American Burnweed

 

A plant trying to invoke squatter's rights in a potted raspberry, the nerve!

Here is a small one coming up in the cracks between asphalt and a building.

 

 

Common Name: American Burnweed

 

Other Common Names: Fireweed, Pilewort.

 

Botanical Family: Asteraceae (The Aster Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Erechtites hieraciifolius

 

Description & Habitat:  American Burnweed is a fast-growing annual plant in the Aster family. It can be easily found in almost any area with disturbed soil or habitat. Commonly you will find it by the roadside, in pastures, yards, and vacant lots. This plant will even attempt to colonize in potted plants, and may appear between the cracks in asphalt and concrete if there is enough moisture or viable soil. A large glut of these plants may occur after land clearing because competition is reduced. Also this plant tends to appear in areas with Beaver activity.  As its name suggests American Burnweed is native to the Americas but, due to its ‘weedy’ nature and reproduction rate it is not recommended as a cultivated plant for gardens. Immature plants will have oval shaped leaves while more mature ones can be lobed and somewhat resemble Sowthistles or other plants often mistaken for Dandelions. In a single growing season an American Burnweed plant can easily reach ten feet tall. A useful identification feature is that when crushed all parts of this plant are aromatic. American Burnweed may have gotten its name from the fact that it is one of the earliest pioneer species that emerge after an area has recently burned. Its flowers are pollenated mainly by wasps but also Honey Bees.

 

When & What to Harvest: The leaves, flowers and young stems of this plant are edible in raw or cooks form but it is wise top harvest and use these early because they will become bitter with age.

 

Poisonous Lookalikes: None are known.

 

Related Edible Species: This information is unclear.

 

Recipe: The only credible recipes I could find for this imply a raw salad of some sort or another. An article on Gardenista had some interesting ideas, please take a look:

 

https://www.gardenista.com/posts/american-burnweed-recipes/

 

 

 

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 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.

 

>>I will not be at the Fayetteville City Market this weekend; I will be at the Plant Swap at the Smith Recreation center instead. The plant swap is from 12:00 to 3:00pm and is located in the Smith Recreation Center on 1520 Slater Avenue, that’s right next to Fayetteville State University.

 

Spring Vegetable Plants

Kale – Kalebration Mix

Swiss Chard – Ruby Red

 

Summer Vegetable Plants (NEW!)

Tomato – Sweet 100

Tomato – Chocolate Cherry

Tomato – Black Krim

Tomato – Paul Robeson

Pepper – Habanero

Pepper – Ancho/Poblano

Pepper – Sweet Banana

Pepper – Carolina Wonder

 

Herbs (New!)

Hoan Ngoc

Eucalyptus

 

Garden Plants

Daylilies

Walking Iris

 

Coming Soon:

Garlic Plants

 

 

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): Lupine, Bear’s Breeches (Short Video)

 

Meetings are still going on! We now meet at LeClair’s General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next (unofficial) meeting is on April 13^th, between at the Plant Swap at Smith Recreation center between the hours of 12:00 and 3:00pm. The address is 1520 Slater Avenue, Fayetteville NC.