Hi Thumps,
Hope you don't mind.... But I was thinking, if you have the time, could you do a forage post maybe once a month about what is in season forage wise, maybe with pics? I for one would find it really helpful. Hope you don't mind me asking. Thank you.
Thank you for asking I feel very honoured.
The honest truth is that there are several RUers who are much better at plant ID than I am, who sadly don't post very often.
I'm very deeply concerned about safety re foraging, it's a heavy load unless several experienced foragers " keep an eye on each other". Also, we must be careful that recommended forage isn't easily confused with other plants.
I live on chalk down land for miles around, which affects the types of plants which grow here, & have done so for 35 years:shock: The plants are very interesting to a botanist, but no use for bunny forage. So I'm not experienced with plants which grow on different types of soil.
Plant ID in general uses so many jargon terms, it's a different language which would blow anyone's mind, so I often use basic English which is botanically wrong, to communicate - eg berries when I should say fruits!
There's also a considerable difference in seasonal growth across the length of the country. I was really surprised to cross the transpennine motorway - Manchester - Sheffield to see the trees well into Autumn colours but they didn't change down here for a further 6 weeks!
I've 2 burning interests in this area.
Re rabbits - what do the wildies actually eat? The
only good work done in the UK was in 1955 in South Wales. The paper is referred to in 1 sentance in "The private life of the rabbit" & should be hidden in the archives of Kew Gardens. They ID'd the plants by examining cell structure in the remnants in wildie poops - by far the best way! All nettles are defo safe - found in the poops. I've resorted to "asking the wildies" but can only tour the many local warrens & notice which plants are obviously eaten out of their foraging area.
Annoyingly a lot of plants don't grow where I want them to!! but they've helped to resolve a few "differences of opinion" eg wildies eat out the flowers of "lawn daisies" but never touch the leaves & it's exactly the same with coltsfoot. Similarly they never eat any part of ox eye daisies, creeping buttercup or the liverworts & mosses which gradually take over in old foraging areas.
It's not uncommon for 1 part of a plant to be safe but not others as in coltsfoot.
The safe / unsafe plant lists are a good guide but there is some variation, & lack of detail.
The botany books
sometimes refer to toxins in plants which sound alarming but are present in such insignificant amounts that it's impossible to eat enough to have any effect at all!
I love the fact that human lettuce contains narcotics! It's totally impossible for even a rabbit to eat enough to get gut slow down or slightly drowsy, let alone for a human to get stoned.:lol:
All the standard literature refers to the effects on humans. Rabbits have complex enzyme systems which can inactivate many toxins, but the rabbits can have genetic variations. I was really surprised that it's said 96% of rabbits can inactivate the toxin in buttercup BUT 4% can't & we can't predict which. Interestingly the wildies steer well clear of it. This
may account for people reporting that their own rabbits eat plants considered to be unsafe without any ill effects.
My project for next year is to grow groundsel & plant it in the foraging areas of 6 warrens, & see what the wildies do with it. It's said to be the only alternative food for cinnabar moth caterpillars which prefer the highly toxic ragwort. They store the poison in their skin which makes them toxic to birds! It's also highly toxic to other species eg horses & cattle.
This doesn't necessarily mean that
groundsel is toxic, or to rabbits. I'm more than prepared to stand corrected. The truth is that
I don't know. I'm very nearly convinced that my theoretical objection was wrong. Just got the last research to do - Sincere apologies to Hesperus!
My big annoyance is that blackthorn
leaves are a miracle cure to get rabbits in stasis eating again. Even I can't believe how dramatic it is. Thumper showed me this, & would eat it by the armful but ONLY when gathered when the sloe "berries" were fully ripe. I've no idea why this should be. I only know that both Thumper & Benjie won't eat them until then, & the cut off point can be as little as 1 week. I spent 3 years researching the wildies because blackthorn is related to plum (deemed not safe) before I went public. I subsequently realised that wildies scoffed every single fallen blackthorn leaf in their foraging areas. (They'd already eaten all the saplings & blackthorn self seeds prolifically)
I was really cross when someone posted a warning that it was unsafe without asking me.
She said it had cyanide in it. I was well aware that all stone fruits have cyanide in the
stones. (Apples have cyanide in the pips but it's obvious that the leaves are perfectly safe as was the case in Blackthorn (as long as it is gathered at that specific time.) Of course people panicked. I'm just very sad indeed, it put people off using something so helpful which had been very thoroughly researched indeed.
Then of course I'm fascinated by how rabbits percieve the world, using totally different senses to us. A post today really got my brain going with a hint that 1 rabbit was behaving as if he was living in a 2 dimensional world. When coupled with the fact that rabbits have very little 3 D vision, I was off!!:lol: Sometimes I just get brain ache:lol:
Another of my ginormous posts!
I'm trying to say that it's quite a complex subject with very little actually known = proven, & a lot goes on behind the scenes. I can't take on much more without help
I am however very touched & honoured by your confidence in me. I do my best to earn it.:lol:
