Himalayan blackberries (Rubus armeniacus) are an invasive species that has naturalized in many places. Here in western Washington, it can be found along roads, forest borders, farm fence-rows and anywhere it can find root in Edmonds.
When I saw this plant growing in small plot of soil near a bus stop, I thought it was Yarrow. After returning home, I looked it up to confirm the ID. Now I'm not so sure but that it might not be a variety of Tansy. When I go by that way again, I'll bruise a leaf and see if that helps. I hope it's Yarrow since Tansy is generally an unwanted wild thing.
Crown vetch growing in a roadside garden. I've seen this in other gardens and in untended plots, mostly in semi-shaded areas. Some varieties of vetch are good erosion control plants and many make good food for livestock during the winter and spring when grass is dormant.
Salal (Gaultheria shallon) is a common wild thing throughout the Pacific Northwest. This specimen was planted in a roadside border a couple years ago after a cedar hedge was removed. This plant is in full sun and seems to be enjoying the environment. Often I see salal in shady areas along trails in the nearby park, where it grows tall and makes a great home for squirrels and other small animals.
Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) is native to our area and has been domesticated as an ornamental for use in gardens. When I was young, I tried the berries and found them to be almost inedible with a couple large seeds and a sour-to-bitter taste. Native Americans mixed the berries with salal berries to the benefit of both. The resultant paste was made into cakes that could be mixed with pounded dried meat and fat to make pemmican. When I was young, folklore had it that salal and Oregon grape could be made into a delicious jelly. I never saw any and it seemed to be like Alice's, "jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, never jam today," so one summer in 1975 or '76 I decided to make some. The effort failed for lack of juice. The salal berries are mushy and the Oregon grape berries had very little juice. I think they are better suited to pemmican than jelly.
California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) grow anywhere there is sun and well-drained soil. Around Edmonds, they grow wild where they can and are planted in gardens for showy flowers most of the summer. When I walk on cloudy, misty days or in the evening, the flowers are closed. I found it interesting that these plants were introduced to Chile, either as an escaped ornamental or in bales of alfalfa imported from California as animal feed. Now the poppies are doing better in their new home than those that stayed behind in California.
I've known these wild things for years but never knew what they were called. It turns out that google isn't sure either. Some photos list them as "Little Yellow False Dandelions" while others call them "dandelion trees." All dandelions have a tap root and this variety, especially, enjoys the hot days of summer when the green lawns have turned brown. That long tap root reaches down to harvest whatever moisture there might be and the blooms soon release their umbrella seeds to find other brown pastures. All parts of the dandelion are edible and nutritious. Apparently they were eaten by our ancestors long before recorded history.
Another interesting fact about dandelions is that the sticky white sap that oozes out when a leaf or the flower is cut, is the same kind of latex found in rubber trees. The wild dandelion has a small amount of this latex but scientists in Germany have bred a variety that has enough latex to be useful for making rubber. In 2015 a new manufacturing facility there made tires from the dandelion latex and is running tests on regular highways. In 2018 a Chinese company invested over $400 million to build a facility to make commercially viable rubber from dandelions. Who'da guessed the lowly dandelion would hit pay dirt as a latex plant?
Morning glory is another wild thing that seizes whatever opportunity is presented to greet the morning with its spectacular flowers. Fences, guy wires, hedges and other vines are pressed into service by the morning glory vine as it winds its way to full exposure. I didn't copy the Latin name because, according to Wikipedia, there are over 1,000 varieties of plants called "morning glory" and there is an on-going debate among experts to decide the proper nomenclature. Whatever the scientific name, the flowers are beautiful and have been bred in many shades of white through blue.
White clover (Trifolium repens) is part of systematic pasture strategy on farms but grows wild around town. The bees love clover but I didn't know that it is a good survival food. It's hard for humans to digest raw but if boiled for a few minutes it is easily digestible and high in protein and is a good source of vitamins.
The stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) has many uses. The leaves and flowers are eaten like spinach, the young plants can be used to make beer, the stalks contain fibers similar to linen, and the entire plant can be used for flogging as a punishment. I was surprised by this last but, according to Wikipedia, in Ecuador, the indigenous people punished serious crimes thus, "The sentenced perpetrator of a crime was flogged with stinging nettle, in public, naked, whilst being showered with freezing cold water.[45]"
Nettles have long been a source of food, especially early in the growing season when other greens were scarce. Nowadays, when greens seem to grow on grocers shelves year round, people don't eat nettles as much. Two years ago, when I was trekking in Nepal, one of the tea-house owners cooked a dish for me from nettles we collected along the trail. They also heighten the yellow color of egg yolks when hens eat as little as 6.25 grams of dried nettle per kilogram of feed.
Fabric made of nettle fibers has been used to make clothing for thousands of years. Because of a potential cotton shortage, German Army uniforms were almost all made from nettle material in WWI. Recently companies in Italy, Austria and Germany have begun making cloth material from nettle fibers.
The wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) grows wild in the eastern US and Canada. In Edmonds it is sometimes planted in gardens but it also has naturalized and is found in several shady places along my walks.
Fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium) is another wild thing found in many places around Edmonds. As with many native plants, the fireweed (so named for its ability to quickly grow on burned over land) stem and leaves are edible when very young. As it matures, the stem can be split and the inside eaten raw. The leaves can be dried and steeped for a tasty brew and it is valued as a medicinal herb.
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