Bring on the pictures. It's all good fun to try to figure out a plant. Not having it in hand makes it a bit more challenging. We'll do our best to ID them, but please remember to research the plants on your own. Don't take anyones word for what a plant is. If we give you an idea to a plant's ID, it's simply a direction to start looking in. It's up to the person with the plant in hand to make an accurate ID.
I'm also considering putting up a "botanical terminology" thread, since we have the edibles database. Anybody think it would be helpful? some of the terms can be confusing. Good Idea? Bad Idea? Already been done?
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Learning new stuff is always a good idea. Post away.
+1 YCC. Post away! Create a new post and we can make it a sticky.
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Great. I'll be working on it and will post it in a few days. I'll also try to provide pictures where I can. Stay Tuned!
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. Helen Keller
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ill try and take some pics this weekend
ive been pretty busy cuz im graduating next week and all my teachers are hammering me with finals and last minute essays >=(
and yeah definately on the guide
some of the stuff you say to me when describing plants leaves me scratching my head
haha
Sorry for the technical terminology CS450. I have started the guide and will be making an initial post sometime this afternooon. Right now, I gotta get out in the garden and get some work done before it gets hot. Most of the more in-depth and area specific books you pick up will be put together by colleges and such, and are very term-heavy. You will need to learn at least some of the terms to be able to use the books effectively. Hopefully my brief primer will help familiarize you with some of the terms.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. Helen Keller
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Thistles are a bit tricky to eat. There are 3 main parts you can eat, the leaves, the roots or the inner core in the stalk.
For the stalk you have to peel the green fiberous stuff off until you get to the white inner core. The outside is waaaaaay to tough to eat. Once you have peeled the stalk you have like a little celery stick thing and you can eat it raw or cooked although most people cook them.
You can eat the leaves, there kind of like any salad green, but you want to boil them pretty good so the stingers dont sting you in the mouth. Boiling will remove its ability to sting you.
You can also eat the roots although i havent done that yet. You could either boil them or roast them over a fire.
The inner cores tastes really good, you should try them first.
cooked or raw?
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alright i need another confirmation
i think i have some kind of mint species
it looked like a mint (i think)
had paired leaves
and my book said look for a square stem
so i went to roll it in my fingers and the hairs ?stung? me...
my finger kinda hurts from that still O_o
do mints have these little hairs on them?
sorry about the bad lighting btw, i was either under a bridge, or in direct sun
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flower buds grew out of the leaf axils
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some leaves had yellow spots
the leaves were very soft and fuzzy
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the leaf bottoms were white-ish
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the stem looked abit like 4 individual round stems put together
I would say that it is very likely it is a mint plant. You could probably look through the pictures to pair up the leaf shapes and root habits on the TAMU botany base (still got tha link?) Look through the Lamiaceae (Labiatae) family and you'll probably find a match.
Did the leaves have a smell? Many of the mints are pubescent some with stiffer hairs. There are a few other families with square stems, but other attributes, like flower shape don't match. Look for the wierd shaped flowers. The way the flowers occur on the stalk will be a key feature in the identity. Most of the mints I've encountered so far have flowers in whorls (complete circles around the same point on the stem).
good job on narrowing it down to that family. Now seek the true ID.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. Helen Keller
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my finger is still numb from the hair that jabbed me.
its kinda weird.
there arent any poisonous look alikes for mints, are there?
and yeah, YCC, the links earlier in this thread
ill try and figure it out,
unfortunately the flowers werent in bloom, which i thought was weird since everything else is in bloom right now
theres like 6 different kinds of mint in the peterson book.
edit: holy cow, theres wayyy too many subspecies of mint O_o
imana have to cut a sample and analyze every freaking square inch of this thing just to get an id
Last edited by crimescene450; 06-17-2010 at 01:17 AM.
Mint family plants are known for their volatile oils. some can be toxic in excess. There are a lot of mint family plants, but you really only need to look at one or two plants in each genus to get close, then look through the species for that genus.
I know it seems overwhelming, but it's the same thing I have to do if a plant is not in one of my books.
The peterson guides are not very area specific. There are a lot of plants in there that don't grow around here. The fallback on Petersons is the way they are organized. Flower color is good for those who are new to wild plants, but still can take quite a bit of digging.
Have you contacted your local cooperative extension office? they should be able to tell you some books that are specific to your area. Most of these type books are organized by family and include keys in the front to help you get there.
Just a SWAG, but that plant favors the Stachys genus, but the flower cluster is wrong. Maybe that'll give you some direction (hopefully the right direction lol).
[oblanceolate, toothed, opposite leaves, wider near base and on somewhat short petioles]
check one or two plants in each Genus (this is a pretty specific grouping of similar plants) and when your sample is close to matching, run through those species. Ignore the plants in the list from across the ocean. While some are the same plants, many are not. That should help you eliminate a few extra plants and save a little time.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. Helen Keller
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That looks like a mint to me, but it jabbed you in the finger? Thats weird......
I just ran across that plant in "The Foragers Harvest". I believe that is stinging nettle.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. Helen Keller
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oh damn
i just flipped to page 150 in the peterson book, and there it is
i think your right
imana go down and double check later
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinging_nettle
"The leaves and stems are very hairy with non-stinging hairs and also bear many stinging hairs (trichomes), whose tips come off when touched, transforming the hair into a needle that will inject several chemicals: acetylcholine, histamine, 5-HT or serotonin, and possibly formic acid. This mixture of chemical compounds cause a sting or paresthesia from which the species derives its common name, as well as the colloquial names burn nettle, burn weed, burn hazel. The pain and itching from a nettle sting can last from only a few minutes to as long as a week"
Last edited by crimescene450; 06-19-2010 at 03:58 PM.
Same thing happened with elderberry, to me. I looked for about a week, trying to identify it, and when I was looking for a different plant I stumbled across a picture of it and was like "duh". hehe.
the square stems and opposite leaves can throw you off. I knew that mint plants usually have inflorescenses in whorled spikes so I was a little bit off with that strange cluster in the axils.
Just goes to show you how confusing it can all be, but if you are patient and persistent, you'll figure it out sooner or later lol.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. Helen Keller
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Check out this flower, its called Brodiaea.
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According to my book, it has a bulb you can eat, apparently its tastes like potatoes. Apparently it was an very important source of food for the native americans. Thats crazy because on this one trail you walk by like hundreds of them! If you see them around, you should check it out. Ill try and eat some this weekeend. Its pretty easy to identify, the only other purple flowers i have found were some Irises, but they look way different.
what book are you using? I am trying to find a good book for western US plants, cuz the only plant book i have so far is the peterson central-east US one.
ive seen fields full of similar looking flowers too
but ill have to take a closer look and see if its the same flower
edit: oh wait, arent these called blue dicks too? i remember reading about them in a book about the Pomo Indians (north cal natives)
Last edited by crimescene450; 06-22-2010 at 06:51 PM.
Im using this book
http://www.amazon.com/Edible-Useful-.../dp/0520032675
It kind of sucks, it only has pictures of half of the plants (and their in black and white) but its a good book just to figure out whats around. You will have to look up a lot of the stuff on the internet though, because of its lack of information.
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