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.

 

DST Anyone? No? Me neither!

Welcome back to another episode of Lost In The Farmer’s Market,  As you may well know daylight savings time went into effect at 2:00am on Sunday and it is a source of considerable irritation to pretty much everyone. What you don’t know is that it is a myth that it helped farmers use more daylight to perform their tasks. This myth comes from the idea that by getting up earlier somehow you’re getting extra daytime when in fact the number of hours in a given day is give or take the same with adjustments for winter/summer seasons. It’s clearly as much a myth as the old world war two myth that carrots help your eyesight. For note the carrots myth was created by the British military as misinformation to fool the axis powers into not noticing that the British were using radar to find targets. I’ll go out on a limb and say that daylight savings time should be dumped as it literally serves no purpose and any real energy use savings are so tiny that it can’t even be touted as an ecologically useful yearly habit.

But of course this LITFM episode is not about the uselessness of DST, but rather we have a continuing topic of edible weeds, and a rare picture and as if that were not enough we also have a picture of what will be coming to market soon.  But first the main topic, todays subject is a weed that I would imagine everyone who reads this has seen and is very familiar with. It only emerges in the spring and fall once the temperatures tend to top off at about 50-60 degrees and can survive frosts, and winter weather with ease. If you go out and look at any recently disturbed patch of soil or in your planters it is surely growing there.  “Ok so what is this edible weed?” you no doubt want to ask. Well look below for a example

Stellaria media – Common Chickweed

This common garden plant is considered an annual, as it only persists in the cold season but falls apart rapidly during the warm seasons.  There are a few species of chickweed out there with varied edibility standards so this information only pertains to common chickweed.  Common chickweed can be eaten simply by picking the small leaves for use in salad in any amount. The foliage is mild in taste and can be used to effectively counter-balance more pungent leaf greens.  As a pot herb, you would want to cook this one more gently then something like spinach, usually 2-5 minutes at a full boil will suffice and common flavoring additives it needs are butter, a bit of your preferred spices and salt and some chopped onion. Fortunately chickweed has no known poisonous lookalikes, and the entire grouping of true chickweed plants. For note the chickweeds are in the Caryophyllaceae family which is best known for its most famous species the Carnations.

Asarum virginicum - Heartleaf Wild Ginger

This leads to the current photograph of note the flower pictured above is from a perennial cutting of a Wild Ginger plant. Wild gingers are a true wild flower that you plant in a partial-to almost full shade area with decent moisture and forget about. But before you say it, it is not the flower that makes this species special but the evergreen variegated leaves. The leaves are an intense deep green with a silvery-white heart-shaped variegation. Overall a group of these plants forms a nice ground cover that is both exotic looking and well-behaved. It should be said that the wild gingers resemble hardy cyclamen until the bloom and for several months I had the pictures specimen mislabeled until it bloomed just this week. I know the bloom isn’t exactly a show-stopper but it is interesting, and it serves as a biology lesson because you have to ask just what sort of pollinator this flower is intended to attract. My bet is on a beetle or ants as the flowers are very low to the ground and may resemble carrion.

 I get that the angle of this shot is odd but you can see all the current spring crops at once.

We at LITFM are pleased to announce the first spring crops for the market; some of them will be familiar to you, Parris Island Cos Romaine Lettuce, Rouge D’hiver Romaine, Lacinato/Dinosaur Kale, Rosso Di Chioggia Radicchio and, Northern Lights Swiss Chard. In the background you can see the seed starting kits and in them is some good stuff, exotic salad greens and snow peas so sit tight, more of the good stuff is yet to come. Barring bad weather this weekend I plan to bring some of the above listed cold-season crops to market due to your requests. For note most of them were moved up from the cell packs I started them in roughly a week ago.

For those who have not heard, the Fayetteville City Market occurs on Saturdays between the hours of 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM, in all but the absolute worst weather. The market is located on 325 Franklin Street in the front and rear parking lot of the Fayetteville Transportation Museum. The market is a year-round affair unofficially but our official season kicks off in April so stay tuned for the announcement of the market’s big spring celebration. Either way we’re open for business.