Just what IS a weed?
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- Sonni
- LadyB
- spinlily
- LadyB
- Sonni
- LadyB
- Sonni
- Sonni
- Cottage_Garden
- LadyB
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» Sonni - Identified
Well, first let me say that I do not put things that grow wild in my mouth... unless someone has shown me that it is really what it's supposed to be.The lovely vine I was growing was Bittersweet Nightshade... the berries would have been red, but I never saw them in that stage... Deadly Nightshade, Belladona, does not have the lobed leaves, and has the purple berries.
Each one is poisonous and Belladona can put someone into a coma or a quick death -- although it is also used as medicine. (I know it was also used as a recreational drug -- but that's another story.)
I have ripped the vines out - but not the roots yet - that comes during the daylight. I didn't want my cat going near it.
The wild celery, according to my MAGIC AND MEDICINE OF PLANTS book by Readers Digest, (also called Marsh Parsley, Smallage, and officially: Apium Graveolens L.)is tough and inedible. It is an herb that herbalists used medicinally. Evidentally, it is believed that in the 17th century, Italian gardeners developed this into the familiar celery grown for soups and salads, and also Celeric, that large root that has the celery taste used in soups and stews.
I think I will lay off collecting weeds for a while. I know some of them, but not all - and somewhere in back of my mind I did have a feeling that the vine was a poison berry... but I hadn't fully consciously realized it was Nightshade.
Good night! 
-- posted by Sonni
» LadyB - That 'back of the mind' feeling is often quite valid.
When I apprenticed with Susun Weed, one of our MANY lessons was how to meet a plant one had never met before.First step was to just kind of 'be there' with it for awhile. IF that felt OK, then we'd touch it and smell the leaf to see if we still felt it was OK. Only then might we nibble the tiniest bit of the edge of a leaf with only our front teeth. She explained that if this were a serious poison, the most primitive part of our brain would CAUSE us to spit it out before we ever gave it a thought. This is not to say no one has ever eaten a poisonous plant!
Upon nibbling with the front teeth, if it was very bitter and STAYED bitter, it was a medicine/poison, meant to be used very carefully. If it started out bitter but grew less so with chewing, it was probably a tonic (like Motherwort) and would be helpful in many small doses.
If it basically tasted sweet, it was probably food. We actually spent a good deal of time re-learning our 'taste response'. She'd give us something and we'd be saying bitter/sour when in fact it was bitter/salty. Just goes to show that we don't pay a whole lot of attention these day to taste.
But always there was the admonition to take that feeling in the back of your mind SERIOUSLY. If it doesn't feel right, LEAVE IT ALONE!
So I don't have to wring my hands and follow Sonni around all the time, because I can see from the above posting that she has the AWARENESS, the innate CAUTION and the ability to DO THE RESEARCH. Learn your plants slowly and well, Sonni, it's an AMAZING journey.......
-- posted by LadyB
» spinlily - Impressive!
I wouldn't have believed you, Barbara, about spitting out something poisonous if I hadn't had experiences like that myself - not with plants yet, but in other circumstances. I was a passenger in a truck with gunfire going on back and forth across the road and the driver yelled, "Get down!" I was already hugging the floorboards and had no recollection of getting there!I'm wondering about your hesitance with strange plants. Is the east coast a lot more toxic than the west? There isn't anything here that would hurt me terribly - just thistles and nettles and things like that. Is nightshade poisonous to touch? or just to eat? does it have that tomato smell I detest?
-- posted by spinlily
» LadyB - A LOT goes on with all of this
The ability to listen to that 'back of the mind' message and to ACT on it requires a good deal of self-sentitivity and a lack of brain chatter. We are far wiser than we think.....As far as WHICH plants are poisonous, we have two things to look at. One is the definition of POISONOUS, and the other is an idividual's reaction.
To some folks, the definition of POISONOUS only means falling over in the grass - dead. Some 'poisonous' plants will cause digestive horrors, some convulsions, some, like Foxglove can stop your heart. Eight SEEDS within the red Taxus berries IF CHEWED can kill a kid.
Personal sensitivities can go on forever. I, for one, could nibble on a Filbert nut and go anaphalactic and quit breathing, but that's just me. Nightshade sensitivities are VERY common. Yes, for some folks just TOUCHING the stuff can cause problems.
East coast/ West coast? Check out a Field Guide to Edible plants for your area (sorry I only have Eastern/Central US) and see how many little skulls and crossbones you find. Know who corners the market on truly scary poisonous plants, our friends in Australia (right, Gay?)
If you DO begin hunting for toxic plants, you may well find to your horror that MANY of them are our most common landscape shrubs and houseplants.
(Am I doing a whole article in a discussion thread again?)
And how did we ever figure this out in the first place? SOMEone watched what the animals ate. The wild animals, not a mindless herd of sheep.
And yes indeed, if you find the smell of tomato foliage truly disagreeable, and you can't handle eggplants at all, I have this SNEAKING suspicion you're not to be a member of the Nightshade Fan Club.
Carefully, squirrels! No chewing on Foxgloves or Pointsettieas, y'hear?
-- posted by LadyB
» Sonni - My two front teeth
In the description for Belladona and such, supposidely the berries are very sweet -- so I"m not sure all sweet things are okay for food. In fact, the book I read said "Exceptionally sweet" probably disgustingly sweet.My hands had a terrible rash for a week - and I think it was either flea bites or something I touched while wandering. Itchy, red.... bumpy.
When I was a kid, I used to eat a whole fruit, including the seed (not the nuts, though!)I ate the apple seeds; I would crack open an apricot or peach and eat the seeds. Little did I know that I was conditioning myself against Arsenic and Cyanide poisoning! Those pits/seeds are meant to be left alone. I didn't know that peach pits had arsenic in them.
I read this story once about a teenager who loved apple seeds. He decided to save all the seeds and one day, ate a bag full. That was the end of him... so the story went.
When I read that I flipped out! The seeds of peach and apricot are pretty bitter -- and I didn't spit it out..... It's amazing what harm can be done when we do things without focusing. I guess, though, that since I'm still alive, I must have built up some kind of immunity - but I never ate another pit or seed after I read about how poisonous they are!
I guess most seeds are for baby plants.
By the way, I do have some field guides. I have Stalking the Wild Asparagus, which is always pretty cool ... although I'm not sure if E. Gibbons died of natural causes or by his two front teeth?
I'm keeping my mouth shut for now! bye
-- posted by Sonni
» LadyB - If I remember correctly...
Our buddy Euell Gibbons died of stomach cancer as did Adelle Davis. I'm not truly sure, just heard it a number of years ago.It's true, most 'fruits' are truly sweet, it's the SEEDS that can be deadly, and most seeds pass through the digestive tract unscathed. One CAN truly eat a Poke Berry if you don't chew the seed (I've done it, I'm still alive - felt a little weird, though) and actually there are some folks who use Poke Berries that way to ease their arthritis.
Look at nutmeg. One of our most COMMON spices - it can be TRULY deadly in large amounts. Or rhubarb. Stems are great, leaves are deadly. Go figure.
Funny thing, there are all KINDS of studies identifying the truly toxic alkaloids in coffee, but does that stop ANY of us???????
So yeah. Focus, Care, Information, Common Sense and Intuition. It's quite a crowd, but they can keep you alive in the woods.
Your itchy-tweets sound wretched (only a LITTLE less wretched than the RIP-SNORTER of a COLD I have at this minute -- argggh --). Flea bites are rarely mistaken for a 'rash' as they are separate bites. I don't doubt that they could be chiggers that woke up in all this bizarre warm weather we've been having. Possible?
For my (*bark-bark*) COLD I've taken Echinacea, Grapefruit Seed, Mullein, Elder Flower, Lobelia, LOTS of cayenne, and my own mad homemade cough syrup, but I know the MAGIC INGREDIENT is...........REST. No herb in the world to replace it.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
-- posted by LadyB
» Sonni - Rest is best
Lady B - I hope you feel better quick. I had a lot of colds last year and am trying very hard to NOT repeat that this year. I've recently gotten into soy and rice milk; which has helped me tremendously as a replacement for milk, which has that tendancy to help encourage congestion - at least in my case.Anyway, I think this discussion regarding toxic plants should be a separate article from you, so I will not add to this discussion. It's a fascinating and important aspect of wandering in the wild. I think pictures of poison oak, poison ivy and my new buddies, Deadly Nightshade and company could be shown. That may be something to study up on during the winter months so that when spring hits, we are more prepared to recognize plants that want to be close friends and plants that "vant to be alone".
Well, get some good magazines, climb into a cozy bed with a fluffy blanket and put your tea in a giant glass or cup nearby....and GET WELL QUICK.
Regards, Sonni
-- posted by Sonni
» Sonni - Okay, sometimes I work backwards...
Well, I just looked to see if you have already covered this topic and I guess you basically have. I read the discussion on poison ivy; and saw the links for viewing poison oak, etc.I guess if I want to add, that would be a good place. So you may ignore my post, except for the get well wishes!
(from now on I will look before I leap! ha ha)
Regards, Sonni
-- posted by Sonni
» Cottage_Garden - Sonni
You are in NYC, if I remember right? Would you be at all interested in heading over to the Clisters one day and taking a look see for one of the statues there? Lady B can fill you in on the details as I am on my way out of town for a few days....
-- posted by Cottage_Garden
» LadyB - Oh, that's right!
Sonni might be able to go check on the Ustabeigh St. Barbara statue at the Cloisters! Sonni, if this is puzzling, check out the "single ladies, listen up! discussion in my topic...clears it right up!Can't BELIEVE how much better I feel already today. A friend lamented to me last night that he was disappointed that I didn't have THE CURE FOR THE COMMON COLD in my arsenal of herbal tinctures. I told him I did, but REST and ACCEPTANCE just don't fit into little dropper bottles so good!
But I'm not going to be DUMB and I'm not going to OVERDO it today, don't need a relapse.....
-- posted by LadyB
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