The RHS have mentioned the Rosebay willowherb to be a weed which is therefore a good reason for me to write about this plant as well as some others in the same family.
It is in the Willowherb family or Onagraceae which is number 73 in Stace
Please Note: This is an educational blog only and can’t be responsible for self medication!
I use colour coding for easy reading! Blue background is general interesting info (although I hope you find it all interesting!!). Green is about all the uses except for medicinal uses or if there is a warning in which case I use a pink background. Pictures by Matt Summers unless stated.
Find out more about this interesting plant family on the next page:
This week a relative small family in our regions; the Plantaginaceae or the Plantains.
The Plantaginaceae is now in the 121st family in the latest 4th edition of Stace, behind the colourful Veronicaceae (Speedwell family) and before the obscure Hippuridaceae (Mare’s-tail family).
It consist of just two genera, Plantago with 7 species and Littorella with just one species.
Each species is a much more humble plant, not really shouting out for attention as some of our plant families covered in earlier blogs.
The generic name Plantago is derived from the Latin for sole and it should not be confused with the other unrelated, tropical plantain which is a starchy banana!
In my eyes it is an attractive genus with boldness in its various leaf outlines and interesting flower spikes.
Find out about all their uses to us people and our wildlife on the next page.
In my last post we covered all the more woody plants of this large family, which are most important to us for mainly their fruits. This week I like to talk about their much smaller members, which also have an important part to play for especially our wildlife but also surprisingly in our medical history or present day use.
There are again several genera represented in the British Isles of the smaller, herbaceous and occasionally sub-shrubs of the Rose family. See for more on the next page.
The blossom of our Hawthorn is a beautiful site and is an important member of the Rose family.
The Rosaceae or Rose family is a large and important family containing trees, shrubs, sub-shrubs and herbs. Although occurring worldwide, the greatest numbers of species are being found in the North Temperate region. This post will tell more about the uses of our native members of the Rosaceae.
In Stace it is family 48, so relative early in the evolution of the Flowering plants. It has 36 genera but several genera + species are introduced garden plants and of course are easily spread by the seeds in their fruits which are attractive as a food for birds in particular, spreading the plants far and wide into natural areas.
As this blog is not about ornamental plants but is about our useful ‘weeds’ I will use the order of genera mentioned in ‘The Wild Flower Key. This has less of those ornamental genera and species as mentioned in Stace. It has also lumped all the trees and shrubs together followed by the herbs.
This week we’ll start with all the native trees and shrubs in the Rose family.
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).
Japanese Knotweed and Bindweed making a happy display on my allotment every summer!
We made a new video showing ten more common weeds, which after this post hopefully will also be more popular! Unfortunately the embedding did not work this time so please click on the link below:
A brief description of the weeds with pictures by my partner Matt Summers, unless stated differently, follow below this introduction. Most weeds have been covered in a more detailed post in earlier posts and then mostly about their whole family for which there is a link on the start of each plant description.
Weeds are not at all bad; they are just inconvenient for us human beings!
Maybe we were just going to plant another more attractive plant in that place or maybe we desperately needed that exact spot for making a new drive for all our vehicles we need to park in front of our house? Or another more common reason is to just remove it as it looks aesthetically not pleasing to our tidy eyes!
Don’t worry I can just be as bad sometimes and not have a really proper reason for removing a weed…
But this is the exact reason why I write about them and try to make us see all their known good uses they got.
All their bad reasons for existence are mentioned already on many websites and this is hopefully not why you came to my site in the first place?
The whole idea of starting an Ethnobotanical garden came about after volunteering for 2 months at ‘Jardin Etnobotanico de Oaxaca’ in 2008!
Outside at EntranceInside the Entrance a detailed Plan!
So what is an Ethnobotanical garden? Hope to explain all about this on the next page and why I feel it is important to have one in this day and age of global warming and pandemics!
Dock and Ragwort, two of the most notorious weeds!
This week it is mainly about the title or the Dock and Sorrel plants which forms a large genus in the family of the Polygonaceae or the Dock and Knotweeds family.
The Common Gorse or Ulex europaeus is a familiar plant in the Legume family! (All pictures unless mentioned otherwise are by Matt Summers)
What is now called The Fabaceae, was long known as Leguminosae and commonly these are known as the legume, pea, or bean family.
This is a large and economically important family in the world. It includes trees, shrubs, and perennial or annual herbaceous plants, which are easily recognized by their fruit (legume) and/or their compound, stipulate leaves.
It is not as big in Britain but an interesting and useful family all the same! Credits are due once again to Stace‘s Flora, J. Barker’s Medicinal Flora, Plantlife and Wikipedia for most information. The link on the scientific names are mostly from the Plant Atlas 2020 Online and the information from the habitats is also copied from this Online Atlas. The link on the Common Name is from a website with usually some more info and pictures of the plant. I try and use UK sites as much as possible!
In case there are any medical uses stated with the plants mentioned below, please take sensible advise from a qualified herbalist.
If you would like to learn a bit more about the classification of this large family I can recommend Britannica.com webpage
NN behind the names in the Contents means Non-Native (is similar to neophyte) and has been introduced and often naturalised into the wild. FBBC in the Contents behind the names means that it also occurs in the Flora of Birmingham and the Black Country!
Information for this blog is again from various websites, for more information follow the links on the plant names. Green background signifies all sorts of uses, blue background for wildlife and ecological uses and pink background is for medicinal use. Pictures by Matt Summers, otherwise stated.