserole. This mix should be cooked for 30 minutes at about 175 degrees. As a final note after the boiling process shoots can then be pickled. Some sources say you need to peel the shoots first but that is really up to your preference.

 

How to make Dye from the berries

Forage is not just about food, some plants can aid you in ensuring you have clothing to protect you from the environment and Pokeweed berries despite not being edible can produce a nice dye if prepared correctly. Basically the first step is to collect the ripe berries, you need about a three-gallon bucket full and in this case you leave them on their stems. Next, you place all of that Pokeweed stuff in a large stockpot that is not used for food preparation and you cover your berries with water. Then you add a cup and a half of vinegar. Bring that mix nearly to a boil but do NOT boil it. Lower the heat to keep the mix at a simmer and use tool like a potato masher (again use one not intended for food prep) to mash the berries and stems to release more of the red color. Simmer the mix for about two or three hours and turn off the heat and let it sit for about twelve hours.

The next step is to strain the ‘chunks’ out of the dye, make sure to wear gloves for this part. I recommend using ‘retired’ nylon brewing bag for this as it is porous enough to let the fluids through but not the pokeweed bits. Cheese cloth and a few other non-shedding fabrics can be used in this way. This bag of ‘stuff’ is viable; the seeds probably will germinate and so if you are planning to plant more Pokeweed discard the stuff in the bag where you want that to happen, but NOT in your compost pile. The resulting fluid is your color base for the dye; typically you would prepare what is called a Mordant so that your intended yarn or fabric to be dyed can receive the color and so that the color will not wash out/fade immediately. Typically mordant can be salt, vinegar, alum or some kind of rust, mordant is literally an inorganic oxide that exists to fix a dye’s color in a fabric. For brevity’s sake I cannot go into the dyeing process for fabric because that is practically a blog post of its own however there are tons of sites you can look at to get the gist of how to finish the job.

 

Special Note: The name Pokeweed and its scientific name are interesting. It’s easy enough to ascertain what ‘americana’ means since it’s literally describing where this plant is found. Pokeweed’s first Latin name ‘Phytolacca’ comes from the green word ‘Phyton’ meaning plant and ‘Lacca’ meaning crimson lake. The combined word is a direct reference to the reddish berries. Pokeweed itself as a common name is derived from a few Native American sources; the non-specific ones are ‘Puccoon, Pocan and Poughkone’ which are said to be Algonquin names for the plant.

 

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 1:00 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.

 

Special Stuff:

Okinawa Spinach - $5.00

Abutilon ‘Orange Hot Lava’ - $4.00

 

 

Garden Stuff: ($3.00)

Tomato – Glacier

Tomato – Sungold

Tomato – Purple Cherokee

Tomato – Black Krim

Tomato – Mountain Pride

Peppers – Ghost

Peppers – Anaheim

Peppers – Cayenne

Elephant Garlic

Softneck Garlic

Lettuce – Cherokee Red

Lettuce – Five Star Lettuce Mix

Beets – Bull’s Blood

Mustard – Red Giant

Kale – Dinosaur

Kale – Redbor

Kale – Ragged Jack

Kale – Tronchuda

 

 

Coming Soon:

More Peppers

More Tomatoes

Herbs!

 

 

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.

 

Go to our Nextdoor Page!

 

Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:

 

 

The Videos: Look Here

>Newest videos (-): -New Content coming soon.

 

Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClairs General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on May 5^th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.