Tag: Dandelion

Posted on

Dandelion; a useful weed!

Today, a plant who most of us know very well:

A Bumblebee feeding happily on a dandelion!

The Dandelion

Most of us love and/or hate the dandelion. Their en mass-flowering period is relatively short although it will carry on sending new flowers throughout the year. This post was my first plant about a member of the Asteraceae family back in July 2018!

It is probably the most useful native member so this is why it needs an entire post!

The following posts are all about the Asteraceae or Compositae as they used to be called:

  1. Asteraceae (part 1)
  2. About the Common Ragwort or Jacobaea vulgaris
  3. More science behind the Asteraceae! (part 2)
  4. the more common Asteraceae and their uses (part 3)
  5. the less common members (part 4)

Contents:

General info

The White sap

Health-giving and Medicinal Uses

Edible and other Uses

Continue reading “Dandelion; a useful weed!”
Posted on

Foraging plants and their uses; an easy guide by Mike Poulton

Nettle tops can be used as long as they look like this!

Foraging has been done for centuries but is hopefully getting a bit of a revival!

People like to have a connection with nature again, especially with their daily exercise in lockdown situation and what a better way to do this then to go out there and forage!

So today I would like to introduce you to a document received from fellow botanist Mike Poulton, who used to do training sessions on foraging for wild plants.  It is a good, quick reference to the more useful wild plants for food!

The edible parts of the native plants are listed with their common names and categorized in 5 sections: leaves and shoots (1), herbs (2), edible flowers (3), fruits and seeds (4) and roots (5).

Continue reading “Foraging plants and their uses; an easy guide by Mike Poulton”