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

This year’s damp weather may not be popular with everyone, but it has been great for mushrooms! The abundance of fruiting fungi has brought out a crop of social media posts asking about edibility. Here are some tips to help you ask the right questions and get reliable answers! I love encouraging people to try wild plants and fungi, but I cringe every time someone asks “is this edible?” That should never be your first question; instead, start with “what is this, and how can I

Public awareness of invasive species is high now, but that hasn’t always been the case. In the 1800s, if a foreign plant was edible, medicinal, or pretty, it was brought to North America without much thought. As a result, we are now dealing with dozens of problematic species, including invasive Honeysuckles. Tartarian Honeysuckle (Lonicera tartarica) was introduced to North America from Asia in the 1840s as an ornamental garden shrub. The same traits that make it attractive

Late summer and fall may be peak mushroom seasons on PEI, but spring has fungi to find, too! While checking my go-to spots for Morels this week, I found lots of these Entolomatoid Mushrooms (Family Entolomataceae). I often ignore LBMs (little brown mushrooms) as being too hard to identify and above my skill level. However, as I gain experience in mushroom identification, I’ve started looking for clues that point to the Family. If you’ve attended any of my workshops, you’ll

One of the nicest treats of a PEI spring is harvesting your own fresh, local food after a winter of stored root vegetables and imported fare. Fiddleheads, dandelions, cat-tails, dock, watercress, and magnolia – along with pheasant back and morel mushrooms if you can find them – are all in season right now. But if you’re looking for something new, give Wild Lily-of-the-valley (Maianthemum canadense) a try. Followers of my blog may remember that I introduced you to this plant

PEI has so many wild foods on offer in May: fiddleheads and nettle greens, burdock and primrose roots, morel mushrooms and pheasant’s backs, and so much more! Cat-tails (Typha latifolia) are versatile and easy to use, but it’s good to know how to tell them from a toxic plant of the same wet habitats: Blue-flag Iris (Iris versicolor). Cat-tails and Iris aren’t hard to tell apart in summer and fall, but it can be easy to confuse them where they grow side-by-side in spring (ma

It’s almost conifer-tip season, that time of year when we can enjoy the tasty, Vitamin-C-rich, new growth of our needle-leaved trees. While all of our conifer trees are edible, PEI does have one poisonous, native conifer shrub. Can you tell which of the needles in the photo are tasty and which are toxic? When it comes to conifer tips, White Spruce (Picea glauca) is the species most commonly used in the kitchen, as well as my personal favourite (you can find more details in

As a botanist, I confess to teasing birders from time to time: groups of people flocking to the same spot to see an unusual species – really? But then spring rolls around and I eat my words as I make my annual pilgrimage to Miscouche to see Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris). Marsh Marigolds are neither unusual nor rare on PEI (and they aren’t Marigolds). This member of the Buttercup Family (Ranunculaceae) is found in wet, mucky soil, and so is more common in Prince and Kin

If I had to design vegetation for a movie set on an alien planet, I’d take inspiration from this PEI plant: the odd-looking Rough Cocklebur ( Xanthium strumarium ). Cocklebur gets its name from spine-covered fruit (burs) that look a bit like Burdocks but have two distinctive beaks at the end (inset photo). Like Burdock ( Arctium minus ), Cocklebur’s Velcro-like fruits are distributed by hitch-hiking on animals, including humans. Those burs also float, allowing them to be r

Welcome back to Mushroom Monday, your weekly look at some of PEI’s fascinating fungi. I taste-tested today’s species for the first time this year, and it’s now among my favourite edible wild mushrooms. Meet the Olive Shaggy Parasol ( Chlorophyllum olivieri ). Shaggy Parasols are large, eye-catching mushrooms that can be found in grassy, open areas as well as in forests (especially under Spruce). Field guides often list them as lookalikes for edible Shaggy Manes, but they’re n

Welcome back to Mushroom Monday, your weekly look at some of PEI’s fascinating fungi. It’s often helpful to use more than just sight when identifying mushrooms, and today’s species has a very distinctive smell. Meet Sweetbread Mushroom (aka The Miller, Clitopilus prunulus ). I confess that I generally don’t pay much attention to small mushrooms with white caps and gills. I’m sure they’re perfectly lovely, but I tend to assume they exceed my limited identification skills. Af

You may think of summer as peak season for PEI’s wild berries, but a few tasty treats are at their best this time of year. One of my fall favourites is Wild Lily-of-the-Valley (aka Canada Mayflower, Maianthemum canadense). Wild Lily-of-the-Valley is NOT the same as the popular garden plant of the same name. The sweet-smelling European Lily-of-the-Valley ( Convallaria majalis ) contains toxic cardiac glycosides that can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and irregular heart

Welcome back to Mushroom Monday, your weekly look at some of PEI’s fascinating fungi. This week we have the interesting, toxic, and...

Most people have never seen PEI’s rarest native tree in person, and some have never even heard of it. Meet the beautiful Ironwood (...

Some PEI plants are revered while others are reviled, but today’s plant is both. Meet Common Milkweed ( Asclepias syriaca ). Our Island...

Have you ever run into an acquaintance you haven’t seen in a long, long time? The person looks unfamiliar at first, then something dawns,...

The Mint Family ( Lamiaceae ) is well represented on PEI, with about 25 species known in the wild (along with a few hybrids and...

This time of year, beautiful wildflowers are blooming in all of PEI’s habitats. Many people miss out on seeing those that thrive in bogs,...

PEI has showy wild plants that outshine any domestic blooms I can think of. One flowering now is the lovely Blue-flag Iris ( Iris...