Rough Bedstraw (Galium asprellum Michx.)
Rough Bedstraw (Galium asprellum Michx.) is a common sprawling weed. It forms a tangle across low pastures, brooksides and ditches. The tangle looks springy and comfortable, the perfect mattress stuffing, but feels rough and sticky when rubbed backwards from stem to flowers, due to the plant’s rasping, hooked prickles.
Other names for bedstraw are Cleavers and, in French, gaillet. The generic name is from the Greek gala meaning ‘milk’, since milk is curdled by some species.
Rough Bedstraw is one of a number of common Galium species. They all have the same general habit… small narrow leaves are arranged in whorls of six or eight around the stem. They are all useful plants. They were used as stuffing because of their physical characteristics and because the smell of the dried plant repels fleas.
To identify the species of Galium mentioned below:
~ smell the plant in question
~ count the leaves
~ look for the color of the flowers
~ determine if the plant is rough or smooth
~
~
Galium asprellum Michx.
Rough Bedstraw has its leaves in sixes, and is rough with recurved bristles. Its flowers are white. This species has weak stems and reclines on other vegetation. Asprellum means ‘somewhat rough’. It has been used to stuff mattresses.
Galium triflorum Michx.
Sweet-scented Bedstraw or Fragrant Bedstraw grows in forested areas. It has white flowers arising along the stem and its leaves in sixes. It reclines and clings, but is not as bristly as Rough Bedstraw. Fragrant Bedstraw is used for stuffing mattresses and has the smell of vanilla when it dries.
Galium verum L.
Lady’s Bedsraw or Yellow Bedstraw has yellow flowers borne at the top of the upright stem, and leaves in sixes or eights. The plant is hairy but not clinging. The word verum means ‘true’, derived from the Christian tradition that Yellow Bedstraw lined Jesus’ manger at Bethlehem. The roots also make a red or yellow dye.
Galium aparine L.
Cleavers, Goose-grass, Stickywilly, or (in Ireland) Robin Run the Hedge is bristly and has white flowers and leaves in eights. Aparine is the old generic name and probably means to ‘scratch, cling or catch’. The young shoots can be cooked as greens or used as a salad. The nuts are roasted and ground for a coffee substitute.
Galium mollugo L.
White Bedstraw, Hedge Bedstraw, or Wild Madder has white flowers and its leaves mostly in eights. It is smooth, without bristles and stands upright. A red dye is made from the roots. Its leaves are edible as a potherb or salad. It has a mildy astringent taste.
Most of the Galium along the roadsides in our area is Wild Madder (Galium mollago L.).
~
~
Rough Bedstraw
(Galium asprellum Michx.)
~
Our mattress is lumpy, as though stuffed
with Rough Bedstraw, fragrant as new sheets
but uncomfortable
~
I sleep poorly
and a spring sticks in my back,
just where arthritis begins, along the spine
~
Small back-pointed bristles
thwart my turning, bed-clothing tacky
on this humid night
~
~
© Jane Tims 2012
Warning: 1. never eat any plant if you are not absolutely certain of the identification; 2. never eat any plant if you have personal sensitivities, including allergies, to certain plants or their derivatives; 3. never eat any plant unless you have checked several sources to verify the edibility of the plant.growing and gathering
Many of my recent posts are associated with my writing project, ‘growing and gathering’. My aim is to write a poetry manuscript about collecting and producing local foods. So far, I have concentrated on ‘edible wild plants’ in my blog, but the full scope of the project will include poems on gardening and other aspects of aquiring local foods.
My process so far has included research into a particular wild plant, a trip to see it in the wild and perhaps gather it for eating, a piece of prose on the characteristics of the plant, a pencil drawing (becoming more and more a part of my thought process), and a poem or poems about the edible plant.
As my project progresses, I am generating many poems. I am also starting to think about how I will assemble this information into a manuscript.
One of the first steps toward assembling the manuscript is to decide what themes are emerging. This will help me decide how the poems relate to one another, as well as identify the gaps.
Major themes so far are:
~ companionship (for example, picking berries with a friend)
the results of an hour of blackberry picking with my husband
~ competition (for example, trying to get those hazelnuts before the squirrels)
hazelnuts on the tree…almost ripe…who will get them, the squirrels or me?
~ time (this includes historical uses of wild edibles, as well as seasonal and lifetime components of eating local)
a ‘graveyard’ of old apple trees
~ ethics (this includes ecosystem concerns about eating wild plants when they are struggling to survive in reduced habitat)
a patch of Trout Lily in the hardwoods… edible… but should I harvest when this type of habitat is disappearing?
~ barriers to gathering local foods (for example, why do I buy bags of salad greens when Dandelion greens, Violet leaves and Wood-sorrel grow right outside my door?)
a salad of Dandelion greens and Purple Violets
In my upcoming posts, I want to explore each of these themes.
~
~
berry picking
~
fingers stain indigo
berry juice as blood
withdrawn by eager
thorns
~
berry picking sticks
to me, burrs
and brambles
hooks and eyes
inseparable as
contentment and picking berries
~
even as I struggle
berries ripen
shake free
fall to ground
~
~
© Jane Tims 2012
Warning: 1. never eat any plant if you are not absolutely certain of the identification; 2. never eat any plant if you have personal sensitivities, including allergies, to certain plants or their derivatives; 3. never eat any plant unless you have checked several sources to verify the edibility of the plant.snippets of landscape – evidence of old roads
This week, we drove to the south-west corner of the province and spent a little time at the Ganong Nature and Marine Park, at Todd’s Point near St. Stephen. The area is managed by the Quoddy Futures Foundation and is the former property of Eleanor and Whidden Ganong (Whidden Ganong was President of the Ganong Bros. candy factory in St. Stephen). The property is beautiful and good for the soul. We walked through the fields, identified wildflowers, listened to the birdsong, and were returned to a simpler time.
The fields along the path were yellow with Buttercup (Ranunculus sp.) and the largest population of Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus Crista-galli L.) I have ever seen. The flowers of the Yellow Rattle were bright yellow, but the inflated calyx was tinged with red, giving the field a stippled glow (for more information on Yellow Rattle, see my post for August 3, 2011, ‘along the country road #1’ ).
Yellow Rattle among the field flowers… the fused sepals are tinged and veined with red
The Buttercups were everywhere, but concentrated in certain areas of the field. One area in particular seemed to mark the path of an abandoned road. The Buttercups have found some aspect of the old road to their liking. Perhaps the soil is compacted and they have a competitive ‘edge’ on the other plants. Perhaps the hidden track provides some alteration in the water regime or a place where certain types of seeds concentrate as they are dispersed. Perhaps there are subtle differences in the soil chemistry.
an abandoned track marked in Buttercups… the red tint in the foreground is from the reddish coloration of the Yellow Rattle
Years ago, I visited a property where the roadway to a back field was clearly marked with Bluets (Houstonia caerulea L.). The owner of the property said he thought they grew there because he always took his lime in an open cart back to his fields, and enough had spilled to make the way especially attractive to the Bluets.
Perhaps you will have a look in your landscape for wildflower clues to past activities.
~
~
Invitation to Tea
~
in the afternoon,
I huddle over tea
and watch
the road
~
an old road,
rarely used –
walks scarcely part
the tangle of fern
~
I scan the woods,
I love the look
of ancient trunk
and horizontal green
~
and always,
in the corner of my eye,
the road
~
overgrown –
a narrow course of saplings
intercepts
the sameness
of maturity
~
I watch
expectantly
~
but the road is abandoned –
cart-tracks worn
to rivulets,
culverts buried
by fallen leaves,
rusted oil tins,
depressions in the mould
~
~
© Jane Tims 2012
Wood-sorrel (Oxalis spp.)
When I walk around our property, whether in the woods or in the open areas, I often overlook a little group of plants I am certain grows almost everywhere. The leaves are like those of clover, but the five-petalled flowers of the genus Oxalis are as delicate as any spring wildflower.
I am familiar with two Wood-sorrels, one a plant of the woods and one a plant of more open areas.
Common Wood-sorrel (Oxalis acetosella L.) grows in damp woods. Other names for this plant are Wood-shamrock, Lady’s-sorrel, and, in French, pain de lièvre (literally, rabbit bread). The flowers of Common Wood-sorrel are white with pale red veins and can be found blooming from June to August.
The Yellow Wood-sorrels (Oxalis stricta L. and Oxalis europaea Jord.) are low-growing weeds, found in waste places, along roadsides, in thickets, or in lawns and meadows. The Yellow Wood-sorrels are known by many names, including Lady’s-sorrel, Hearts, Sleeping-Beauty, and, in French, sûrette or pain d’oiseau (bird-bread). The flowers of Oxalis stricta and Oxalis europaea are yellow and bloom May to October. Oxalis stricta and Oxalis europaea are considered separate species, but there is a lot of ambiguity in the various references, probably since both are called Yellow Wood-sorrel. According to Grey’s Botany, Oxalis stricta has a tap-root, whereas Oxalis europeae has spreading and subterranean stolons.
The leaves of both Common and Yellow Wood-sorrels are pale green and clover-like. Each leaf consists of three heart-shaped leaflets. At night, the leaves fold downward.
The generic name oxalis comes from the Greek oxys meaning ‘sour’. The common name ‘sorrel’ comes from the French word for ‘sour’. Leaves of all species of Oxalis have a pleasant, tart taste and can be included in a salad as greens. The leaves are also used in a tea, to be served as a cold drink.
Oxalic acids cause the plants’ sour taste. Use caution ingesting this plant since it can aggravate some conditions such as arthritis, and large quantities can affect the body’s absorption of calcium.
To make a tea and a cold drink from Oxalis leaves, first pick, sort and wash the leaves…
Pour hot water on the leaves. They turn brown instantly! I left the tea to steep for about 10 minutes.
Strain and pour the sorrel-ade over ice cubes. The Wood-sorrel tea makes a pleasant cold drink, with a tart taste and a familiar but elusive flavour. Enjoy!
Warning: 1. never eat any plant if you are not absolutely certain of the identification; 2. never eat any plant if you have personal sensitivities, including allergies, to certain plants or their derivatives; 3. never eat any plant unless you have checked several sources to verify the edibility of the plant.~
~
Common Wood-sorrel
Oxalis montana Raf.
~
Oxalis montana
carpets the grove
three green leaflets
lined in mauve, held low
in folds at night
narrow petals
creamy white, fragile
veins inked in red
Lady’s sorrel
nibbled, sour
rabbit bread
~
~
© Jane Tims 2012
Common Plantain (Plantago major L.)
When we were children, we often pretended to be storekeepers and picked various wild plants as the ‘food’ for sale. We collected weed seeds for our ‘wheat’, clover-heads as ‘ice-cream’, vetch seed pods as ‘peas’, and (gasp) Common Nightshade berries as ‘tomatoes’.
This is probably a good place to urge you to teach your children – everything that looks like a vegetable or fruit may not be good for them to eat! I don’t remember ever trying any of our pretend ‘groceries’, but some of them, such as the Common Nightshade berries, were poisonous and harmful.
berries of Common Nightshade are poisonous… later in the season, they are red and quite beautiful… children should be warned that all red berries are NOT good to eat
We also ‘sold’ the leaves of Common Plantain at our ‘store’. They looked like spinach, and the Plantain leaves would have actually been fine for us to eat.
Common Plantain (Plantago major L.) is a very easily found weed since it grows almost everywhere, especially along roadsides, in dooryards and in other waste places. Plantain is also known as Ribwort, Broad-leaved Plantain, Whiteman’s Foot, or, in French, queue de rat. The generic name comes from the Latin word planta meaning ‘foot’. Major means ‘larger’.
Plantain has thick, dark green, oval leaves. These grow near the ground in a basal rosette. The stems of the leaves are long and trough-like. The leaves themselves are variously hairy and feel rough to the touch. The leaf has large, prominent veins, and, as the plant grows older, these veins become very stringy. The veins resist the breakage of the leaf and stick out from the stem end of a harvested leaf like the strings of celery.
Flowers of Plantain grow in a dense spike on a long, slender stalk rising from the leaves. The flowers are small and greenish-white, appearing from June to August.
The young leaves of Common Plantain can be used in a salad or cooked and seasoned with salt and butter. The older leaves become tough and stringy.
Warning: 1. never eat any plant if you are not absolutely certain of the identification; 2. never eat any plant if you have personal sensitivities, including allergies, to certain plants or their derivatives; 3. never eat any plant unless you have checked several sources to verify the edibility of the plant.
leaves of Common Plantain and Dandelion, picked from our dooryard, not yet washed or looked over for insects… note the strings protruding from the stem ends
Yesterday, I gathered the youngest leaves of plantain I could find and cooked them for my lunch. They might be fine in times of need, but I found the cooked product to be just like eating soggy cardboard.
I should say, since I have begun my almost daily tests of edible wild plants, my husband asks me almost hourly how I am feeling.
~
~
wisdom
~
plantain, past the picking –
a pulled leaf resists,
tethered to a thread
~
~
© Jane Tims 2012
Warning: 1. never eat any plant if you are not absolutely certain of the identification; 2. never eat any plant if you have personal sensitivities, including allergies, to certain plants or their derivatives; 3. never eat any plant unless you have checked several sources to verify the edibility of the plant.Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana Duchesne)
Soon, the fields at our summer place will be jeweled with Wild Strawberries.
Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana Duchesne) grows in open woodlands, fields and barrens. It is also known as Virginia Strawberry, Common Strawberry and, in French, fraisier. The name Fragaria comes from the Latin word for strawberry, fraga meaning fragrance.
The leaves of Wild Strawberry grow on slender stalks, and occur in threes. They are hairy and coarsely toothed. Plants are stoloniferous, meaning they produce ‘stolons’ or runners, freely-rooting basal branches.
The flower of the Wild Strawberry is white, with five petals and numerous stamens and pistils. Right now, our fields are spangled with them. The flowers occur in an open cluster of two or more flowers. In this species, the flower stalk is not longer than the leaf stalk.
The berries are red and ovoid, covered with small pits and seeds. They are more delicate and sweeter than the domestic strawberry. They appear in late June and may last until August, but the best berry-picking is at the first of summer.
In the book ‘The Blue Castle’ by Lucy Maude Montgomery, the heroine says one of her greatest pleasures is to eat berries directly from the stem:
Here they found berries … hanging like rubies to long, rosy stalks. They lifted them by the stalk and ate them from it, uncrushed and virgin, tasting each berry by itself with all its wild fragrance ensphered therein. When Valancy carried any of these berries home that elusive essence escaped and they became nothing more than the common berries of the market-place–very kitchenly good indeed, but not as they would have been, eaten in their birch dell …
(from L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle, Chapter 30, McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1972)
~
The berries of the Wild Strawberry are delicious in jam. The leaves also make a fragrant tea, high in Vitamin C. To make the tea, put a handful of green leaves into two cups of boiling water, steep, strain and enjoy!
~
~
too early to pick
~
last week of June
roadside red with leaves
and ripening wild
strawberries hang
still green except
where sepal contrast
shows sweet berry
~
patience, wait
a few days and every berry
ripe and a thimble pot
of berry jam
~
can’t wait?
sour green flesh
grit of tiny seed
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2012
a moment of beautiful – a button of moss
the space: at ground level, in the grey woods
the beautiful: a little button of moss, emerald green
~
Mosses are a beautiful, enigmatic group of plants. Except for a few well-known species, they simply grow unnamed and unnoticed by most people. The beauty of the mosses, especially under the stereo-microscope, where you can see so much detail, was what attracted me to the study of botany in the first place.
We have many species of moss in our Grey Woods. I long to be able to take the time to identify every one. For now, though, I content myself with a few common names and some of my own ‘made-up’ names.
I call this little moss ‘The Button’. Wherever I find it, it seems to grow in a little cushion. Its surface is like velvet and its color is a lovely shade of lime green.
~
~
a button to press
~
resist the urge
to depress this plump of moss
firmly with a finger
~
will take you up
to the first floor
where the bunchberry blooms
or the second where bracken
planks an ephemeral floor
or the 67th where leaves align
precisely with sun
~
or down
to where the roots criss-cross
in confused abandon
~
~
© Jane Tims 2012
Sheep Sorrel (Rumex Acetosella L.)
At this time of year, some of the fallow fields adjacent to our Federal-Provincial Agricultural ‘Farm’ in Fredericton are shadowed with bright red. Closer inspection shows these fields are filled with Sheep Sorrel, in scarlet bloom.
The common Sheep Sorrel (Rumex Acetocella L.) is a small, slender plant, less than a foot high, with distinctive leaves shaped a little like an arrowhead or halberd. The lobes at the base of each ‘arrowhead’ leaf point backwards, a shape described in botany as ‘hastate’.
Sheep Sorrel is considered a weed, growing along roadways and in fields. It prefers acidic, ‘sour’ soils and is considered an indicator of these soils.
Sheep Sorrel (Rumex Acetosella ) is also known as Common Sorrel, Field Sorrel, Red Sorrel, and Sour Weed. In French it is called surette or oseille. The old generic name Acetosella means ‘little sorrel’. Sheep Sorrel is from the Buckweat Family of plants.
The flowers of Sheep Sorrel are small, distributed in an open cluster along the stem. The female flowers are maroon and the male flowers are brownish-green.
The leaves of Sheep Sorrel are well-known as an edible plant. They have a pleasantly tart, sour flavour and make a good nibble, an iced tea, or an addition to a salad. They can also be used as a pot-herb – when cooked they reduce in size like spinach, and they lose the acid taste. The Sheep Sorrel plant has a chemical called oxalate so cannot be consumed in large quantities. Long-term consumption can affect calcium absorption in the body. As always, please be sure of your identification before you consume any wild plant.
Warning: 1. never eat any plant if you are not absolutely certain of the identification; 2. never eat any plant if you have personal sensitivities, including allergies, to certain plants or their derivatives; 3. never eat any plant unless you have checked several sources to verify the edibility of the plant.~
~
red field
~
walk in the field with the scarlet flowers
arrowheads and halberds surely leave
a sour taste on the tongue
titration with alkaline needed
to sweeten the ground, dilute the red
return the soil
to more productive ways
~
~
© Jane Tims 2012
a view of a Black Bear
One of the experiences of the past two weeks was the sighting of a young Black Bear (Ursus americanus) along the Plaster Rock – Renous Highway. The Black Bear was only a youngster, probably a two-year-old born last January or February (2011). He watched us a long time from the woods, appearing a little confused. Eventually, he wandered away. He was probably rejoining his mama – Black Bears stay with their mothers until they are 16 or 17 months old.
I have seen/smelled a few bears in my life:
§ Once, on a fishing trip with my Uncle, he told me to stop and sniff the air. The smell was fetid, unforgettable. He told me you often smell a bear but almost never see one.
§ When we first built our house, our young neighbor was riding his bike up our gravel heap and encountered a bear coming up the other side of the pile!
§ When we first lived in our community, we had a garbage dump. We used to go to the dump on the weekend and join the other cars, watching the bears work their way through the garbage. I remember one was inside an old refrigerator, opening and closing the door!
§ On a work excursion to Mount Carleton, we saw a bear running up the road ahead of us, but it disappeared before we could get close.
§ Once, on the Salmon River Road, on a drive to Bouctouche with my sister-in-law and niece and nephew, we saw a full-grown bear, on a run from one side of the road to the other. He had very long legs and ran by stretching his front legs out and bringing his rear legs up between them. He only hit the pavement twice, once with each set of feet!
§ On our trip through the Rocky Mountains, I saw a bear, species unknown, in a steep ditch beside the roadway.
Have you ever seen a bear???
~
© Jane Tims 2012
keeping watch for dragons #6 – Water Dragon
The last full week in May, we took a day to drive the Plaster Rock-Renous Highway. This is an isolated, but paved, stretch of road, called Highway 108, connecting the sides of the province through a large, unpopulated area. The highway runs from Plaster Rock in the west, to Renous in the east and traverses three counties, Victoria, York and Northumberland. It takes you across more than 200 km of wetland, hardwood, and mixed coniferous forest, some privately owned, and some Crown Land. A large part of the area has been clearcut, but the road also passes through some wilderness of the Plaster Rock-Renous Wildlife Management Area and the headwaters of some of our most beautiful rivers.
From the east, the highway first runs along the waters of the Tobique River, across the Divide Mountains, and into the drainage of the Miramichi River, crossing the Clearwater Brook, and running along the South Branch of the Dungarvon River and the South Branch Renous River.
Along the way, we stopped at a boggy pond next to the road between Clearwater Brook and the Dungarvon, to listen to the bull frogs croaking. There among the ericaceous vegetation filling most of the pond was a dragon for my collection.
look closely near the center of the photo… the single white spot is the spathe of a Wild Calla or Water Dragon
Water Dragon, more commonly known as Wild Calla or Water Arum, was present in the shallow, more open waters of the pond, appearing as startling white spots on an otherwise uniform backdrop of green and brown.
Wild Calla (Calla palustis L.) is also known as Female Dragons, Frog-cups, Swamp-Robin and, in French, calla des marais, arum d’eau, or aroïde d’eau. It lives in wet, cold bogs, or along the margins of ponds, lakes and streams.
The Wild Calla belongs to the Arum family, along with Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema Stewardsonii Britt.) and Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus (L.) Nutt.). These plants have tiny flowers along a thick spike known as a ‘spadix’. The spadix is enclosed by a leafy bract called the ‘spathe’. The spathe of Wild Calla is bright white, ovoid and abruptly narrow at the tip. The leaves are glossy green and heart-shaped. The flowers growing among them are often overlooked. On the pond, there were about ten visible spathes, and likely many more hidden among the plentiful leaves.
The various parts of the Wild Calla are considered poisonous since they contain crystals of calcium oxalate. These cause severe irritation of the mouth and throat if eaten. However, there is a twist to this story of a poisonous plant. Scandanavian people, in times of severe hardship, prepared flour for ‘Missen bread’ from the dried, ground, bruised, leached, and boiled seeds and roots of Wild Calla. Do I have to warn you not to try this at home!!!!????
Warning: 1. never eat any plant if you are not absolutely certain of the identification; 2. never eat any plant if you have personal sensitivities, including allergies, to certain plants or their derivatives; 3. never eat any plant unless you have checked several sources to verify the edibility of the plant.Linnaeus, the botanist who invented the binomial (Genus + Species) method of naming plants, described the laborious process the Swedish people used to remove the poisonous crystals from the Water Dragon in order to make flour. To read Linnaeus’ account, see Mrs. Campbell Overend, 1872, The Besieged City, and The Heroes of Sweden (William Oliphant and Co., Edinburgh), page 132 and notes (http://books.google.ca/books?id=IAsCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=missen+bread&source=bl&ots=ZO8cl_2nBl&sig=Gtr5Lq6PvG3DXV_l-kfECNuhWfo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gGLFT-79B4OH6QG1m-nOCg&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=missen%20bread&f=false Accessed May 29, 2012).
~
~
~
desperate harvest
‘… they can be satisfied with bark-bread, or cakes made of the roots of water-dragon, which grows wild on the banks of the river…’
– Mrs Campbell Overend, 1872
~the pond beside the road
simmers, a kettle
of frog-croak and leather-leaf
~
spathes of Water Dragon
hug their lamposts, glow white
lure the desperate to the pond
~
bull-frog song deepens the shallows
the way voices lower when they speak
of trouble, of famine
~
people so hungry, harvest so poor
they wade in the mire
grind roots of Wild Calla for flour
~
needles to the tongue
burns to the throat
crystals of calcium oxalate, poison
~
worth the risk –
the drying,
the bruising,
the leaching,
the boil,
the painful test to know
if poison has been neutralized
~
the toughness of
the Missen bread
~
~
© Jane Tims 2012
