Lost in the Farmers Market

Welcome to the LITFM weekly blog. This blog is a text-based complement to the LITFM YouTube channel and covers the forage food side of gardening. It is my goal to make gardening and forage food accessible for all while promoting good land stewardship and sustainable practices by providing honest and balanced information backed by verifiable scientific fact. Since this blog now focuses on wild plants or ‘weeds’ we will be taking an objective look at them and their uses. Thank you for reading.

Showing posts with label Ground Cover. Show all posts

Thursday, July 4, 2024

Little Brown Jug

Wild Harvest Tour Exclusive

This post is based on something we encountered on the June Wild Harvest Tour. Little Brown Jug is a native wild plant that was too pretty to pass up. Check my YouTube channel in a few weeks to see the official video about this native evergreen plant. The Facebook Page for the Tour can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/p/Sandhills-Wild-Harvest-61557940700225/

In its native environment Little Brown Jug is a pretty humble perennial plant. It could be mistaken for Green Briar, Violets or a number of plants, but the slow rate of growth and its lack of visible stems, flowers or other features indicate it's something special.

Common Name: Little Brown Jug

Other Common Names: Arrowhead Wild Ginger, Heartleaf Ginger, Heartleaf Wild Ginger, Wild Ginger

Botanical Family: Aristolochiaceae (The Birthwort Family)

Botanical Latin Name: Asarum arifolium

Description & Habitat: Little brown Jug is a native woodland plant that is evergreen and perennial. Its common name comes from the jug-shaped flowers that are borne low to the ground and are pollinated by ground-dwelling beetles. This plant will appear in clumps with rounded heart shaped leaves that resemble a variety of other species, there are no visible stems on this plant as the leaves and their petioles emerge from a creeping rhizome. Little Brown Jug’s petioles are dark green and may sometimes have a reddish tinge to them. The leaves are typically a dark or medium green color and may have liter whitish-green markings. This plant can be found in forested areas of North Carolina across the state and is often seen poling through the leaf litter of the forest floor. As a cultivated perennial it is often found in use as a natural and native ground cover that does not have any known invasive tendencies. It will tolerate damage from deer, rabbits and will withstand heat and drought conditions. In the wild forage trade it is wise to try and positively identify this plant as its relatives are more harmful when internally taken compared to Little Brown Jug. This is not to say that Little Brown Jug is safe for consumption because according to several credible sources it can cause kidney damage.

Botanical Latin synonyms for this plant include Hexastylis arifolia and Asarum grandiflorum.

When & What to Harvest: Although some traditional medicine references list this plant as useful as a Diuretic, Expectorant and an Analgesic, the risk of kidney damage from consumption of this plant is more than enough that I do not recommend harvesting this plant for medicinal or culinary use. Using it as a native ground cover in shady areas is an option however.

Poisonous Lookalikes: none

Related Edible Species: None are known.

Recipe: Not applicable.

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/asarum-arifolium/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexastylis_arifolia

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.

Soil Amendment Products (New!)

Live Mushroom Compost – 3 Gallon Bag

Live Mushroom Compost – 1 Gallon Bag

Garden Plants

Cutleaf Coneflower, Large

Cutleaf Coneflower, Medium

Spanish Bayonet

Marigold, Naughty Marietta – Yellow

Marigold, Naughty Marietta – Orange

Madagascar Periwinkle, Blackberry

Madagascar Periwinkle, Cranberry

Salvia, Victoria

Zinnia, All American Mix

Coming Soon:

American Aloe

Spineless Prickly Pear

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): Northern Sea Oats

Meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is July 6^th at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.

Thursday, June 20, 2024

English Ivy (Invasive Alert!)

Here is your basic green English Ivy foliage.

As the Ivy ages, the leaves will get larger especially when exposed to full sun.

These are the flower buds, the flowers aren't particularly showy and the petals are a pale greenish-yellow color. Note the change in leaf shape on the stem in the upper right corner. This ivy patch is decades old and is displaying mature form characteristics.

Here is a side shot with a lot of flower bud clusters and a shot of a mature form stem, the leaves change shape enough that you might not recognize it's plain old English ivy.

Common Name: English Ivy

Other Common Names: Common Ivy, European Ivy, Ivy.

Botanical Family: Araliaceae (The Ginseng Family)

Botanical Latin Name: Hedera helix

Description & Habitat: English Ivy is native to Europe, Northern Africa and parts of

Western Asia. The name ‘Hedera’ is the classical Latin word for ivy and helix means spiral which refers to how ivy tends to spiral in its grown up trees and structures. There are possibly hundreds of specific cultivars of this plant in the nursery trade word wide and in general the more white variegation they have the less aggressive they are however Ivy does have the potential to ‘revert’ or go back to a greener coloration. English Ivy was introduced to the Americas as early as 1727 by European colonists and is generally planted as a care free evergreen ground cover. It is considered a serious weed in wild ecosystems and cultivated landscapes. Eglish Ivy is considered a noxious weed in Autralia, Canada, New Zealand, and in the United States. Oregon in specific bans it’s sale or importing and in some places Ivy can choke out all other plants creating a “Ivy-desert” in the same way Kudzu can. As a final note for this plant, it’s roots do not exude acid, but rather a glue like substance. Also, when this plant blooms it’s flowers are very attractive to Wasps and Hornets.

Botanical Latin synonyms for this plant include Hedera acuta, Hedera arborea, Hedera baccifera and also Hedera grandiflora.

When & What to Harvest: The leaves and berries of English Ivy contain a glycoside called Hederin which can cause negative health effects if ingested. The foliage may also cause dermatitis in some individuals. In addition to that the large number of saponins found in the leaves and fruits of this plant make it mildly poisonous and it should be avoided as a wild medicine or food. Laboratory grade extracts from this plant are used in modern cough syrups.

Poisonous Lookalikes: None known.