my foraging diary

[Beapig]

Thank you MM! The leaves themselves are so spikey, I am kind of surprised that it wouldn't be a seriously painful event haha I've been feeling inspired to properly try foraging today. My new house has a huge garden in major need of some tlc, in other words weed heaven! Can anyone tell me if I've identified these right?

20171215_133224 by Rachel Brown, on Flickr

I believe the bottom one is 'Herb Robert'. The little purple flowers have passed now but I remember seeing them in summer. We have loads of it!

The small pile of dark green oval leaves are Hawkweed. I've seen Ham eating these before as they're all over the lawn. They flower orange in the summer. The giveaway is the little white hairs all over them.

I need help IDing the other three, does anyone know if they're good for rabbits? We have a lot of everything, everywhere! It's weed city in my garden.

[Omi]

I think the ID of Herb Robert is correct, especially with your observation of the flowers.

Regarding the Hawkweed, I would find it difficult to ID from the pic, but certainly your description sounds good for it.

Top left is Wild Strawberry. I have loads of this and it spreads and spreads. It often produces small white flowers in the Spring , but rarely any sign of actual Strawberries

Middle above Herb Robert is, I think, the same plant as top right, just more mature. Both are, I think, a Willowherb. I have this also in the garden.

Would welcome others' views. If my IDs are correct, they are all fine for rabbits

[MightyMax]

I have some what I thought were wild strawberries in my garden, running a bit wild. But in fact they look so similar to strawberries in all but the fruit and the flowers. The fruit is a strange red and the flowers are yellow.

They aren't strawberries but Duchesnea indica (sometimes called Potentilla indica).

I know my little rascals can't help themselves and have a nibble when they are out

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mock_strawberry

[Beapig]

Thank you Omi & MM I'm pretty confident on the Herb Robert and Hawkweed.

It's funny, I thought that those looked like strawberry leaves, but as you say, I've seen no signs of actual strawberries growing in the garden

I believe you're right about the willow herb, as we had loads of it dried out with the purple flowers around the entire garden when we moved in, it was completely taking over and took me weeks to cut back! So I guess these are the seedlings starting to come back up. I found this picture on the internet, the leaves seem to match the look of mine with the veins etc.

http://www.wildfooduk.com/uploads/he...%203%20600.jpg

So are strawberry leaves and willowherb good for bunnies?

[Omi]

I have some what I thought were wild strawberries in my garden, running a bit wild. But in fact they look so similar to strawberries in all but the fruit and the flowers. The fruit is a strange red and the flowers are yellow.

They aren't strawberries but Duchesnea indica (sometimes called Potentilla indica).

I know my little rascals can't help themselves and have a nibble when they are out

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mock_strawberry

I've never come across this plant and reading online, the key differences between it and Wild Strawberry are the fruit and the flowers, so difficult at this time of the year.

You've actually made me go outside to get a leaf to compare both with pictures of Wild Strawberry in my book and also with beapig's pic. I'm very happy that my plants are Wild Strawberry and I know that the flowers are white. My leaf also looks a good match for the ones in my book under Wild Strawberry. Unfortunately the Duchesnea is not listed, so I guess it's not a true wild plant. My leaf does look like the ones in beapig's pic, but then googling pics for Duchesnea leaves, I could also be persuaded that it looked like those as well (although I know for sure it isn 't).

Can you remember what the flowers looked like, beapig?

[Omi]

Thank you Omi & MM I'm pretty confident on the Herb Robert and Hawkweed.

It's funny, I thought that those looked like strawberry leaves, but as you say, I've seen no signs of actual strawberries growing in the garden

I believe you're right about the willow herb, as we had loads of it dried out with the purple flowers around the entire garden when we moved in, it was completely taking over and took me weeks to cut back! So I guess these are the seedlings starting to come back up. I found this picture on the internet, the leaves seem to match the look of mine with the veins etc.

http://www.wildfooduk.com/uploads/he...%203%20600.jpg

So are strawberry leaves and willowherb good for bunnies?

Yes both are fine, but you need to confirm whether you have Strawberry leaves or not.

[Beapig]

Yes both are fine, but you need to confirm whether you have Strawberry leaves or not.

This is the supposed stawberry leaf - it has wilted a bit since earlier. I only have a very small patch of these in my garden anyway, so they wouldn't go far:

20171215_184219 by Rachel Brown, on Flickr

And just to double check, a close up on the supposed willow herb:

20171215_184241 by Rachel Brown, on Flickr

Herb Robert has been highly approved by Ham and Bea

2017-12-15_03-41-34 by Rachel Brown, on Flickr

[Omi]

The Herb Robert has gone done well hasn't it

I have compared your Strawberry leaf with the leaf that I picked from my garden this afternoon and compared the two. Something I have noticed is that they both have little hairs on the leaf stalk. Perhaps MightyMax could pick one of her Duchesnea leaves to see if it's hairy or not

With both the Strawberry and the Willowherb, now is not the easiest time of the year to ID any plant, especially not from a photograph. I do think you have Willowherb there, but to make absolutely sure you should compare one of the leaves with a good online picture of a leaf. I was also happy with the ID of Wild Strawberry until MightyMax introduced the idea it could be Duchesnea!

It's also great that you obviously have wild plants in your garden. Come next Spring I'm sure you will find a lot more will appear

[MightyMax]

The Herb Robert has gone done well hasn't it

I have compared your Strawberry leaf with the leaf that I picked from my garden this afternoon and compared the two. Something I have noticed is that they both have little hairs on the leaf stalk. Perhaps MightyMax could pick one of her Duchesnea leaves to see if it's hairy or not

With both the Strawberry and the Willowherb, now is not the easiest time of the year to ID any plant, especially not from a photograph. I do think you have Willowherb there, but to make absolutely sure you should compare one of the leaves with a good online picture of a leaf. I was also happy with the ID of Wild Strawberry until MightyMax introduced the idea it could be Duchesnea!

It's also great that you obviously have wild plants in your garden. Come next Spring I'm sure you will find a lot more will appear

Yes I shall try and remember to do that. Please prod me if I forget!

I must say I used to think they were wild strawberry, but the flowers were yellow. I researched and found out they were fakes They haven't hurt the buns but I don't particularly like it taking up space so I try and pull it up. It's very invasive though!

[Beapig]

The Herb Robert has gone done well hasn't it

I have compared your Strawberry leaf with the leaf that I picked from my garden this afternoon and compared the two. Something I have noticed is that they both have little hairs on the leaf stalk. Perhaps MightyMax could pick one of her Duchesnea leaves to see if it's hairy or not

With both the Strawberry and the Willowherb, now is not the easiest time of the year to ID any plant, especially not from a photograph. I do think you have Willowherb there, but to make absolutely sure you should compare one of the leaves with a good online picture of a leaf. I was also happy with the ID of Wild Strawberry until MightyMax introduced the idea it could be Duchesnea!

It's also great that you obviously have wild plants in your garden. Come next Spring I'm sure you will find a lot more will appear

Thank you Omi. I think I'll just stick with the Herb Robert for now and see what spring brings. Once the weather is less atrocious I'll definitely be making the most of sorting out our huge new garden, which will most certainly involve foraging and growing 10 000 dandelions for the bunnies! (bought a packet of 10 000 seeds online and chuckle to myself about it when I think that most people spend their lives trying to get rid of the weeds in their garden )