Identifying native and medicinal edibles in southern Appalachia. My friend Helen Meadors and I take a jaunt around her property in the Appalachian mountains. She shares some of her knowledge about native trees, flowers and herbs.
good morning everybody I am tired I am dragging a little bit this morning but um Helen wanted to go do another nature walk they’re talking about some really cool um I think orchids it’s going to be uh you know halfway through October so be interesting to see how the plant life changes but let’s go on another nature walk and identify some plants you want to I thought I squished something with my truck good morning faint because I’m actually doing some work I mean you know I’m better I’m my back is so much better that’s good [Music] [Music] okay okay okay okay all right let’s see which way are we going to go what is the most interesting I think this is the most interesting all right so I was going to show you the milkweed and it oh was that with land right there just lying down and but it had those pods and oh there’re the seed pods see mhm yeah we need to um get some of those and open them up and get the seeds out we’ll do that later it’s all kind of good stuff out here and rabbit tobacco did you ever smoke rabbit tobacco I’ll show it to you my Brothers used to smoke it there’s some rabbit tobacco see the see the silvery white yeah you can smoke that we have to look it up and see what properties it has and why people my brothers would smoke it you know all these wild flowers they just we don’t ask anything just leave us alone and when you drive through the countryside you see so much that’s moan that shouldn’t be I mean it doesn’t need to be is just CU people like to mow you know their yards and just leave the stuff for the bugs and things right yeah look who we found you want to get in the back smell it Mountain mint mhm show you the pawpaw patch pawpaws are more prevalent I think in the mid middle part of the country and there’s a book that I love and everybody should read call undaunted courage and it’s about the Lewis and Clark expedition MH and and when they were coming back from out west they had almost gotten back and the whole story is so interesting but they didn’t have any food and they and they subsisted on paaw have you ever tast they’re delici yeah and the chefs like them I mean what are they like a mango and a banana mhm see all the ironwoods already gone by which is these are the purple ones we yes yes they’re all G to seed I want some seeds Okay the best ever felco printers oh yeah I like them thank you all these seeds seed next year you’re going to have a hell of a lot more purple oh yeah butterflies love them mhm it’s called unia I believe that’s us ni and it’s um and I don’t know how you would render it or whatever but it’s good for respiratory ailments it’s uzia oh there’s the ladi’s dresses does a terrestrial Orchid the white spiraly thing it’s called donkey nettle and it you know can you eat it you prob we can the tomatoes they look like tomatoes yeah well same family M night shade family tomatoes peppers eggplant donkey nettle mhm I mean I don’t know what they really call but that’s their nickname [Music] [Music] this is spice bush and it’s very fragrant and you can chew on it they used to use it as a toothbrush the way you can IDE do the white pine is the um branches grow in circles around the around the [Music] trunk right it’s cool this is sassa the red the red and so it has three different Leaf shapes one’s a mitten see with the thumb yeah here I gra it I’ll just leave it closer yeah and then there’s an oval one too and the what they used sassr was the roots for um you know sassr tea which is supposed to be medicinal and what they you know probably originally made root beer out of but too much of it is of the root is toxic like a lot of things but now this is a native plant This Ginger Wild Ginger and sometimes you can see the little brown jugs let me dig and see I don’t see them me neither this with the red is the suac yeah a it pretty mm God that is so beautiful Rachel look at the stem even this is our place we call the point because it’s where the property comes to point [Music] so we’re we’re on the earth for a little while but through the millenia these streams have just been they’re fine you know without us they just go where they want to [Music] go well that was a great visit with Helen and I can’t wait to do it again um I think I’m headed over to Grammy’s cabin now but that’s it for this video so I will see you guys in the next one if you feel like it give me a subscribe it helps my channel and I love y’all and um you know get out in the woods okay I’ll see you guys in my next video bye [Music]
1 Comment
A good education. Thank you