The 5th Video Field Guide to Wild Edibles and Medicinal Plants

hey guys this is josh here with trillium wild edibles and today i want to bring you all another video field guide on wild edible and medicinal plants in this guide we will be discussing seven different plants and one mushroom while this guide is more focused on identification we will discuss uses of some of these wild edibles so without further ado let's jump right into it one thing we're going to notice right off the bat is these very large globules of flowers that are going to be pink to red and your field guides are going to say pink to red but in my experience they're more of this purplish pink that we are seeing right here milkweed is an extremely distinct plant it's also a very beautiful plant this plant can be commonly found growing along the edges of fields like corn fields hay fields grassy areas plains and prairies and things like that if we take a step back we're going to notice these bright pink and red globes or globe shapes of flower clusters that are going to indicate common milkweed and as we can see here we're looking in the edge of a field this is actually the edge of a very small clearing that i have in my yard right behind it we have a swamp with some black willows and some other plants growing along the edge there's even some wild grapes things like that so this isn't always indicative of the type of environment but generally speaking you want to look in places where there are fields where there are clearings where there's prairie type environments and you're going to be finding a lot of milkweed you don't want to go real deep into the forest because your odds of finding it are going to decrease dramatically if we look at the growth form of common milkweed we're going to notice a couple of things one of the things we're going to notice about the growth form of common milkweed is how its leaves will grow on opposite sides of the stem just like we can see right here with these two leaves and the further that we go down the plant we're going to keep noticing this opposite leaf pattern all the way down the stem of common milkweed the leaves of common milkweed are very long they're very elliptical in shape almost an oval sort of shape but they're so long that they're going to be considered elliptical the margins or edges of the leaves are going to be smooth there are no teeth or lobes on these leaves in any way shape or form now these leaves have another very unique feature if we look very closely if we look at the underside of the leaves on common milkweed we're going to notice this very bright white prominent vein versus if we look at the top we're going to notice the vein isn't near as distinct but it is tinged with this reddish pinkish hue running all the way through the length of the middle of the leaf these leaves are very thick whenever you feel them in the hand they have this sort of downy bloom all the way across the surface of the leaf and this helps them to feel kind of like suede like if you had a piece of suede in between your fingers and you rub it or a really thick heavy piece of toilet paper and these leaves actually do make pretty good toilet paper because they're so large and they're very broad they cover the hand very well however there are some other unique features to this plant so let's look at this plant stem to see some of these other features if we look very closely at the stem of common milkweed we're going to notice that it's just round there are no reddish tinges along the stem but also we might notice this bloomy like fuzzy substance across the stem and this is on the leaves as well as the stem of common milkweed if we look at the flowers of common milkweed from the front we're going to notice five petals in a circular fashion that almost look like they're completely separated but they're not they're just all connected on these huge globules that make these circular pods that contain all of the various flowers and there can be hundreds of flowers on a milkweed plant because all these flowers can come out of the nodes of the leaf stem and then once we get towards the top of the milkweed plant we're going to notice even more of these little globules of flowers and they might become a little bit smaller the further we go up the plant but the leaves definitely become smaller the further towards the top you get on common milkweed and this look right here at the very top of this milkweed plant shows just how small these leaves can actually get once we get towards the top they will retain that very long elliptical shape with the smooth margins and they'll feel very bloomy or sort of kind of like suede in the hands even at the top all of the plant will feel this way except for the flower clusters they will feel basically just like a cluster of flowers within your hands now if we look back off over here we're going to see some more milkweed plants these plants are actually about one and a half feet taller than the one that we're looking at right now those guys are probably about five feet tall right now and i'm a good distance away and i'm leaning back so it doesn't really look the same on camera but they are about five feet tall the one that we were just looking at is about four feet tall so common milkweed can grow anywhere from four foot tall all the way up to about five and a half feet tall i've seen some a few inches taller and i've seen some a few inches shorter it just really depends on where they're growing that particular plant and things like that now this plant is in the room x family which means it's also related to curly dock and our domestic buckwheat if we look very closely here what we can see in the nodes of this plant are these seed clusters this is the very beginning of the seeds of broadleaf dock now broadleaf dock and curly dock both produce seeds like this and these seeds are technically edible however you do have to remove the shell of the seed which can be an extreme pain and it's also very time consuming but if we look very closely we can see how many seeds are actually around just this one node taking a further look back again we can see how many of these seed clusters rise up throughout these stocks and we're going to notice multiple stalks producing seeds and seed clusters at the very top of this plant this is one of the things that makes it very good for grain manufacturing to make your own flour and breads and things like that however you want to keep in mind to use about 15 to 20 percent of the total amount of flour of this flour in your recipe so let's take a closer look at this plant and learn how to identify it if we look very closely at these leaves we're going to notice how large they are these leaves are very broad hence it's named broadleaf dock but they're also very long these leaves are going to be growing in kind of an oval shape or kind of an egg shape as we can see here at the very tip we're going to notice the leaves are going to come to a point they're not rounded at the tip they're pointed the sides or margins of the leaves appear to be smooth from a distance but the main thing we can see from a distance is how they wave just a little bit if we look very closely at the margins or the sides of the leaves we're going to notice notice this very slightly rippled appearance that we can see right here and this is simply because of the waves along the sides we can also notice that these margins are smooth there are no teeth there are no lobes of any kind on the sides of these leaves if we look down here towards the base of the plant we're going to notice that the leaves are going to get much much larger that right there is my hand for a good comparison as far as the size is concerned of these leaves as we get towards the top of the plant we're going to notice the leaves becoming smaller with the margins being even more wavy and rippled just like we can see on this little leaf here you can see it's actually a lot smaller than even my index finger the leaf pattern on broad leaf dock is generally an alternating pattern however there can be multiple sets of leaves coming out of a node like right here for instance we can see this leaf petiole coming out right here of this node and we can also see these other stems coming out as well and each one of these stems will produce leaves and seed pods and as we go up those stems we're going to notice a leaf and another leaf and they're going to be alternating up the stem and if we look at this note here we can see what i'm talking about with this very large broad leaf coming out here and this other smaller leaf coming out of the exact same node with the stem coming out so this would be kind of like an opposite pattern but since they're coming out of the same node and the nodes will alternate curly dock is considered to have an alternating pattern with its leaves right there is a close-up view of what i'm talking about with this leaf and this leaf both coming out of the exact same node that this stem is and we can even see a small seed cluster starting to develop right here and whenever we're looking at each node it's important to pay attention to the base of the node where it connects to the main stem of the plant like we have here and we're going to notice this little sheath that covers the base of the leaf petiole or the leaf stem we're also going to notice a color difference we can see some green but we can also see this reddish purple tinging occurring right along this portion of the main stem and here along the base of the petiole going all the way up that petiole with these little bitty spots also from this angle if we look at the petiole we're going to notice this little distinct groove that runs the length of the petiole or the length of the leaf stem another thing that we're going to notice about these leaves is the vein that runs through them in the center is very distinct it also has a much lighter appearance than the rest of the leaf with this very distinct red purplish tinging running through it which will get darker once we get towards the base of the leaf right where it connects to the leaf stem however this plant does actually take on a couple of different growth forms especially in the early spring and mid spring before it really starts to shoot up its stems or its stocks so let's take a look at one of those now right now we are looking at the rosette the basal rosette of a broadleaf dock that grows in my yard this is a very common sight in lawns especially around where there's been domesticated animals like cows or pigs or horses now right away one of the first things that we're going to notice is the fact that there are a whole lot of leaves here and this is actually a couple of different plants but they're very tightly grouped together these leaves are much wider than anything else you're going to find in your yard most likely on close inspection of these early rosettes we're going to notice the margins of the leaves have a lot more of these waves to them just like we can see here on this leaf and this also gives some people the impression that these leaves are slightly toothed because they can also have instead of these large ripples they can also have these very much smaller waves and ripples along the margins that give this slightly toothed appearance however these leaves are not toothed they are smooth on the margins they just have various sets of waves along their margins giving this plant a couple of different growth forms and growth patterns to really keep an eye out for from a far back distance it's also easier to see all of these big basal rosettes growing in your yard as i'm sure you guys can tell how easily these actually stick out very easy to notice this plant and it's also extremely easy to identify this plant is edible in various ways from its leaves to its shoots to its seeds also from a distance if we look at the older version of broadleaf dock we can see how distinct its growth form and growth pattern is we can notice those very large wavy alternating leaves we can notice those distinct seed clusters at the very top and if we compare it to the other plants around we're going to notice how easily this plant sticks out plant that i have in my hand is garlic mustard or it's known as garlic mustard there are a couple other common names for this plant like sauce alone because it is very good at making sauces well alone or all by itself garlic mustard is an extremely easy plant to identify especially because it being in the mustard family it's also extremely safe to identify and there are no toxic look-alikes to my knowledge that exist anywhere in the world now i live in the eastern woodlands and this plant is considered a noxiously invasive weed so it's important to learn how to identify it this plant is in the mustard family and it has the characteristic flowers of a mustard plant except for the fact that they're white instead of yellow if we look really closely at these flowers we can see that they have four petals now this is characteristic of a lot of mustards because most mustards will have four flower petals however most mustards will have yellow flowers instead of white the leaves of garlic mustard can be very large they can also be highly variable meaning that there's going to be a lot of variations between the leaf shapes on the entire plant right now we are looking at one of the lower leaves of garlic mustard we can see that it has rounded like teeth running along the margins or the edge of the leaf on both sides and it will also come to a somewhat pointed tip you will also notice this very distinct cleft right here at the back of the plant where my index finger is going across this gives the plant what appears to be two lobes at the back of the leaf however it is not lobes it is just a simple feature of the leaves if we look at the underside of the leaves we're going to notice they are a little bit whiter in color versus the top of the leaf is dark green or bright green now remember those variations or those variables that i talked about let's look at one of the leaves on the top of the plant right here at the top of the plant we can see the leaf is actually a lot more pointed and so are the teeth running along the margins this is one of the variations of leaves you're going to find on garlic mustard are leaves that are rounded and leaves that are extremely pointed right now we're obviously at the top of the plant whoops sorry garlic mustard right now we are at the top of the plant and we can see how pointed the teeth on this leaf are and how pointed the tip of the leaf is right here by my pinky at the very top of the plant the leaves are going to become a lot more triangular just like we can see on this leaf right here as we get down to the base of the plant we're going to notice that the leaves become a lot more rounded and the cleft at the back of the petiole of the leaf stem becomes a lot more prominent however there are also two different stages of growth that you're going to find garlic mustard in one of those is the basil stage which is not in front of me right now the stage we have in front of us right now is this is the stem stage because it has this very long plant stem the closer we get to the ground on the plant of garlic mustard in its stem stage we're going to notice some of these earlier basil leaves at the beginning of this plant's growth there were a lot more of these rounded like leaves you can see how rounded this leaf is and we can also see how rounded the teeth running along the margins of this leaf are we can also notice how round this cleft at the back of the petiole is on the leaf this is a really good way to help identify your garlic mustard based upon some of the three variations of leaves so we have three different types of leaves on the garlic mustard plant the basil rounded leaves with rounded teeth running along the margins the slightly triangular leaves with a distinct round cleft at the back of the petiole and these very sharply pointed triangular shaped leaves at the very top of the plant there are no distinct features about the stem or really about the leaves except for what i've discussed already the leaves of garlic mustard are alternating all the way up the stem meaning that you're going to find a leaf stem or a petiole coming out of the main stem of the plant on alternating sides the further you go up the plant we can notice this here with this leaf right there this leaf here and that leaf there and they will continue to alternate all the way up the plant all the way to the very top some other distinct features of garlic mustard are in each leaf node the further we get up the plant and the nodes between the leaf stem and the main stem of garlic mustard we're going to notice some leaves coming out later in the year towards the late summer these leaves coming out of these nodes are actually going to produce stems and they're going to produce flowers that will eventually go on to produce seeds this is part of this plant's reproductive strategy and it's also part of what makes us plant such a noxious invasive weed now seeing how this plant is called garlic mustard its name can also be a little bit confusing for some who try it for the very first time because there are some distinct things that i've noticed about garlic mustard's flavor it doesn't taste like normal mustard greens and it also doesn't always taste highly of garlic however it does have some very faint tastes and odors of garlic and of mustard but there's another flavor in there as well and that flavor is bitterness now i've noticed the bitterness on garlic mustard can vary from very very bitter or it can be extremely garlicky or it can also be extremely mustard-like some plants that i've tried have an extreme garlic flavor or taste and some of them do not some of them are extremely bitter there are some distinct characteristics to look for not within the plant itself but within the environment you find the garlic mustard in to determine how bitter it will probably be so let's take a look at some of those features in nature that might cause this plant to be more bitter than other plants the thing i've noticed about garlic mustard is the more moist the area is like right now we're looking at the forest floor of a maple in sycamore forest so there is a lot of moisture here we can see all these little bitty leaves of canadian sanicle just starting to grow we can even see some violets right there and some violet flowers back over here this is an indicator of high moisture content within the soil the higher the moisture content within the soil in my experience the less bitter garlic mustard will tend to be now it's still going to be bitter however i found that in oak forests and in pine forest the garlic mustard is extremely bitter your mileage may vary but it is important to pay attention to the moisture content of the soil that you are gathering your garlic mustard from garlic mustard is an extremely delicious and extremely popular wild edible plant it's also one of the most nutritious greens that have ever been analyzed according to its nutrients that it has inside it has a lot more nutrients than our domestic spinach chard kale and things of that nature so if you're really looking for a highly nutritious plant that also even has protein inside of it this is a really good one to look for remember earlier whenever i said that garlic mustard is also a noxiously invasive weed this plant is very well known to cause extirpation or loss of habitat to a lot of native wildflowers and within a few years it can completely take over a forest environment especially if left unchecked or left alone to reproduce each garlic mustard plant can produce anywhere from twenty thousand to seventy thousand seeds so you can see how easy it would be for this plant to spread the seeds are extremely small and to my knowledge they cannot be used like our domestic mustard seeds to make a condiment however the rest of this plant works very well whenever you boil it whenever you eat it raw or whenever you make sauce or condiments or pestos out of the leaves and the flower buds and the flowering tops the shoots of garlic mustard are also extremely delicious whenever they're boiled so i've already done a video on how to harvest and prepare your garlic mustard shoots which is usually the top four to seven inches of the stem whenever it's in its flowering phase i apologize for the wind here it has been extremely windy the past several days and quite frankly i want it to end but as we can see the top of the shoot right here is all very tender and also very delicious if boiled garlic mustard is a plant that i usually eat raw though at times i will definitely boil the leaves or generally in my preference i like to actually steam them instead of boiling them in a lot of water however my favorite way to consume garlic mustard is raw in salads on sandwiches and also very lightly cooked inside of omelets and quiches in quesadillas even it goes amazing with pretty much everything that i've had it in right here on the ground in front of us we can see a lot of these young very early leaves or basil leaves of garlic mustard as we look around the base of this tree we can see a whole lot of them this is one of the ways that garlic mustard will spread over many years and take over an entire area if we look very closely at these leaves we can see they're very rounded and some of them are very very pointed this is one of the first stages of garlic mustard in its very first year of growth there are usually two years of growth on a garlic mustard plant this stage that we have right here and the stage that we looked at previously which is the second year of growth since garlic mustard produces a whole lot of seeds and every seed normally grows it's best to find the garlic mustard before it goes to seed so you don't find a whole lot of these little guys in the areas that you like to forage in because if you do leave the garlic mustard there you are going to lose all of your native wild flowers so it's extremely important to find this plant to identify it know what it is and cull it or remove it from the environment plus the good thing about harvesting so much garlic mustard is you're never going to run out of a supply trelli is an extremely easy plant to identify as we walk through the woods especially moist woods in the early spring one thing we're going to notice is these lanceolate or ovate shaped leaves coming up through the soil these leaves are going to have a bunch of purple spots or what's known as mottled spots growing up along the leaf this happens because the trout lily is really good at concentrating phosphorus within its leaves which is what causes those purple or brownish spots the edges or the margins of the leaf are going to be smooth there's not going to be any teeth there's not going to be any lobes they're very simple they're ovate or lancialate in shape very easy to identify by the leaves however there are various species of trout lily if we take a closer look at the trout lily leaf especially at the underside if we look at the underside of the leaves we're not going to notice any spots this is very common on the yellow flowered variety or erythronium americanum however if we look at the front side we're going to notice all of these little mottled spots all these little reddish brown spots on the top side of the leaf if we flip it over we notice no spots on the underside of the leaf this is how we can tell the difference between the yellow flowered variety and the white flowered variety of trout lily or erythronium we can notice whenever we look at these leaves that they're very long they're very elongated they're also simple these are a basal plant meaning that the leaves are on the base of the plant itself they're not growing up along a stalk of any kind they're right up on the ground so as you're walking through the woods in early spring pay attention because you're going to see a whole lot of these leaves growing up out of the ground a really good example of that is if we look right here in front of us we can see these singular basal leaves coming up out of the ground we also see some of the early leaves of sanikal right on the tip of my finger and we also see some spring beauties coming up there we can see a spring beauty flower right there this is very indicative of the habitat or environment that trout lily and spring beauty and tooth wart and sanical really love to grow they really really love moist woodlands so when you're in a moist woodland environment make sure you keep your eyes open for these leaves however you might be wondering what do the flowers of these plants look like well let's take a look at the flower of the trout lily now from a distance we can see these very nodding shape or these bell-shaped flowers they're also yellow in color because this is erythronium americanum there are several other species of trout lily there are about 15 species across the united states to my knowledge however the one that i most normally find is the yellow flowered variety they're all perfectly edible there is nothing wrong with any one of these species however the glacier lily which is to my knowledge a white flowered variety also has the largest bulbs and that's the part you want to use for food but you can't use it for food if you don't know how to identify it so let's take a closer look at this plant in front of us and see what it looks like as we look a little bit closer here we can actually see that there are two different trout lilies growing right here along the base of this tree we can note the knotting shape of these flowers how they're shaped about like that they're generally drooping and the reason that these petals aren't fully opened because what happens in the sun is these petals will open up and they will curl backwards in the sun however in the shade they have a more bell-like shape to them these flowers are very characteristic of a lot of various lily species except for the fact that these generally grow in the woods instead of in your garden like a lot of other ornamental varieties of lily if we look at the leaves of the plant that's flowering we're going to notice how long they generally are by the time the plant or trout lily comes to flower we're going to notice its leaves being about six to seven inches in length and about one and a half inches in width this is very indicative of this species and usually in the early season like the plants we saw a second ago they're going to be very very small once the plant starts to flower it's going to gain leaves that are very very large like i said earlier this plant really loves moist environments it really loves moist habitats one thing that i've noticed is that south facing hillsides usually have the earliest blooming plants as far as trout lilies and spring beauties and they also bloom the earliest mushrooms or morels south facing hillsides because they get more sun in the day coming from this direction right now we're looking west this hillside slopes off to the south so it receives a lot of run and drain off or a lot of drainage and runoff coming through down this direction after it rains this provides a lot of moisture for the trout lilies to bloom a lot earlier than the ones that might be further up the hill that direction this trout lily in front of us is a prime example of that because the water is coming down this hill towards the south the sun is coming in generally from the south this direction and all this water and moisture is collecting right here on the base of this tree allowing these trout lilies to flower a lot earlier than the other trout lilies within the area so this is an extremely easy plant to identify especially if you get out early in the spring because if you want to get out early in the spring you want to find the places that you're going to see all of these loving plants main reason because those are the ones that are edible the earliest time of the year however if we look off to the left side of us further towards the south we're going to notice all of these little bitty shoots coming up these are the shoots of solomon seal this is one of the many species of solomon seal and this is a habitat plant that is common as a companion with trout lilies tooth thwarts spring beauties salomon seals jack and the pulpits and other moisture loving species of wild edibles that you can find in the spring the shoots of this plant are edible as are the roots however i have not tried the shoots at all in my experience so i do not know how those taste but it is another plant to keep in mind and it is a companion plant to the trout lily that we can see right here in front of us and i want to do a quick little video for all of you guys just to let you know that this plant is not wild strawberry i repeat this is not the wild strawberry this is actually what's known as snakeberry or as i like to call it bainberry i call it bainberry because it is the bane of a lawn because it spreads so rapidly it'll actually spread by creeping rootstocks and it'll slowly colonize an entire area and it can be a real pain for those trying to grow crops if you don't remove all of those roots however it is edible that's completely safe to eat it just doesn't really have any flavor it tastes basically just like water very flavorless very little sugar or sweetness to it at all and definitely not that distinct strawberry flavor that you would expect from a wild strawberry it will have the stereotypical what looks to be wild strawberry berries instead of the seeds being on the inside or pitted they are actually on the outside like we can see here with this rough globule sort of texture as we look at some of the leaves of this plant we're going to notice they have three sets so there are three sets of little leaflets on each one of the leaves and they're also toothed or serrated teeth going down the margins of each one of the leaflets and this is part of the reason why a lot of people confuse them with wild strawberries except for also the fact of these delectable looking little berries children love to eat these and that's a-okay they're completely safe to eat there's nothing wrong with eating them they're not poisonous in any way whenever we look at the flower of snakeberry we're going to notice that it's yellow instead of white if it was a true wild strawberry the flower would be white and not yellow so this is just a quick little heads up to let you guys know whoops so this is just a quick little heads up to let all of you guys know that this is not wild strawberry but it is safe to eat and it's not poisonous this plant has an extremely distinct flower as you can notice here it's in the shape of an umbell with white flowers now you might be asking yourself what exactly is an umbel an umbel is like an upside down umbrella right here it gives you guys a really good idea of what it looks like whenever you turn it at a silhouette angle you can see that it is somewhat like an upside down umbrella which is why it's called an umbell of flowers the plant that we're looking at today is extremely large and has about five or six different flower heads on it now the flowers of queen anne's lace or wild carrot are rather unique not only in their shape but in the fact that they usually will have a purple floret in the center now whenever we look very closely at this cluster of white flowers you might notice that there are five petals i apologize for being this being out of focus a little bit this is just very very hard to show this in detail but right here on this flower you guys may be able to notice the one two three petals and then the two very small ones right there at the bottom i apologize for the shakiness here this is just really hard because of these things size there you can see my index finger so it gives you an idea of how small these flowers of each one of these individual flowers can actually be here's another really good view of what an umbell of flowers would look like and you can see all of these different branches that each has a cluster of white flowers now another thing that you might notice is the flower bracks underneath the flower just like you can see these are very unique in shape and they're very sharply divided these flower bracks will go all the way around at the base or the node where the flower joins the very top of the stem and you will notice this on every flower cluster and then if we look here from this angle you guys can see more of those bracks right back in here now another interesting thing to note remember how i said sometimes you'll see a purple flower or floret in the center you won't always find that note that there isn't one on this umbel right here in my hand and there also isn't a purple flower in the center of this huge white umbel either and these are all on the exact same plant but if we look on this one we can see that purple floret right there in the center it looks like a black speck but that is the purple flower that is distinctive of queen anne's lace okay so now that we've taken a look at the flowers of queen anne's lace or docus carota let's go ahead and take a look at its very unique leaves now seeing how this plant is a carrot it is a wild carrot its leaves look just like domestic carrot leaves and that's one of the really nice things about this plant is that it's kind of hard to mistake for something else now it does have a toxic look alike and that is poison hemlock now last year i actually did a video on a comparison between queen anne's lace yarrow and poison hemlock so if you're interested i'll put a link in the description down below so that way you guys can check that out now the leaves of queen anne's lace or wild carrot are in a pin 8 compound shape meaning that they're very sharply divided and sometimes it's going to look like multiple leaves when it's actually one whole leaf because the leaf is divided into these compound structures now you may notice on this leaf here in front of us how these individual leaflets are very spaced out whereas on some other leaves like on this leaf right here you can see that the leaflets are a lot more close together so there is going to be some variation within these leaves now another thing that we might notice if we look really close is that each one of these at the tip right here comes to a very sharp point and there are actually small teeth on the ends of these pin eight compound leaflets now if we look at the leaf stem that holds the leaves we are going to notice these little hairs running down its length another thing that you're going to notice on the leaves of queen anne's lace or docus carota is on the very top of the leaf stem you're going to see this very distinct groove running all the way down okay so now that we've taken a look at the leaves and the flowers let's take a quick look at the stem of queen anne's lace now just like you can see here the stem is round there's really no discerning features except for the hairs that you can see right here running all up and down the length of the stem and every stem on this plant will have these hairs the leaf stems and the main stems so that's something important to keep in mind because poison hemlock does not have these hairs or these fuzz they feel like bristles they feel like bristles on like a really small brush they're kind of stiff but they're also kind of soft at the same time they don't prick they don't make any stings or itching sensations at least not within me it's a very easy plant to identify it also smells like carrot most of the entire plant has a faint but very pleasant carrot smell with kind of a sweetness to it it's really really nice whenever you smell this plant it's one of the things that can help you to identify it as queen anne's lace however that's not something you'd want to try if you think that you might have a hemlock instead of a queen anne's lace now you guys might be wondering where all does queen anne's lace grow and how tall does it grow this plant can grow up to about six and a half even seven feet tall in some rare cases usually though you're going to find it about this tall which this is about five and a half feet tall right now queen anne's lace is a field loving plant so it usually grows on the edges of clearings like you can see here on the edge of this wood lot on my property you can also find it in very large fields you can find it on the edges of corn and bean fields you can even find it growing in your lawn i have quite a bit of it trying to grow in my lawn for a good example now back over there those white flowers those huge white bouquet or umbels of flower clusters is some more queen anne's lace so that gives you guys a kind of an idea that it can grow on the edges of wood lots it's a very sun loving plant but it also tolerates the shade rather well so that's kind of a good thing now this plant is an edible plant and it's also a medicinal plant i'm not too sure of its medicinal uses though so i won't talk about that today however i will discuss its edibility for just a split second the young stalks before the plant has flowered like you see here are actually edible raw after you peel off the skin i don't have any at that stage yet but it is something to keep in mind that not only the root of this plant is edible but also the young shoots some people have told me that they can't eat the flowers of this plant but i have never tried that myself so i can't say whether they taste any good however whenever you come to dig up the root of this plant which you should be doing in the fall you're going to notice that the root is white and it has a very faint but sweet and pleasant carrot odor to it you want to dig up the root in the fall because during this time of the year all the plants nutrients are up in the plant and in the fall it will send all those down to the root it's a very easy plant to dig up however the roots are extremely tiny and can be kind of woody so they're better for flavoring than really eating as like a carrot substitute now right here in front of us this very small delicate plant that you see is wood sorrel this is known as yellow wood sorrel and there are several various species of wood sorrel that exist within the united states yellow wood soil is going to be common within your lawn or around gardens also around the edges of wood lines in parks or in your yard or anywhere else for that matter now granted this plant is called wood sorrel it's not actually related to sheep sorrel so that's something to keep in mind that these are two completely different plants and they shouldn't be confused another thing that some people might confuse these with is clovers they might think they're a species of clover because of the way that they look however these are nowhere near related to clovers this is actually an oxalis species and it's named oxalis because of the oxalic acid that this plant has now there are a couple good things and bad things about oxalic acid another thing to keep in mind with oxalic acid is it can inhibit the absorption of calcium by the body however that's not a concern for most people now yellow wood soil is generally a very small plant this is an extremely small specimen here but it has a great flower that i can show you guys wood soil will grow anywhere from one to two inches all the way up to six to twelve inches that i've seen in some cases it can get quite large and you can get a lot of leaves from one plant okay now let's take a closer look at some of the leaves of wood sorrel as you can see there are three leaflets per leaf each one of them has a very distinct cleft or a heart-like shape just like you can see here on all of these leaves yellow wood sorrel will usually grow from a single stalk and its branches will usually alternate up the stem until you get closer towards the top where you're generally going to notice a very large cluster just like this here another interesting thing to note on this wood sorrel for example is what's left of the yellow flower as it's closing up and then this pod or the fruit which contains the seeds of wood sorrel these pods will come after the flowers and they'll come from the axles from where the flowers were now there isn't anything that's terribly distinct about these leaves except for their heart shape and their unique cleft and the fact that they slightly resemble clover now right here is a really good side by side comparison of a white clover leaf versus a wood sorrel leaf here in my left hand is the white clover leaf and here in the right hand is the yellow wood sorrel that we are discussing today another unique difference between white clover and yellow wood sorrel is not only their flower colors whereas white clover has a white flower yellow wood soil obviously has a yellow flower but white clover grows in very low colonies on the ground and it forms like mats whereas yellow wood sorrel grows in singular plants they don't grow in matte form they grow up and form these small stalks just like this plant here now you can see just after a few minutes of me picking this plant for demonstration you can see its leaves are already wilting and starting to fold this is another thing about wood sorrel as soon as you pick it within about five to ten minutes its leaves are going to start closing up on you that's nothing to be afraid of that's nothing to be concerned about it's perfectly natural it's just how this plant works okay so now that we've taken a little bit of a look at the main plant of wood sorrel let's go back and discuss the plants flowers now if you look really closely at the flowers of yellow wood sorrel we're going to notice five petals and violet wood soil has the same feature it has five petals as well however its flowers are purple or violet if we look really closely here at the node where this flower started you can actually see two of these small pods starting to form right here the shape of the flower is kind of like a trumpet or a horn shape if you look at it in a silhouette just like this to my knowledge yellow wood sorrel doesn't have any toxic lookalikes so that is a good thing however it might be different if you live in a country besides the united states i know here in the eastern woodlands of the united states we don't have any toxic lookalikes to this plant so this is a very very easy and safe plant to teach your children about and it's also safe to teach anybody who's new to the subject now some of you guys may be wondering what exactly you can do with this plant as far as food it is very common in wild food literature however let's discuss it really briefly you can take the leaves the stems the flowers and the pods and you can boil them in water for five to ten minutes and make a really acceptable beverage it's really good this plant has a citrusy sort of lemony flavor with a little tartness to it it's absolutely delicious you can eat these leaves raw in salads or burgers or wraps or sandwiches you can cook them up and you can add them to soups and stews for a kind of a lemony flavor that you want maybe like a chicken soup or add them to some wood nettle soup would be extremely delicious you can also take the tea that you would make from boiling this plant and you can make it into syrup or even jelly it does make a delicious lemony flavor jelly that goes great on buttered toast and the syrup is awesome with pancakes or over top of ice cream you can also make a very very nice ice cream topping by thickening that a little bit and adding some extra sweetener so i hope that gives you guys a good idea on how to identify yellow wood sorrel and gives you a little bit of an idea as to what to do with it if you're interested in learning how to make wood sorrel syrup i'll put a link in the description down below for you guys to check out my video on making wood sorrel syrup it's called sulfur shelf because it grows in a very shelf-like pattern just like we can see here it's also called sulfur shelf because of a yellow stain or a yellow coloration that it will have on the underside of the mushroom this is a poly pore species of mushrooms and another interesting thing to note is there are some poisonous look-alikes like the jack-o-lantern is a really good example however the jack-o-lantern is not a poly pore mushroom you may be asking yourself what does poly pore actually mean well let's take a look at the underside of this mushroom and we'll find out if we look very closely at the underside of this mushroom we're going to notice that it's yellow in color which like i said earlier this is where it gets its name sulfur shelf the shelf-like pattern and the sulfur-like color of the underside of the mushroom it is a polypore species which means it has pores instead of gills these pores are extremely closed right now they're very tightly closed right now which means that this mushroom is really fresh and it hasn't sport out what that means as far as edibility is that this mushroom is in prime condition for eating this is an awesome find and this is a whole lot of chicken of the woods mushroom if you look at the underside you might notice what looks like little bitty pores or holes on the underside that is what makes it a polypore mushroom so this makes it very easy to differentiate between a chicken of the woods mushroom and a jack-o-lantern mushroom or a big laughing gem there are a couple different species of sulfur shelf some of the ones that you might find earlier in the summer like from june to july are going to have a white underside instead of a yellow underside like this one in front of us it's almost a very tail end of august and this is a really good time of year to find the sulfur shelf mushroom especially depending on the temperatures it usually loves temperatures that get down to about 65 degrees in the middle of night and all the way up to about 70 or 80 in the middle of the day this mushroom will generally grow on hard woods i always find it on rotten oak logs or fallen oak logs and i'm right past the edge of the oak forest on my property so this tells me that this log it's growing on is probably an oak another thing that we're going to notice about the chicken of the woods mushroom is that on the edges you're going to see these yellowish bands coming from the outside edge radiating towards the inside edge of the mushroom now this gives us a really good example of how you've got this bright yellow edge and then you're going to see these white striations following the edge of the mushroom it's going to have this sort of rippled appearance as we can see here this like fringe like sort of appearance how it waves up and down on the very edge of the mushroom or on the very edge of the mushroom shelf this mushroom is a very very large producer it generally can produce mushrooms weighing of up to 25 pounds this is also a very extremely meaty mushroom if we take a look at this one piece that was broken off we can see just how big and thick this mushroom is this mushroom is notorious for not shrinking whenever you cook it it also develops its name chicken of the woods because of its taste and because of its flavor another reason it has that name is if we peel apart towards the inside we're going to notice this very white meat that has these long streaks going down these grains of mushroom flesh running down that makes it look very similar to chicken breast now another awesome thing about that is it also tastes just like chicken it truly truly does this is an amazing find and i'm extremely happy to find this as a matter of fact i'm going to be harvesting this one tonight and i'm going to be cooking it up essentially when it comes to cooking you would cook it like you would any other mushroom just lightly saute it in butter for about 10 to 15 minutes and you're generally going to be done you can add this to pastas of all kinds you can also add this to casserole dishes because of its very meaty flavor in europe this mushroom is generally used as a replacement for chicken because of its flavor and it's very hearty texture so that concludes our fifth video field guide to wild edibles and medicinal plants and we also covered a mushroom i hope all of you guys enjoyed this video and i hope you guys learned something if you want to learn more about wild edibles or medicinal plants or even mushrooms please

Channel: Trillium: Wild Edibles

Views: 30,025

Keywords: video field guide to wild edibles, field guide for wild plants, wild plant identification guide, how to identify wild edibles and medicinal plants, wild carrot, sulphur shelf, trout lilly, garlic mustard, trillium wild edibles, wild edibles, foraging, plant identification

Id: Q2SLBZGdrGg

Length: 50min 55sec (3055 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 10 2021