September 22nd marked the autumn equinox – one of two points in the year where the length of day and night are equal. From here, the length of daylight will continue to shorten as we move towards winter. While I always miss the outdoor exploration opportunities that early evening sunshine affords me, there are so many things to look forward to about autumn. Although traditional “berry season” (i.e., blueberries, raspberries, etc.) is long over, many fruits and nuts are ripening…
This past weekend my boyfriend and I went for a walk to gather stinging nettle for dinner, and came across a large patch of young garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) as well. One of best parts about picking garlic mustard as a wild edible is that it’s also incredibly invasive, like Japanese knotweed and autumn olive. So you’re doing the ecosystem a favor when you harvest it. In fact, one of my wild edible books describes garlic mustard as “universally despised…
Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) is an introduced wildflower from Europe, likely from early settlers that cultivated it for its medicinal value. It had been one of the most popular European remedies for a wide range of chest complaints. In fact, the root of the genus name Tussilago comes from the Lain word tussis, which means ”cough” – a reference to the supposed curative powers of coltsfoot. The flower buds, young flowers, and young leaves are also edible raw or cooked. Some caution…
The name “sumac” often evokes thoughts of poison sumac and general itchiness. But poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) is actually more closely related to poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) than staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) despite the shared common name. Staghorn sumac can be differentiated from poison sumac through a variety of characteristics. Both can grow fairly tall (~20 feet) and have pointy, alternate, compound leaves, however, they have very different habitat needs. You’ve most certainly seen large stands of staghorn sumac with…
Ragged robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) is a non-native member of the Pink family (sometimes referred to as the Carnation family), originally from Europe. It has since become naturalized in parts of the northern United States, including Cape Cod. Although commonly found in bogs and marshes in Europe, in the U.S. it is more often found in moist but non-wetland areas and once established it can perform well in drier soils. The plant produces a rosette of low-growing foliage and numerous stalks…
The diminutive flowers produced by many tree and shrub species in the spring are often overlooked relative to the showiness of flowering plants like trailing arbutus, purple deadnettle, and pink lady slippers, but the delicate details are worth taking a moment to slow down and notice. The female flowers of beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta), for instance, are little more than a cluster of fine red “hairs”, which are actually the flower’s pistils. Beaked hazelnuts are native to most of North…
Orache is a many-branched annual plant, common on coastal beaches, and along the upper edges of salt and brackish marshes. It can also be found in saline inland soils. Its weak stems produce a somewhat floppy, sprawling form. In my mind, however, this particular species of orache (Atriplex prostrata) is fairly confusing. It has numerous common names, including spearscale, hastate-leaved orache, triangle orache, spear-leaved orache, and many others, and it belongs to a fairly large genus, Atriplex, which contains between…
One of the easiest mushrooms to identify in our forests is the chicken-of-the-woods mushroom, also known as sulphur shelf, or more simply: chicken mushroom. Although they have similar names, chicken-of-the-woods and hen-of-the-woods are two entirely different mushrooms (although both are edible). Hen-of-the-woods was so named because someone thought the ruffled brown cluster of caps (usually growing at the base of a tree) resembled the fanned out tail feathers of a portly hen. Chicken-of-the-woods, on the other hand, was given its…
In my opinion, berry season is the best season. Scattered throughout the understory of forests and along field edges various kinds of berries, including blue berries, huckleberries, blackberries and black raspberries, are ripening. Wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius), also called wine raspberries, are another edible berry ripening at this time. Less common and less well known than our native berries, wineberries were introduced from Asia for their ornamental value and with the goal of creating hybrids with red raspberries and blackberries. Wineberries…
Beach plums (Prunus maritima) are best known for the fruits they produce in August/September, which are popular in jams and jellies, but they are most easily spotted this time of year, even from a distance, due to their showy displays of bright white flowers. The flowers bloom in May before the leaves emerge. Although these short, densely-branched beach plum shrubs appear rather scraggly-looking prior to leafing out, they will soon fill in with alternate, simple, approximately 2 inch long leaves…