Edibles, non edibles and herbal remedies

Daniel says that the first thing everyone wants to know about a plant is "what is it good for" and "can you eat it?"  In fact, traveling on all these collecting trips with Daniel I have become used to him occasionally saying "here try this."  I have complete trust as the man knows his plants.  I've eaten all kinds of stuff.  Just the other day we ate some fuzzy green thing as we drove along.  And yesterday we chewed some Echinacea and then let it sit in our mouths to feel it kind of go numb.  A great immune booster.  So in this blog we are going to report on all kinds of edibles and non-edibles as we find them.

Let's start with a non-starter.  DO NOT EAT THIS PLANT EVER!

This looks pretty doesn't it?  You may think it is Queen Anne's Lace.  No no no.  It is hemlock.  And super poisonous.  Remember Socrates?

Here is the flower a little closer.

One way you can tell it is hemlock is by the distinctive spotty stem.

So leave this one be.

If you want, you can eat this -- good old daylilies.

Also edible are nettles.  But they sting terribly.  Next time we find them I'll make a video of Daniel demonstrating how to de-sting nettles in the field so you can eat them right away without boiling them.  For now, here is a picture of a nettle plant.

And lastly, just for fun, here is a plant we found by the side of the road in the Loess Hill area, which is all sandy.  Incredibly, there were two plants in the road.  Maybe someone was cleaning their stash in the area.  For those who don't recognize this, it is marijuana.  And no, we won't smoke it, and no, you can't have any.  It's just another specimen to us.

Daniel is sleeping.  I'll add Latin names and make any corrections tomorrow.  Lots more to tell.  It's been a long day and I must crash.  Thanks for following and for the emails and comments.  Keep em coming.