Guelder Rose Other Common Names: Cramp bark tree, Crampbush Latin Name: Viburnum opulus Parts Used: Berries in food, bark in medicine. Physical Characteristics: A woody perennial shrub that can grow to 4m in height. Leaves The leaves, 5–10cm long, grow up the stem oppositely. They have three-lobes with serrated edges.…
Author: Sophia
foraging and herbal medicine go hand in glove. Herbal remedies are easily produced at home because they involve extracting and/or preserving plant material using age-old processes like macerating in vinegar, oil or alcohol, preserved by drying or using a potent source of sugar or salt, or fermenting into a condiment…
Wild Mustards / Spring / Summer / Edible Wild Mustard can come in many shapes and sizes, there are a couple of different kinds but they all share similar characteristics. You get to a point where you walk past something and say to yourself “well I don’t know exactly what…
Heather / All Year / Edible Common Names Heather/Ling Heather/Scotch Heather Latin Name: Calluna vulgaris, Erica tetralix, E. caerulea – Ericaceae Harvest Season: Best to collect fresh, young (not too woody) flowering tops (leaves and flowers) when the flowers have just bloomed – usually July – October, depending on the…
Wild Fennel / Spring / Summer / Autumn / Edible Latin Name: Foeniculum vulgare Physical Characteristics: A tall umbellifer that can grow to 1.5-2m tall in favourable conditions. Leaves The leaves, which begin sheathed, are very finely branched and appear feathery. Flowers The flowering stalks are round in the cross…
Sea Plantain / Spring / Summer / Autumn / Edible Other Common Names: Coastal Plantain, Plantain by the Sea, Goose tongue Latin Name: Plantago maritima subsp. maritima (there are several subspecies, differentiated by their geographical distributions). Physical Characteristics: Looking a bit like a wider, more succulent grass stem with a…
Salty Fingers / All Year / Edible Other Common Names: Pigface, Karkalla, Beach banana, Purple dew plant, Rounded noon-flower Latin Name: Disphyma crassifolium Physical Characteristics: A creeping succulent plant with finger shaped leaves and daisy-like flowers rimmed in bright purple. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs that tend to…
Lilac / Spring / Summer / Edible Other Common Names: Lilac flower, sweet lilac Latin Name: Syringa vulgaris and other species Physical Characteristics: This is a deciduous shrub that blooms in spring with cones of wonderfully fragrant flowers. It can grow up to 7m tall and can form suckers with…
Buck’s Horn Plantain Other Common Names: Stagshorn plantain, Minutina Latin Name: Plantago coronopus Physical Characteristics: The whole plant rarely grows more than 10cm tall. Leaves Hairy leaves growing in a basal rosette. Each individual leaf has teeth’ coming off the sides that look like a crow’s foot at the end,…
Reindeer Moss / All Year / Edible Other Common Names: Reindeer lichen, Reindeer cup lichen, Grey reindeer lichen, Caribou moss, Deer moss Latin Name: Cladonia rangiferina Physical Characteristics: While it is colloquially known as a moss, this is actually a lichen, which is a symbiont of at least one fungus…