Have you ever sat on a lawn and observed the variety of plants within? There is definitely a lot more than just grass and the sign of a toxic lawn is one that doesn’t contain anything but grass. This little cutey can be found in almost every yard, but is often overlooked. Meet All-Heal or […]
Dr. Jennifer Williamson, ND What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson This plant is Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum), which is considered an invasive species, which is one step up from just a weed. It was brought to America in the 1800s as an ornamental plant for
Dr. Jennifer Williamson, ND Yellow Dock or Curly Dock (Rumex crispus) is harvested for it’s roots or mucilaginous new leaves in its leaf sheath. I haven’t seen many of these on my walks and I’ll be sure to leave them, because harvesting a plant for its root obviously destroys it. Not that I’ve been harvesting
Dr. Jennifer Williamson, ND This plant is so common, even city-dwellers can find it. When I taught Herbal Studies at Daemen College in Buffalo, one of the homework assignments was to go out and find this and 4 other plants (Red Clover, All-Heal, Dandelion and Mallow). This is Broad leaf Plantain (Plantago major), but it’s
Dr. Jennifer Williamson, ND Yesterday I discussed my fears of the Apiaceae family, Sumac has been another of my fears. Anyone who has ever ventured out into the wilderness has heard of the agony inspiring triad of poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac. But, I’ve been researching my finds and am confident that this
Dr. Jennifer Williamson, ND I’m terrified of the Apiaceae family. Not bad enough to have nightmares or anything, but super-duper cautious to make sure I know the exact plant at which I’m looking. Sure, it includes regular foods like carrot, celery, dill and parsley. But, it also contains poison hemlock, wild/poison parsnip, and giant hogweed.
Dr. Jennifer Williamson, ND Now that I’m on a mission to find new herbs to photograph and describe, I feel surrounded! Everywhere I look is a new plant. This one I’ve seen before so I quickly jumped out of my car to take a picture of it sitting right next to our house. Lambs quarters
We pulled this one from our garden to make way for some veggies, but just because it was in a space we used for a different purpose doesn’t make it useless. This is Meadow Horsetail (Equisetum pratense). It has a very peculiar feel to the leaves due to its high content of Silica, a nutrient
Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) is a pretty obvious plant to spot. It’s fuzzy and can grow up to six feet tall. It is a member of the Scrophulariaceae family, whose root word, scrofula, means swollen neck glands. I can’t speak for all members of the family, but at least when it comes to mullein, it is
Dr. Jennifer Williamson, ND If I asked anyone who isn’t an herbalist or botanist to draw a clover, they would draw the plant in the center of this picture. But it isn’t a clover at all. It’s Wood Sorrel (Oxalis sticta), which isn’t even in the same family as clover. Oxalis is in the Oxalidaceae
