Asian Flatsedge

 

 

This plant looks like it's seen some stuff.

 

Common Name: Asian Flatsedge

 

Other Common Names: Lesser Rice-field Flat Sedge

 

Botanical Family: Cyperaceae (The Cyperus Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Cyperus microiria

 

Description & Habitat: The photographed specimen was seen next to a building in Eastover NC. Although most references for the species indicate that it has not been spotted in North Carolina yet they do indicate it has naturalized in Tennessee and Kentucky.  I do have ot note that the location is a spot frequented by interstate vehicle traffic so this plant may have gotten there on a vehicle or someone’s shoes or clothing. The location is a spot prone to light flooding whenever it rains and the soil is pretty poor in quality. It is a full sun site with moderate foot traffic as a concrete walkway is just inches away. I suspect the specimen has survived some herbicide damage as well as regular environmental stresses. Asian Flatsedge as its name suggests is a non-native plant that has an endemic range of the Himalayas to Japan. Under normal conditions it would be an undesirable plant that would appear in the same wetland environments that certain species of rice prefer to grow in. It is considered an annual by most sources and its main reproduction method is via a large number of produced seeds.

 

When & What to Harvest:  In general there is nothing to eat on this plant, but due to its prolific production of seeds one might be able to harvest enough foliage with a focus on the stems in particular to make paper.

 

Non-Dangerous Lookalikes:  The most famous relative of this plant is Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), which is used for making paper.  Beyond this there are at least ten species of Cyperus that are considered weeds of southeastern lawns but also a number of sedge species used as lawn substitutes like Texas Sedge (Carex texensis). There are a lot of sedges in the landscaping trade that are readily available.

 

Related Dangerous Species:  None are known.

 

Recipe:  As far as I can tell this plant is not edible.

 

 

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://vaplantatlas.org/index.php?do=plant&plant=4607&label=0

https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/cyperus/microiria/

https://tennessee-kentucky.plantatlas.usf.edu/plant.aspx?id=585

 

 

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 (1): Golden Sage

 

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

 

Gray's Sedge

 Welcome to the 2024 edition of the LITFM blog.  This blog is the text-based complement to my weekly posts on Nextdoor.com and the gardening channel on YouTube. In 2023, this blog took on a more formal instructional tone with jokes dispersed within to serve as a hub for conveying information that might not work in a video or weekly update format. The subject matter here is always the wide variety of plant-based foods that you can find growing around you in nature or as some call it ‘Forage Foods’. This ties in with local bartering, and indirectly now we will be including mycology. The primary reason for the change in the blog’s tone and topic came about due to the events of the pandemic, the resulting economic turmoil and other factors. The reality is that we are surrounded with perfectly edible plants that can fill at least some of the void in our dietary needs. There is no reason not to be educated in what is and is not safe and how to prepare it into a nutritious meal. With that said I also realized that in my own way by keeping this blog running I might be butting heads with a billion-dollar pesticide/herbicide/fertilizer industry at times. It has always been in the interest of that industry to label certain things ‘weeds’ so they can sell you product that as time goes by we find out is worse for your health than the weeds are. Coupled with an Agricultural-Education system that peddles the myths of the industry and the old myth that if you can afford a nice lawn you must have wealth we have a population that has been fooled for a long time. So, here we are in 2024, and the forage foods series will continue. I hope all of you who read this blog find the information useful or at least thought provoking. The ‘weeds’ I am listing a certainly found in Zone 8A in North Carolina and should certainly be easy to find in the Southeast regions of America.  Thank you for sticking with LITFM and stay tuned for a year of forage foods.

 

 

 

There is no doubt you've seen this appear in your lawn or pulled it out of a garden bed.

 

Common Name: Gray’s Sedge

 

Other Common Names: Asa Gray’s Sedge, Mace Sedge.

 

Botanical Family: Cyperaceae (The Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Carex grayi

 

Description & Habitat:  Gray’s sedge can be found in a fair variety of landscapes ranging from abandoned lots to your own back yard. The best specimens of this Sedge can be found in areas where the soil is moist but not constantly wet. The higher fertility the soil is the better this sedge will look. It prefers locations with full sun but will tolerate light shade. A basic identification feature for this plant is found in its Latin name, Carex in botanical Latin means ‘Cutter’ which goes hand in hand with the rhyme ‘Rushes are round but Sedges have edges’. The plant’s specific epithet honors Asa Gray (1810-1888 who authored Gray’s Manual of Botany.

 

When & What to Harvest:  The spiky mace-shaped seedpods can be harvested and used in dried arrangements. The edibility of this plant is uncertain.

 

Poisonous Lookalikes: None known.

 

Related Edible Species: Unknown.

 

Recipe: There is no recipe this time.

 

 

 

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 Food:

Garlic Bulbs

Soup Kits – Parsnip

Soup Kits – Turnip

 

 

House Plants 

 

>All house plants are on sale!<

 

Arrowhead Plant ‘Regina Red’

Ficus ‘Yellow Gem’

Haworthia ‘Chocolate’

Haworthia ‘Saiko’

Miniature Cyclamen

Miniature Ox-Tongue

Spineless Prickly Pear

Begonia – ‘Sindbad’

Cuban Oregano – Large Leaf

Hoan Ngoc

 

 

 

Coming Soon:

More stuff TBA!

 

 

 

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 (0): Video, Video, 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 meeting is on [month/day] between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.