Medicinal and/or edible plants found by Nance Klehm this morning in/along the L.A. River and its islands in the Glendale Narrows area:
castor bean
plantain (herbal not banana)
melva
lamb’s quarters (wild spinach)
chickweed
mugwort
cleavers
dandelion
5 responses so far ↓
Nate // 27 February, 2008 at 7:58 am |
Unfortunately most of the plants listed above are not native to the river and are weeds or invasive exotics.
-Nate
Jay Babcock // 29 February, 2008 at 4:45 pm |
Nate – There are no ‘native’ plants for this river, given that its course was set in concrete by humans in this area in 1938. Your argument is specious.
Nate // 29 February, 2008 at 5:08 pm |
Calling it a river is also specious.
jane // 2 March, 2008 at 8:01 am |
these plants are pioneers of highly disturbed soils aka the land of our cities, suburbs and farms. pioneer species heal and build soils and while ubiquitous, not all of them are invasive – check cali and usa invasive species list.
some are delicious foods and others are useful medicinals and in many case, they are both medicinal and edible.
accepting the complexity of our time…
Mimi Pond // 12 March, 2009 at 11:26 am |
I found this alarming. The coats of castor seeds are highly toxic and the source of ricin. This is from Wikipedia:
Castor seed is the source of castor oil, which has a wide variety of uses. The seeds contain between 40% and 60% oil that is rich in triglycerides, mainly ricinolein. The seed coat contains ricin, a toxin, which is also present in lower concentrations throughout the plant.