katemacquarrie22

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, lining roadsides,...

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 pea leaves, with...

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 was a Latin name...