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 lovely specimen was found at the Fayetteville border. 
This small specimen demonstrates that plants less than a inch tall still can bloom. Bitter Sneezeweed only reproduces by seed which makes this a clever ability. 
Practically hidden amongst other lawn weeds Bitter Sneezeweed can go unnoticed. 
This specimen was the largest I spotted while snapping photos. It's a pretty weed that's for sure.
Common Name: Bitter Sneezeweed
Other Common Names: Yellow Sneezeweed, Fiveleaf Sneezeweed and, Yellowdicks (LOL!).
Botanical Family: Asteraceae (The Daisy Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Helenium amarum var. amarum
Season to Harvest: Cut flowers in summer.
Habitat: Bitter Sneezeweed is a native plant that originated in the south-central united states, specifically Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. It is also native to parts of Northern Mexico but has spread to the southeastern United States and other places as an introduced species. Bitter Sneeze weed is a fairly common and opportunistic plant that appears readily in open fields, by the roadside, and in waste places, it also tends to appear in places with sandy soils. The plant’s preference for sandy soils means that you might find it anywhere in the Sandhills region of North Carolina.
Parts
to Harvest:
None, this plant is inedible. It can poison livestock.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None.
Related Edible Species: Helenium amarum var. badium
Description: Bitter Sneezeweed is a warm-season annual with an upright growth pattern. If not in an area with regular foot traffic or if it is not mowed it will become bushy. Bitter Sneezeweed can get as tall as 28”. The leaves on this plant are narrow and thread like and it bears a medium green color and a bit of a sparkle as if the plant’s leaves are succulent. Additionally despite being an annual Bitter Sneezeweed has a strong taproot that can go fairly deep allowing it to fin moisture that might otherwise be unavailable to other plants.
The plant freely branches and its stems may have a purplish color to them. Overall this plant looks a lot like Chamomile and its foliage might smell a bit like chamomile but, its flowers are a solid golden yellow color and the two plants are not directly related.
Recipe: No recipe this plant is inedible and if cultivated it is a pure native ornamental and pollinator attraction.
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 8:00 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:
Garlic Bulbs
Soup Kit – Parsnip
Soup Kit – Turnip
Garden Stuff: ($2.00) ON SALE!
Cauliflower – Snow Crown
Cauliflower – Flame Star
Celery - Tango
Collards – Green Glaze
Kale – Ragged Jack
Mustard – Japanese Red Giant
Coming Soon:
House Plants (November the 25th!)
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): A Intermission, Harvesting Okra seed.
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 November 17th 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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