I visited Swatling Falls Nature Trails in the Town of Halfmoon yesterday and as I was walking along enjoying the sunshine, this striking plant silhouette caught my eye –
In that instant, this pop quiz was inspired. Scroll down through the images and see how you fare in identifying these several dozen plants displaying their sunlit silhouettes!
Of those shown above, the perennial plants are about to enter their winter slumber. Many of the same traits depicted above will remain visible into (and often through) winter. So, I hope you’ll join me in late February for a winter plant ID walk at Anchor Diamond Park at Hawkwood! Watch the Events page for details later next month.
In recognition of National Pickle Day, I wanted to invite you to enjoy your favorite pickle today, but also to encourage you to plan to celebrate next National Pickle Day by serving your own foraged, homemade pickles to your family and friends. How? Read on!
What follows is a pickling calendar for foraged wild edibles along with information about where to find the referenced targeted species and how to forage them, plus a bevy of recipes on how to prepare a variety of “not-your-store-bought pickles” to be enjoyed next year at this time.
Pickling Calendar:
Need-to-Know Information regarding the Targeted Plants:
Common Blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis) = ripened fruit and young stems
Canes are green where there is new growth at the tips, otherwise they are brown or reddish brown and have visible ridges and stout thorns
Alternate leaves are usually trifoliate or palmately compound with long petioles
Collect young shoots and stems while any thorns are still completely soft to the touch; shoots should snap off crisply – View how to harvest the young shoots.
Berries are ready for picking when they are dark black in color and look quite plump – View Foraging for Wild Edibles: Blackberries for info about foraging for ripened fruit.
Blue Ridge Blueberry (Vaccinium pallidum), Early Low Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium), and Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) = ripened fruit; Fully ripened when dark blue or blue-black in color; excellent source of dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, manganese and other trace minerals, iron, and a number of antioxidants (antioxidants are highly concentrated in the deep-blue pigments of wild blueberries)
View a short video about how to harvest burdock root.
Common Burdock:
Where found: Waste places, disturbed ground, fields, and roadsides
Grows up to 6 feet tall with multiple branches
Lower leaves are heart-shaped with very wavy margins; all leaves dark green above and woolly below
Deep taproot, up to 12 inches deep
Great Burdock:
Where found: Waste places, disturbed ground, fields, and roadsides
Grows up to 10 feet tall with multiple branches
Large, wavy-edged leaves that are hairy underneath
Extremely deep taproot, up to 3 feet deep
Common Cattail (Typha latifolia) and Narrow-leaved Cattail (Typha angustifolia) = shoots; Best collected when two to four feet tall – cut them off at or just below the water level and peel back the two main outer leaves, then grab the other inner leaves and pull gently to remove the tender pure white center section (usually first 4-10”); Cattails are nutrient-rich, containing beta carotene, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin K, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and potassium, and they are also a very good source of dietary fiber
CAUTION:Do not collect shoots of Iris (Iris pseudacorus or Iris versicolor) and Sweetflag (Acorus calamus) – both are poisonous! NOTE: Individual leaves of Iris are flat as they fan out from a central point and individual leaves of a single Sweetflag plant emerge from different points off its rootstock, whereas Cattail leaves emerge from a single cylindrical sheath.
Where Found: Edges of streams, floodplain forests, alluvial thickets, and old home sites
Basal leaves are linear with parallel venation, tapering gradually to a sword-like point; they have a tendency to bend down and outward around the middle, and are somewhat floppy in appearance
One or more stout leafless flowering stalks emerge from center of leaves and are usually much taller than the leaves; each stalk has 10-20 flowers with individual flowers opening successively and each lasting only one day
Where Found: Moist rich woodlands; Low woodland borders, swamps or soggy thickets
Fiddleheads emerge in clusters
Stem is smooth (no “wool”) and bright green with a deep groove inside
Feathery-brown, paper-like material covers the sides of each “fiddlehead” coil
Will remain tightly coiled until they reach a height of about 4-6”
Field Garlic (Allium vineale) and Wild Garlic (Allium canadense) = unopened flower buds of both species and bulbs only from Field Garlic (since it is an invasive species); All parts of Field Garlic have a strong garlic odor, whereas all parts of Wild Garlic have a strong onion odor and taste
Where Found: Thickets, forest edges, and young forests or forests with a history of disturbance
Widely spaced alternate leaves are 4-8″ long and a little less across, usually have 3 palmate lobes that are broad and shallow
Upper leaf surface is dull green and hairless, while lower surface is brownish white from woolly hairs
Presence of forked tendrils emerge on nearly every node along the vine
Riverbank Grape:
Where Found: Hardwood forests, forest edges and openings, thickets, disturbed sites, and rocky open slopes
Alternate leaves up to 6″ long and 4″ across, palmately lobed usually with sinuses between the major lobes being broad and shallow
Lower leaf surface is pale green with white hairs along the major veins; upper leaf surface is dark green and smooth
Presence of tendrils emerge on opposite from leaves, except every third one, along the vine
Summer Grape:
Where Found: Hardwood forests, forest edges and openings, thickets, and disturbed sites
Leaves usually a little broader than long and variable in shape, from unlobed to deeply three- or five-lobed
Upper leaf surface is dull medium green and hairless to slightly hairy, while the lower leaf surface is pale green and moderately covered with white to light brown woolly hairs
Presence of branched tendrils emerge on nodes except for every third leaf along the vine
Where Found: Forests and their edges with southern exposure, dry thickets, and roadsides
Stems are slender, green, hairless – young shoots usually round and thornless, whereas older stems usually 4-angled with stout, flattened prickles up to ½″ long that are green with a black tip
Pair of tendrils at the base of many of the leaf stalks
Jerusalem Artichoke (AKA Sunchokes) (Helianthus tuberosus) = root; Unlike most root vegetables, these tubers consist mainly of inulin (7 to 30% by weight) instead of starch and sucrose – Inulin is converted to fructose when pickled; Sunchokes also have a number of vitamins and minerals including niacine, thiamine, vitamin B6, and vitamin C
Where Found: Roadside ditches, stream banks, and wet fields
Dig the roots with a digging fork, shovel or hori hori knife; be sure to go deep, as you may find tubers as much as a foot or so down in the dirt – View Jerusalem Artichoke Harvest (beginning @ 3:30) for info on how to dig up the roots.
After harvest, Jerusalem Artichokes may be kept in a paper bag in your fridge’s crisper drawer for a week or two
After cutting or peeling, the tuber flesh will darken, so pickle them as soon as possible.
Japanese Knotweed (Reynoutria japonica) = young shoots (without leaves) up to 6” tall; Excellent source of vitamins A and C, iodine, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, manganese, and resveratrol (same substance as that found in the skin of red grapes and which is part of a group of compounds called polyphenols that are thought to help reduce inflammation, lower LDL or “bad” cholesterol)
Hollow stems with distinct raised nodes that make it resemble bamboo
Shoots may be harvested up to 12” tall, but must remove fibrous outer shell before cooking or eating – View How to Harvest and Eat Japanese Knotweed (beginning @ 0:34) for info about foraging.
Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago) = ripened fruit; Fruit are high in fiber and contain various substances and micro-nutrients, such as: alkaloids, alkaline salts, proteins and flavonoids (powerful antioxidants with anti-inflammatory and immune system benefits)
Where Found: Swamps, marshes, roadside ditches, and wet successional fields
Multi-stemmed shrub generally 9-18’ tall with ascending branches that have a tendency to arch
Pairs of opposite leaves serrated along their margins; leaf bases rounded to broadly wedge-shaped, while leaf tips taper abruptly, becoming long and slender
Mature drupes ovoid in shape, dark blue-violet color, and each containing single flattened ovoid seed; fleshy interior somewhat juicy and sweet, tasting like a date – View Foraging for Wild Edibles: Nannyberry for info about foraging.
Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) = stems and leaves; Contains rich amounts of the daily value of vitamin E (81%) and vitamin C (25%)
Where Found: Fields, pastures, roadsides, gardens, vacant lots, disturbed areas, and waste places
Grows 1-4′ tall, branching very little except near the top where the flowerheads occur, and whose central stem is hairless and dull green but sometimes tinted with reddish purple
Alternate leaves up to 8″ long and 2¼” across, becoming smaller and more sparsely distributed as they ascend the central stem
Each leaf has hairless dull green upper surface and reddish purple tinted base with a pair of pointed basal lobes that extend beyond the stem
Field Sow Thistle:
Where Found: Roadsides, cultivated ground, disturbed areas, and waste places
Grows 2-4′ tall, branching occasionally in the upper half and whose central stem is hairless and dull green
Alternate leaves are up to 12″ long and 3½” across, becoming smaller as they ascend the stems; most leaves are located in the lower half of the plant
Each leaf has 2-5 lobes with pointed tips on each side, upper surface is smooth, and base of each leaf has pair of small basal lobes (usually small and well-rounded) that clasp the stem
Spiny-leaved Sow Thistle:
Where Found: Roadsides and waste places
Grows 1-3′ tall, branching sparingly in the upper half and whose central stem is dull green or reddish green, round, and smooth
Alternate leaves are up to 10″ long and 3½” across, but more commonly about half this size or less
Each leaf may be divided into smaller leaflets, or it may lack significant lobes along the margins, which are conspicuously prickly; base of each leaf is auriculate with a pair of large rounded basal lobes that strongly clasp the stem
Where Found: Pastures, successional fields, hayfields, thickets, and disturbed areas
From rosette of basal leaves (up to 12” long) in the first year, a flowering stem grows 3 – 4.5 feet tall in the second year
Stem is winged, with numerous longitudinal spine-tipped wings along its full length
Canada Thistle:
Where Found: Pastures, successional fields, hayfields, cultivated ground, thickets, and disturbed areas, often creating somewhat dense clonal patches
Grows 1-3′ tall, branching occasionally in the upper half
Light green stem is slightly ridged
Field Thistle:
Where Found: Most common in disturbed areas, but found in woodland openings, moist meadows near rivers, pastures, abandoned fields, open areas along railroads and roadsides, and waste areas
Low rosette of spiny basal leaves up to 1′ across in the first year
Usually only one stem that grows 2 to 7 feet tall in the second year
Swamp Thistle:
Where Found: Wetland plant mostly of native habitats and often thinly scattered throughout
From a rosette of basal leaves (normally 6” long and 3” across) during the first year, a flowering stem grows 2 – 7 feet tall in the second year
Central stem is light green and longitudinally furrowed
The calendar insists that its early November. Saturday’s thermometer was reading something from June. Given the partly sunny skies, I decided to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather and take an extended hike at 100 Acre Wood in the Town of Malta. Thought this would be a good opportunity to get one last closeup look at the fall colors displayed by forbs.
While strolling along the first trail segment, it became clear that I would likely find a good sample of species. So, I was inspired to give you a quiz! For each photo, determine the plant that is exhibiting the fall colors in the image. There is a hint for each; it reveals what that species of plant would have looked like earlier this year when it was in bloom.
Curious By Nature 
