| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Pilsbury |
Whats this??I cant remember if this is comfrey or borage, my mum put it in many years ago and i just cant remember although I think it is Borage. |
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| ross |
I am pretty sure that is Borage. | ||
| sean |
vote for borage here. | ||
| Bugs |
Edited back to say it may be alkanet, false forget me not, which is not edible and possibly poisonous.
Being on here makes me think I really must get my pics in order, I'm sure I have photos of both comfrey and borage but I wouldn't know where to put my paws on them now. |
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| Pilsbury |
Thanks, now before i hit the books for a use for it any suggestions? | ||
| Treacodactyl |
If it's the same plant that's been growing fo a few years then it's not borage. We have all the plants growing in our garden.
Is it flowering now? If so it's too early for what you've said. |
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| Bugs |
Can you give us a better picture (of the flowers particularly).
Edited because I'm wrong, it's not borage. |
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| Bugs |
Treacodactyl tells me it's definitely not borage so please don't eat it. | ||
| Pilsbury |
I wasnt planning a salad of it just yet, I will try and get out tomorrow and take a better pic of the flowers it the hail hasnt knocked them all off
Its not nessacerily the same plant that has been here for years but it self seeds and comes up every where, just like my lemon balm |
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| moogie |
Definately not borage. Borage have got bigger, more star shaped flowers. If you look in the glossary under grow your own there are pics there under lovage and borage which I took last year. I'm not convinced its lovage either. | ||
| moogie |
Sorry having a peculiar blonde moment. Of course its not lovage, I don't even know why I typed that. Just ignore my drivvle about lovage. But 100% certain its not borage. | ||
| Treacodactyl |
Here we go green alkanet (what bugs originally said when I agreed with her):
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/P1/P18490.HTM |
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| moogie |
Yes, I would agree with Bugs and Treacodactyl that it might well be green alkanet. Comfrey has got very furry stems, does your plant? I keep on wanting to type lovage not comfrey now. Think its cos it rhymes with borage. Hmmm, definately having a blonde moment. | ||
| Treacodactyl |
Comfrey also flowers much later with blue/mauve bell shaped flowers. | ||
| Pilsbury |
Ok here goes, the stems and leaves could be called either furry or prickly depending on your point of view, I just went and cut some and took more pics so here they are | ||
| Pilsbury |
and the flowers, for some reason they are clear on my PC but a bit blurry when i post | ||
| Treacodactyl |
Yep, that matches up to the pic in the link. There are many more pics of it on that site. | ||
| nettie |
It looks like that bloody awful weed with monstrous tap roots that seeds itself everywhere and is impossible to shift from your garden! I've been trying to get rid of it for 3 years to no avail 
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| cab |
Alkanet. No doubt.
It's a dyers plant, a non native introduced for the pigment alledgedly in the roots. I've had no success extracting the dye, though. |
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| Bugs |
I quite like it 
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| Treacodactyl |
That's the good thing about gardening on a thing chalky soil. Not many plants take hold and go mad. It's taken a few years to get a small patch of nettles growing for example. | ||
| cab |
Flaming awful stuff. I'm constantly weeding out alkanet. It means that I can't let borage self seed in the garden because the seedlings are rather too similar 
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| Pilsbury |
When I told my other half it was probably alkanet not borage and i would just try and get rid of it all she said " oh but the flowers are really pretty" so you are not alone bugs and it looks like it will be staying in a bit of the garden at least. | ||
| ButteryHOLsomeness |
darnit we have loads of that in our communal gardens, i was getting all excited thinking how lovely it would taste... oh well
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| mochyn |
Yep, definitely evergreen alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens), so DON'T EAT ANY PART OF IT! It can be confused with alkanet (Anchusa officinalis) which is a dye plant and the young leaves and flowers of which are edible. As far as I can track down, the one you have is pretty well useless, although I agree, it's very pretty. Sorry! | ||
| cede |
it hurts your hands if you try and pull it and as has already been mentionned it has a long root, personally i don't like it but then i have been battling against it for as long as we have lived here -about 8 years! | ||
| nettie |
yep please don't let it grow -it will seed everywhere and be a right royal pain in the ass to remove 
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| Guest |
Alkanet, if kept in check, should be grown in every garden. Like all blue-flowered plants, it attracts bees (think of blue borage), and should be grown if only for that reason. It says in one of my books that the leaves can be eaten in salads.
Sarah D |
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| dougal |
Is it that it is simply earlier, or am I missing something? Previous posts suggest that Alkanet is not something one would deliberately put in one's Pimms, and there's obvious room for confusion... |
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| Treacodactyl |
I've actively planted the evergreen alkanet in my gardens for the flowers. Yes it is an earlier flowerer, starts in March for me, and flowers for most of the year.
It do grow it in the 'wild' part of my garden with foxgloves etc. As for confusing it with borage once you've seen them both it's very easy to tell the difference. |
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| cab |
Interesting... The mentions I've come across of this plant list it as being slightly toxic. Have you eaten it? |
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| mochyn |
As I said in an earlier post:
The one that has been found here is EVERGREEN ALKANET: the toxic one, flowering now until about June. The other is more rare and flowers from June. So, if you have the former please DON'T put it in your salads! Cab: you'll probably find a pic. of the Anchusa on that website you quoted before. It's a British native, so it should be there. I'll have a look... |
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| mochyn |
Sorry, it was Treac who posted the Bioimages link. I've looked, and there isn't one of Anchusa officinalis. The problem here arises from two things, I think:
1 the use of common names: they are both Alkanets, but not of the same genus: the toxic one is a Pentaglottis, the edible one an Anchusa 2 They are both members of the same family and as a result have many superficial similarities: small blue flowers of very similare shape, hairy leaves etc. I always encouraged students to use botanical names where possible: if I call a plant Pentaglottis sempervirens there is only one thing that can be. If I call it Alkanet, the common name, confusion may arise. I know this seems an accademic thing, but it does help to eliminate problems. I' sure, if we ask him nicely, Cab would write a piece on botanical nomenclature and plant IDs. |
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| cab |
Cheers Mochyn; I knew of the other alkanet plant but had assumed we were still with the accursed evergreen alkanet 
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| cab |
Gosh, but wouldn't that be a DULL article? Shall I edit the 'rules for safe picking' and include a suggestion that it's a good idea to be clear with nomenclature in the 'rules for safe foraging' posting? And should that posting be fiddled with to make it a full article? Edit: I've added this to the basic rules for safe and happy foraging, see foraging discussion board. |
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| tahir |
Mochyn you sound like someone who'd just love to help me with the glossary, where we use the full Latin name as well as any common names:
http://www.downsizer.net/index.php?option=com_glossary&catid=97&func=display&search=herb |
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| mochyn |
I suspect you're right: it would be high on the dullness quotient index. You can probably tell, though, it's a subject I feel strongly about. It's the only way to be sure we're talking about the same thing. Maybe some tweaking would be the thing: that, and recommending good books, such as Phillips various works. | ||
| mochyn |
Maybe we should be making more of the glossary: I think that could solve the problem. If you need any help, give me a shout! | ||
| tahir |
I hope that any thing we "discover" on the forums can be added to the glossary. The only problem is how do you categorise useful non food plants? | ||
| mochyn |
According to use? E.g. medicinal, dyers' herbs, paper-making... And then we'll need to cross-refer, of course... | ||
| cab |
How about having a category called 'useful non food plants'? Or subdividing by dyers plants, craft plants, construction, etc? |
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| cab |
So something like nettle appears in dying, eating, ropemaking, papermaking, butterfly attracting, child deterring... I think I'll not hoe mine out now, I'm sold! |
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| tahir |
Too many categories though, at teh moment the categories are:
Health Wild Food Livestock IT & Business Grow Your Own We could do another one for "Non Food Plants"? |
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| mochyn |
Perhaps Useful non-food plants, eh? Otherwise it's a bit of a 'rest of the world' thing. | ||
| tahir |
Hokey cokes, just need some plants to put in there now... |