Fort Liberty Series – Dwarf Bristly Locust

 Note from the Author: New wild plant!

The flowers are simply stunning, so much so we had to stop and examine the plants up close.

 

The foliage is pretty nice, one can only imagine what this plant might look like if it was cared for in a garden.

 

Note the leaf litter is mainly pine needles, these plants seemed to only be found under or near pines.

 

Even younger stems seem able to bloom, this is because it is part of a colony and thus less resources are needed per stem.

 

 

 

Common Name: Dwarf Bristly Locust

 

Other Common Names: Sandhill Bristly Locust, Dwarf Pink Locust.

 

Botanical Family: Fabaceae (The Pea/Bean Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Robinia nana

 

Prior Botanical Latin Names: Robinia elliottii, Robinia hispida variety nana.

 

Description & Habitat:

          Dwarf Bristly Locust is a low growing native perennial shrub that spreads a by underground runners forming potentially dense colonies. The specimens seen on our excursion were in loose enough groups that the stems as seem made them appear to be individual plants but a small amount of digging/examination proved they were colonies of plants. Individual stems are 1-2 feet tall wile a given colony can have a width of 2-4 feet. This plant also gets its nickname ‘Bristly’ from the copious amount of fine bristly hairs on the stems which seem dangerous at a glance. The bristles are stiff but pose no real threat to your skin and are not coated with any sort of irritant. On the hike we handled these plants a little bit with no ill effects so externally they are safe to handle. You will find this plant in full or partial sun areas in well drained sandy soils that are outwardly of poor fertility. All clusters seemed to appear right by the side of the trails and were in full bloom in April suggesting that seed could be collected by mid-may if not June. The flowers do not seem to be aromatic, but they are strikingly pretty.

           

Special Toxicity Note:  

          Some sources suggest the flowers are edible, but all other parts including the seeds and seed pods are noted to have toxic toxalbumins which are poisonous to people and pets.

 

When & What to Harvest:

          I do not advise harvesting this plant for food or medicine.

 

Related Plants:

          Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia),

 

Recipe:

          I cannot verify this plant is safely edible.

 

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/cust/20222/main.php?pg=show-taxon.php&&family=Fabaceae&limit=1&offset=618&taxonid=2930

 

Where to get Seed or Bare Root Plants:

             Seed for this native is very hard to find as are live plants. The only vendor I can find is Woodlanders.net and they no longer sell these plants.

 

 

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.

 

Fresh Foods

Peppers, Hybrid Lemon Drop

Figs, Magnolia

Figs, Kadota

Figs, Petit Nigra

 

Herbs

Basil, Sweet Genovese

Oregno

Prickly Pear, Spineless

Sage, Common

 

Summer Plants

Calibrachoa, Caliburst

Dahlia, Figaro Mix

Madagascar Periwinkle, Tattoo Blueberry

Milkweed

 

Garden Supply

Live Mushroom Compost, 1 Gallon

Live Mushroom Compost, 3 Gallon

 

Plants Coming Soon:

-Fall Food Plants-

 

 

 

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): Cherokee Purple Tomato

 

With all of the updates, blog posts, community announcements and the main topic handled remember that Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’s meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is August 15^th at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm, or at North South Brewing on the same day between 1:00 and 5:00pm.

A Vetch In time

 

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.

 

 

This is a small one that came up in the vegetable patch but the flower is visible as is the structure of the compound leaf.

 

Common Name: Yellow Vetch

 

Other Common Names: Smooth Yellow Vetch

 

Botanical Family: Fabaceae (The X/X Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Vicia lutea

 

Season to Harvest: Not Applicable.

 

Habitat: Yellow Vetch can be found in cropland, fallow fields, overgrown meadows, along the roadside, near cleared Railroad areas and waste areas in general. This plant may appear in garden beds seemingly at random. It can be planted as a food source for farm animals such as Cattle, Horses and Sheep. Wild animals such as Deer, Rabbits and the larval stages of certain moths and Butterflies may also feed on it. It may also be used in orchards and vineyards to suppress low-growing weeds and as a means to enrich the soil.

 

Parts to Harvest: Potentially unsafe, the seeds are noted to be poisonous to Humans though the severity of this toxicity is noted to be low.

 

Poisonous Lookalikes: Nothing looks like a Vetch.

 

Related Edible Species: Vicia sativa, a much more safely edible cousin.

 

Description: Yellow Vetch is an annual herb that has leaves comprised of several oval to oblong shaped leaflets. Its flowers are a pale yellow color and overall it looks somewhat like a very scrawny version of the Garden Peas you might cultivate except that it is far to dainty to be anything you intentionally planted. One of its best uses is as a green cover crop that is turned under as green manure to improve overall soil quality. Its flowers do attract pollinators which may benefit you in a forage garden.

 

How to Harvest: Edibility is uncertain, use this one for soil improvement and to attract pollinators.

 

Recipe: Since the edibility of this plant is unclear I do not recommend attempting to eat it.

 

 

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.

 

Fresh Produce:

Peppers, Lemon Drop

Peppers, Fayetteville Inferno

Peppers, Sweet Heat & Purple Bell

Garlic Bulbs

 

 

Garden Stuff: ($3.00)

Broccoli - Destiny

Brussel Sprouts - Redarling

Cabbage – Early Jersey Wakefield

Cauliflower – Snow Crown

Cauliflower – Flame Star

Cauliflower – Veronica

Celery - Tango

Cilantro – Vietnamese

Collards – Green Glaze

Cuban Oregano – Cervesa & Lime

Hoan Ngoc

Mizuna Mustard – Miz America

Mustard – Japanese Red Giant

Pak Choi – Rose’

Sage – Pineapple

 

 

Coming Soon:

Soup Kits (October)

 

 

 

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 (1): Lemon Scented Geranium

 

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 October 6^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.

 

Clover the Counter Medications

 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.

 

 

An odd feature of white clover is that it has biologically adapted so that specimens found in urban areas produce very little cyanide as an anti-grazing protection. Fortunately for us it's so little cyanide that unless you consume obnoxious amounts of the plant you will be just fine.

 

Common Name: White Clover

 

Other Common Names: Dutch Clover, Ladino Clover.

 

Botanical Family: Fabaceae (The Legume Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Trifolium repens

 

Season to Harvest: Mid-late spring and summer.

 

Habitat: While native to parts of Europe and Asia White clover has naturalized in the USA and can be found in lawns, fields, by roadsides and in pastures.

 

Parts to Harvest: White Clover is a fully edible plant, the leaves; flowers and seed pods are all edible.

 

Poisonous Lookalikes: None

 

Related Edible Species: Dutch Clover (Intermediate height variety), Ladino Clover (larger varieties), Large Hop Clover (Trifolium campestre), Small Hop Clover (Trifolium dubium), Rabbitfoot Clover (Trifolium arvense), Red Clover (Trifolium pretense).

 

Description: White clover can be a low-growing perennial. It has creeping stems that root where the nodes touch the earth or find consistent moisture. The plant’s stems are smooth but may be sparsely covered with hairs. Leaves have three elliptic to oval shaped leaflets while the flowers are while with a pink tinge.

 

How to Harvest: Individual flowers, seed pods and leaves can be picked as needed. All items can be used fresh or dried and utilized as an additive to other forage materials. I should be noted that the areal shoots of white clover have documented anticestodal (anti-tapeworm) properties when used as a medicine.

 

Recipe: White clover blossoms make for a particularly healthy tea that can help your immune system and can act as an anti-inflammatory agent.

 

Ingredients

1/4 cup of fresh White clover flowers

1 cup of water

3 Teaspoons of Unbleached sugar, or Clover Honey (lol).

1 glass jar with a sealing lid to brew this tea in.

 

Note: this recipe can be scaled up to go in a pint, quart or half gallon mason jar.

1.      Heat water to almost boiling.

2.      Put the clover into whatever jar you are using.

3.      Add your preferred sweetener

4.      Pour the hot water over the sweetener and blossoms.

5.      Allow to steep for at least an hour.

6.      Refrigerate your leftovers and try to consume within a day or two.

 

 

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.

 

Garden Stuff: ($3.00)

Basil – Emerald Tower

Chervil – French Parsley

Fennel - Black

Parsley – Italian

Parsley – Curled

Sage – Common

Thyme – Common

 

Cotton – Erlene’s Green Lint

Hibiscus – Luna Pink Swirl

Milkweed – Orange blooming

Tobacco – Flowering “Starmaker Apple Blossom”

 

 

Coming Soon:

Purple Heart

Vietnamese Cilantro

Pineapple Sage

 

 

 

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 (2): Caladiums, Marshmallow

 

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 July 21^st between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.