Wild edibles - identification help required

Life after stroke Hobbies and leisure
1

Hello,

I seek help to identify a plant which is popping up in my garden but I don’t think it’s a weed.

I say this because, before Mum had her stroke she was an avid gardener and one of her favourite plants was what I think this is, but I cannot get her to confirm this for me :frowning:

I would rather not say what I think it is as I don’t want to influence your thinking.

I attach a few photos and would appreciate any thoughts as to what this might be.

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I really would like to eat this but I am aware some weeds (if this is a weed) might be poisonous and I am not sure I want to get poisoned just yet !!

Thank you.

:pray:

2

Your local garden centre may identify it if you take in a cutting.

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3

Thank you.

Worth a try :slight_smile:

:pray:

4

The iNaturalist app on my phone identifies it as purple amaranth. I’d check a bit more thoroughly before eating, though.

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5

If you have access to a smartphone there is a very nifty little app, easy to install, called Lens.

It is surpising able at identifying mysterious objects, in fact anything you can make an image of.

The app on my phone says:

It appears to show Common Mullein or Common Evening Primrose.

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6

Thanks Bobbi - I’ll check it out.

Looks like we might get some rain which no doubt will encourage the wild edibles, but I don’t mind - they are edibles after all, just wild and wasn’t everything wild at one time before man cultivated it? Pardon my English if cultivation is not the right word but you will get it, of that I am sure :slight_smile:

Hi to Hilary and hope she’s behaving herself!!

:pray:

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7

Looks to me like pigweed. It should mature into a fairly big plant. If I am correct, it is edible but I believe you may need to cook it first. I think the seeds can be used like quinoa as pigweed is a relative to that plant. Caveat of course, do make sure you are one hundred percent certain. When foraging for plants, there is a distinct difference between edible and eatable. While many plants won’t directly kill you, some do, take our wonderful Yew tree for example, they may cause diarrhoea and stomach upset which is not a pleasant way to end a meal.

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8

Thanks to everyone who has responded.

I feel I must try this as I am now more convinced than ever that it is the plant that Mum used to grow when she was able and she used to cook it as we cook baby spinach and it was totally delicious.

I have also eaten wild edibles from the garden i.e. I haven’t gone out in the country to forage but I don’t think this necessarily makes them any safer just because they are growing in my garden.

I haven’t seen anything from anyone yet that suggests it is poisonous and must be avoided and so if I do get a bit of diarrhoea I can live with that if you’ll pardon the pun!

I’ll put up the recipe when I do, or maybe not as I’m sure everyone knows how to wilt baby spinach :slight_smile:

:pray:

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