September on PEI doesn’t just mean shorter days, cooler weather, and back to school. It also means the return of Mushroom Mondays! Let’s kick the season off with a species that reminds us just how strange fungi can be: meet the Stinky Squid (Pseudocolus fusiformis). You could be forgiven for thinking this looks more like an alien than a mushroom. Stinky Squids start out as greyish eggs in the soil (inset photo) and, as they mature, develop three to four orange arms each cov

Today’s PEI plant is one that I’ve received many questions about, along with a request to do a post on it. So, meet Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamera)! If these flowers remind you of tomato or potato blossoms, give yourself a gold star. Bittersweet Nightshade is in the same family (and the same genus) as those domestic crops, and is related to other familiar species including eggplant, peppers (both sweet and hot), gogi berries, and tobacco. Bittersweet Nightshade

This week, we’re looking at a couple of edible non-native wildflowers that are in season right now. On Monday, it was Tufted Vetch; today we have Ox-eye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare). Most people are familiar with Ox-eye Daisy’s distinctive white petals (ray flowers) surrounding the golden-yellow centre (disk flowers). This cheerful-looking plant can be found across the Island, pushing up through cracks in sidewalks, growing among the stone landscaping of highway dividers, l

This week, we’re looking at a couple of edible non-native wildflowers that are in season right now. First up: Tufted Vetch (Vicia cracca). Tufted Vetch is a member of the Pea Family (Fabaceae) with clusters of purple flowers at the ends of stalks that arise from the leaf axils. (If you look closely at a flower cluster in person, you’ll see that each tiny blossom resembles a little bird with its beak against the flower stalk). Vetch leaves are like narrow versions of garden

There are some PEI plants that, when I find them, suggest there was once a homestead nearby. Wild Apples and abandoned Lilacs are two examples, but so too is Common Comfrey (Symphytum officinale). Comfrey is native to Europe and parts of Asia and was brought to North America as a medicinal and ornamental plant in the 1600s. This plant’s name attests to its long history of medicinal use: Symphytum is from ancient Greek words meaning ‘unite’ and ‘a plant’, while officinale wa

PEI’s midsummer roadsides are lined with colourful wildflowers. White, yellow, gold, pink, purple, and brown are common, but blue stands...

Let’s start the day with a quiz: which PEI animals can be found in saltwater, freshwater, and on land? If you guessed snails, give...

On PEI, spring foraging offers up lots of leafy greens and tasty roots, but there are crunchy succulents on the menu, too. Today’s...

Some of the Island’s earliest spring wildflowers appear on their plants before the leaves. From the subtle blooms of Red Maple and Beaked...

Over the past few weeks, we’ve explored how and why PEI lost its large, native mammals during the 18th and 19th centuries. But in the...

If you’ve been enjoying PEI’s famous beaches during this hot weather, you may have noticed a distinctive silvery-green plant standing out...

There’s a line in E.B. White’s book Stuart Little that I love “…orchards so old they have forgotten where the farmhouse is”. I often...

If you’ve walked PEI’s roadsides, coastline, or the Confederation Trail lately, you may have spotted rosettes of fuzzy grey-green leaves...

Welcome back to Ask a Naturalist: your own personal ‘Google’ for information on all things wild on PEI! I love getting photos of plants...

I recently posted about PEI’s Provincial flower, the Pink Lady’s Slipper. Now let’s look at a plant many people think should be our...

In recent editions of Permian to Present, we’ve seen how and why PEI lost its large, native mammals. But in the 1900s, people thought...