Is it edible?
If it is edible, how would you prepare it?
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Is it edible?
If it is edible, how would you prepare it?
Hint: This plant is in it's infancy stage.
I'm tempted to say Fiddle Fern (Ostrich Fern) but frankly I've never seen the fuzzy stuff on them.
Fiddleheads, they are fern frond. We put up close to 100 lbs a year. As far as I know all fiddleheads are OK to eat although some are not as good as others. You do have to get most of the brown papery stuff off and they have to be cooked to to destroy something in them(don't remember what the stuff is called). We steam them and eat them with vinaigrette sauce. We also dry a lot for winter greens. Fiddleheads are the first green of the season for many Alaskans. If you are in doubt check with the local Extension Service.
Put me down for Fiddle Back Fern, good battered and fried. I too have never seen it with that white mold looking stuff.
Your right, fiddlehead and I don't know about the fuzz. You win the prize. Would you like to post the next plant picture? I can as I have time.
Okay. I went out today looking for Morels (skunked on those by the way) and took the camera. This one is a bit tougher but pretty common in the Midwest. I thought I had taken a better pic of the flower but it has five petals and is white. You can find these as solitary plants or spread out, almost carpet like. They only bloom in this time of year. The third pic is a large area of them.
The leaves look like wild grapes, but I never seen em flower like that before
My initial guess is a berry plant. I'll try Thimbleberry.
now I was hoping for a pic of those big shrooms you guys have over in Indiana.
I used to be a Hoosier
Not grapes and not berries. In fact, it's not even a fruit.
If it's big shrooms you want, it's big shrooms you'll get. What kind are they? Here's a hint. They are growing on an old elm.
Speaking of large fungi - I had to inspect an old abandoned home a while back. This was growing through a seam in the kitchen floor.
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...ystalSt004.jpg
I would bet your life that it's a shell.:D Panus Conchatus.
A nettle???Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick
Nope. Think condiment. That's the use. (it's not something in your kitchen but something you can use in the wild).
While you work on that plant AND the mushroom, I'll give you an easy one.
only thing i can think of is mint but mint dosent flower dose it......
Not mint for the first one.
I'm going to put you out of your misery. As I said, it's a bit tougher. It's Toothwart. These guys grow everywhere in the Midwest. You can find lower woodlands just covered in it. The roots can be grated and prepared like horseradish.
Chives for the third
That was my next answer...yea right! Toothwart? I've never heard of it and maybe now I will not forget.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick
Close enough. It's either wild onion or wild garlic. In this case, wild onion. The only way I can tell them apart is by smell. Any takers on the mushroom?
TOOTHWART! I can't get over it. The name doesn't make it appetizing.
And Nettles sound good? Or Spiderwort?
rick; your mushroom is Polyporus squamosus. your plant i must say looks like a mustard of some variety to my eyes.
crash's mushroom looks to be a Pleurotus species, such as P. oystreatus.
i wish i had markets like this around here:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/49/13...529a2629d7.jpg
Canid - You are right on the money. Some folks call them scales or scaleys. Edible but not very tasty. That's why they are still on the tree.:D
Okay - Here's another one for you. This one is a lot easier than the toothwort. This one is a very handy plant. Just provide the general name. You don't have to be specific.
i agree with candid, that looks more like mustard than toothwort to me. and the last picture is a violet
Excellent! It is a violet. There are three types of wild violets in the Midwest. Marsh Blue Violet, Common Blue Violet and Birdfoot Violet. This is most likely a Common Blue Violet. The difference between the Marsh and Common Violet is the distance the flower rises above the leaves.
There are lots of uses for wild violets. You can use the young leaves as a salad. They are bit bland but would go well with dandelions for instance. They can also be boiled for 10 or 15 minutes to make nice greens. The leaves can also be added to stews as a thickener. The flowers can be candied and the leaves dried and used as a tea.
A note on the earlier pic of the toothwart. My bad!! I said the flower had five petals and meant to say four. I just caught that. If I threw anyone off, my apologies.
One of the differences between mustard and toothwart is mustard has yellow flowers and toothwart is white or pink. At least it is around here.
there are pink and purple flowered mustartd, but my comment was on the foliar appearance. the flower structure is different for sure.
i think i've fixed the problem i had with statically linking those images:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/concretefeet/SB...31523498-B.jpg
and:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/concretefeet/SB...31569629-D.jpg
i chose both of these images from my archives because all the details needed to identify them to species are visible.
I think it's the very rare triple blue mushroom. I think it's Latin name is Triplus Bluish Mushroominus.
I agree Rick,it has that distinct blue hue that sets it apart from all the rest.
What do you think?
that ones too easy, ill let someone else have it:-P
How about this little guy?
we're supposed to identify that Rubus to species from that picture?
Which one did you not like?Quote:
Originally Posted by canid
the one where neither of them give me enough detail, from my amount of experience, to tell which species of Rubus bramble that is...
don't worry, somebody else will get it, but i'm gonna go with R. idaeus, the european/red raspberry, from the stature of the spines and the general morphology of the leaves. this is a guess.
Sorry about the picture quality.
First is Dandelion. Second is poison ivy.
the foliage looked to have been comming from a thorny bramble, which i took to be one plant. do you know what that was?
the picture also gives the impression of thorns on the axil of the the leaf group on the right but to be honest, i'm drinking.
Now I see what you are referencing. I don't know what the thorny stick is in relation to.