Carolina Bristle Mallow

Scientific Name(s): Modiola caroliniana
Abundance: plentiful
What: leaves
How: tea
Where: yards, fields, wastelands
When: spring, summer, fall, winter
Nutritional Value: minor
Dangers: beware poisonous mimic Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens)

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are arranged alternately along the stem.

Leaf Shape: The leaves of Modiola caroliniana are ovate to heart-shaped, often with a slightly lobed or undulating margin. Lobes become less pronounced as the plant matures.

Leaf Venation: Venation is palmate, with each lobe having a central vein.

Leaf Margin: The leaf margins are crenate or serrate, meaning they have rounded or sharp teeth respectively.

Leaf Color: Leaves are generally a medium to dark green.

Flower Structure: The 5-petaled flowers are solitary, 1/4" in diameter, and borne on long pedicels.

Flower Color: Carolina bristle mallow is notable for their bright orange to red color, with a yellow center.

Fruits: The fruit is a small, flat capsule containing several seeds. Young capsules are green, but turn dark as the mature.

Seeds: Seeds are tiny and numerous.

Stems: Stems are slender and can be either erect or sprawling but generally creep along the ground

Hairs: The plant has coarse hairs along the stems, leaves, and seed capsules.

Roots: Roots often grow wherever the stem's leaf junction touches soil.

Plant Height: Carolina bristle mallow typically grows to a height of 6 to 12 inches.

Carolina Bristle Mallow.






Close-up of flower and seedpod.


Surface portion of Carolina Bristle Mallow plus long runner.


Younger Carolina Bristle Mallow leaves are more deeply cleft/lobed than mature leaves.


The leaves feel coarse and the stem is hairy.


Close-up of the leaves.


The stem/runners of Carolina Bristle Mallow put down roots where it touches soil.


Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.


North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.


Creeping through the grass of unkempt yards and just about anywhere else where other plant life doesn't tower over it, Carolina Bristle Mallow is found all over Texas...or at least anywhere there's enough rainfall to support grass. The plant looks and feels unappealing, with its coarse, scratchy leaves and stiff, hairy stem. While this plant looks a bit like the highly nutritious Malva neglecta, Carolina Bristle Mallow is unrelated and doesn't have a similar high vitamin, mineral, and protein content. In fact, it's not even in the Malvaceae family but rather the lone member of its own unique genus, Modiola.

It's not a plant one adds to salads nor is there any record of anyone cooking it. Its only common use is to make a refreshing cold tea by soaking the shredded leaves in water for a couple of hours, staining, then serving over ice. This tea was drank by Natives and settlers to fight overheating as there's some suggestions that it lowers the initial sweating temperature of its drinkers. The sooner one starts sweating, the more heat they can dump from their body as long as they are drinking enough water to stay well hydrated.

Don't mistake young, toxic Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens) for Carolina Bristle Mallow. Creeping Buttercup leaves have deeper clefts and a shinier, light-green color growing up from a single taproot. Remember, Carolina Bristle Mallow puts roots down anywhere its stems touch soil. If you aren't sure what you have, wait a few weeks to see how the plant grows. If it develops yellow flowers and sharply cleft leaves it's the toxic Creeping Buttercup.

Carolina Bristle Mallow on the left. Creeping Buttercup on the right.


Young, toxic Creeping Buttercup.


Mature, toxic Creeping Buttercup.



Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Cedar/Juniper

Scientific Name(s): Juniperus ashei, Juniperus virginiana
Abundance: common
What: leaves, berries
How: leaves see below; berries as seasoning, infused, tinctured, or raw.
Where: landscaping, arid, woods, borders, fields
When: spring, summer, fall, winter
Nutritional Value: low
Dangers: Leaves of Juniperus virginiana, which contain thujone, which slows down the liver's removal of alcohol.

Medicinal Summary:
Inner Wood - soothes skin inflammations; kills scabies (salve, tisane)
Leaves - tea soothes respiratory and gastrointestinal inflammations; soothes indigestion; diuretic; relieves bloating; soothes painful menstruation; eases chronic rheumatism; antibacterial; antifungal (used as a tisane, elixir, oxymel)

Red Cedar (Eastern Redcedar - Juniperus virginiana) Structural Features:

Leaf Arrangement: The leaves are arranged in whorls of three, forming scale-like or needle-like structures.

Leaf Shape: Leaves are scale-like, measuring around 1/16 to 1/8 inches in length.

Leaf Color: Foliage can range from green to blue-green, depending on factors like age and environmental conditions.

Fruit (Seed Cones): Red cedar trees produce small, berry-like cones that are about 1/4 to 1/2 inches in diameter. The color is bluish-purple on mature trees.

Bark: Bark is reddish-brown, fibrous, and peels in strips. On older trees, it becomes gray and scaly.

Height: Red cedar trees can grow up to 40 to 50 feet in height.

Hairs: Leaves and branches are generally smooth, without noticeable hairs.

Wood Color: Heartwood is typically reddish-brown.

Wood Use: Valued for its aromatic, insect-repelling wood, often used for cedar chests and closets.

Branching Pattern: Red cedar trees have a pyramidal or columnar shape with dense foliage.

 

Texas Mountain Cedar (Ashe Juniper - Juniperus ashei) Structural Features:

Leaf Arrangement: The leaves are arranged in whorls of three, forming scale-like structures.

Leaf Shape: Leaves are scale-like, measuring around 1/8 to 1/4 inches in length.

Leaf Color: Foliage can range from green to blue-green.

Fruit (Seed Cones): Texas mountain cedar produces small, berry-like cones that are about 1/4 to 1/2 inches in diameter. The color is bluish-purple on mature trees.

Bark: Bark is typically reddish-brown and peels in long, fibrous strips.

Height: Texas mountain cedar trees can reach heights of 30 to 50 feet.

Hairs: Leaves and branches are generally smooth, without noticeable hairs.

Wood Color: Heartwood is typically reddish-brown.

Wood Use: The wood is aromatic and used for various purposes, including fencing and woodworking.

Branching Pattern: Texas mountain cedar trees have irregular branching and a dense, rounded crown.

Juniperus ashei aka Mountain Cedar in the Hill Country. Note the round shape.


Juniperus ashei generally have multiple trunks.

Juniperus ashei about to release LOTS of pollen!


Juniperus ashei, berries which take several years to mature.


Both mountain and red cedar have alternating leaves that are tiny, tough, and closely overlap like scales.


Texas distribution of Junipers ashei, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.


North American distribution of Junipers ashei, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.



Juniperus virginiana aka Red Cedar. Note the pyramidal shape.

Juniperus virginiana berries are high in sugar and are eaten as a trail snack, though their flavor is somewhat intense.

Closeup of Juniperus virginiana berries. The gray color is wild yeast that can be used to raise bread or make alcohol.

Juniperus virginiana generally form only one trunk. Bark peels off easily and makes good tinder.

Texas distribution of Junipers virginiana, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.


North American distribution of Junipers virginiana, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.


First things first, junipers and cedars are the same thing. That being said, there are two types of cedar trees in Texas. The first, Junipers ashei, is the small, multi-trunked Hill Country cedar sometimes referred to as Mountain Cedar which takes on a roundish shape. More to the east and northern parts of Texas you'll find the Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) which has a single trunk and grows quite tall with a pyramidal shape. The trunks of both are covered with loosely peeling, fibrous bark. The inner wood of both is reddish in color and very aromatic. When used in campfires it'll "pop" a lot and throw sparks.

The Hill Country cedars, Juniperus ashei, can be used in multiple ways. Starting with the leaves, they can be smoked, made into tea, or used to infuse vinegar. Native Americans smoked the leaves both for pleasure and medicinally to help with lung and sinus issues/infections. Cedar tea contains the anti-viral compound known as deoxypodophyllotoxin which may be why such tea was historically used to treat many viral-based diseases. The berries, which are not true berries but rather a very strange cone like a pine cone, can be nibbled raw but they have a very potent flavor so the are best used in small quantities as a flavoring agent or seasoning. German settlers loved to ad 2-4 berries to each quart of sauerkraut. Gin alcohol is made by adding juniper/cedar berries during or after the distillation step. Soaking the berries in vodka for a few weeks creates your own version.

My favorite thing to do with J. ashei is to infuse apple cider vinegar with it to make a "forager balsamic vinegar. To do this take a fresh, 16oz bottle of apple cider vinegar and pour off 1/2 cup. Now take a bunch of fresh J. ashei leaf-tips and start twisting and smashing them...not too much as you don't want lots of little pieces. Just enough so that their oils can steep into the vinegar. Now start adding these abused cedar leaf-tips into the bottle until the vinegar is just about to overflow. Cap it and set it somewhere dark for 6-8 weeks, shaking it at least once a day. After the required time has passed strain out the leaf bits through a coarse wire mesh. Don't use filter paper as you'll want the original vinegar solids to remain in the liquid. I add a sprig of cedar into the strained bottle just to mark it as infused.

Now let's talk about Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana). While it's berries (okay, cones) can be used the same as Junipers ashei's berries, the leaves should not be used to make tea, infused vinegars, or smoked. These leaves contain several compounds such as thujone which can cause diarrhea if consumed in large quantities. Yes, thujone is also the active ingredient in absinth, but that's none of my business. Thujone slows down the removal of alcohol from the blood so just a little bit of it cause the BOC to shoot up much higher than expected from a drink. Now, that all being said, there is historical records of the Juniperus virginiana being used for tea so like so many wild edibles. 



Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Cleavers

Scientific name: Galium aparine
Abundance: plentiful
What: seeds, leaves, stems
How: seeds roasted for coffee, leaves/stems raw though better cooked; tea from stems & leaves
Where: fields, yards, woods, sunny areas
When: Fall, Winter, Spring
Nutritional Value: Vitamin C
Other uses:
Dangers: They can be eaten raw but their tiny hairs irritate most people. Cooking them removes this problem.

Medicinal Summary:
Leaves/Stem - soothes minor skin inflammations; heals wounds, burns, poison ivy, bruises, dermatitis, and sprains; diuretic; anti-inflammatory; antibacterial; antifungal; immune system enhancer; soothes gastrointestinal and urinary tract inflammations; flushes kidney stones; laxative; antiviral; high in vitamin C (poultice, tisane, tincture)

Leaf Arrangement: Galium aparine has whorled leaves, typically with 6 to 8 leaves per whorl around the stem.

Leaf Shape: The leaves are narrow and lanceolate, resembling a lance tip in shape.

Venation: This plant exhibits a pinnate venation pattern.

Leaf Margin: The margins are entire, meaning they are smooth and unnotched.

Leaf Color: The leaves are a bright green color.

Flower Structure: The flowers are small and clustered, with typically four and sometimes five petals per flower.

Flower Color: Flowers are usually white.

Fruit: The fruit of Galium aparine is a small, dry, and covered in tiny, clinging hooks. Its is a schizocarp that splits into two seeds when ripe.

Seeds: The seeds are small, round, and covered with tiny hooks or bristles.

Stem: The stem is square-shaped, slender, and it has tiny hooks or bristles, which aid in climbing and clinging to other plants and objects.

Hairs: The plant is covered in small hooks or bristles, which gives it a rough texture and enables it to stick to clothing and fur.

Height: It typically grows to about 1 to 3 feet in height.

A single strand of a Cleaver plant, ready to be steeped in hot water.


Cleaver seedlings which can be eaten raw at this point.


Young Cleavers past their raw edibility stage.


A mass of mature Cleavers.




Close-up of Cleaver leaves.




Close-up of cleaver flower.


Mature Cleavers.


Cleaver seeds.


Fresh Cleaver tea!


Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.


North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.


These common weeds pop up in late fall and by spring they form huge clumps of clingy, vine-like plants. In some circles cleaves are known as "backpacker colanders" as a large clump of them can be used as a field-expedient colander for straining pasta of rinsing berries.

Cleavers are covered with tiny, stiff hooks which allow them to cling to most fabric and pet hair, leading to their other common name Velcro Weed. The leaves of very young Cleavers are rounded but as the plant matures the leaves grow long and slender. Mature stems are square with noticeable groves. Seeds are small, round, and very clingy!

Cleavers are often used as a source of vitamin C in assorted bottled fruit juices and the same vitamin C benefits can be acquired from cleaver tea. Take fresh, green cleaver leaves and stems and chop them up before steeping in hot water for 10 minutes. The resulting tea will have a beautiful green color. Cleaver tea has a mild "green" taste which can be made more interesting by adding leaves, flowers, or bark of more flavorful plants.

Only the youngest, smallest Cleavers can be eaten raw and they can't have developed any of their "stickiness" yet otherwise they'll stick to your throat when you try to swallow them. When still tiny and unstick they taste like peas. Slightly older Cleavers, while still tender, make a good boiled greens addition to your meal. Be sure to drink or somehow use the resultant broth as it's rich in vitamin C. If after boiling 10 minutes the Cleaver stems are still stiff/woody the plant is too old to eat but the broth will still be good to drink.

Alternative names for this plant are bedstraw, Velcro-weed, sticky weed, and sticky Willie.


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Curled Dock, Yellow Dock

Scientific name: Rumex crispus
Abundance: plentiful
What: very young leaves, seeds
How: leaves may be eaten raw; roast seeds or grind seeds into flour
Where: fields, disturbed areas, stream and pond banks
When: summer, fall, winter, spring
Nutritional Value: leaves are high in vitamin A&C, minerals, protein; roots high in iron and other minerals
Dangers: contains small amounts of oxalic acid, limit intake to what you'd normally eat of spinach

Medicinal Summary:
Root* - laxative; appetite stimulant; antibiotic, antifungal; antidiabetic type II (poultice, tisane, tincture)
*root must be allowed to dry 8 months to 1 year for medicinal properties to develop

Leaf Arrangement: Basal rosette with a few alternate leaves higher on the stem.

Leaf Shape: Lanceolate to oblong, with a distinctive wavy or curled margin, typically 4 to 10 inches long. Edges of youngest leaves will be curled inwards towards the center of the leaf.

Leaf Venation: Pinnate, with a central midvein and several branching side veins.

Leaf Margin: Curled or wavy, giving the species its common name.

Leaf Color: Green to dark green, with reddish veins on occasion.

Flower Structure: Small, grouped in whorls along elongated, upright flowering stalks.

Flower Color: Greenish to reddish-brown, not particularly showy.

Fruit: A small, triangular, winged achene.

Seeds: Enclosed within the fruit, typically brown, and triangular in shape.

Stem: Erect, often reddish, and can grow 2 to 4 feet tall.

Hairs: Generally smooth, without significant hairiness.

Height: Typically ranges from 2 to 4 feet in height.

Young leaves are edible raw at this point.


Remove the ribs from ones this age before eating the leaves raw.




Probably need boiling now.


Dock plant.




Curled Dock root.


Mature curled dock seedheads (early summer) have a distinct "rust" color.






Close-up of curled dock seeds.


Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.


North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.


Dock is a rich source of vitamins and minerals and the leaves, though tangy in flavor, taste mild enough to eat young leaves raw up until the flower spikes appear. After that but it can become tough and somewhat bland. Steaming, boiling or sautéing improves the texture of large, mature leaves. Mix it with milder greens to cut the flavor more. My Polish friend raves about creamy dock soup from the old country. Her version takes a lot of work, mine involves just dicing up young dock leaves (about 1/2 cup) and tossing them in a can of cream of mushroom soup. Add crumbed bacon and diced potatoes to really jazz it up!

The papery sheath holding the seeds is hard to remove so it is usually just left on the seeds, though be warned consuming large quantities of the sheath fiber will do wonders (not all good) to you digestive output. Imagine eating a really, really big bran muffin...topped with Ex-Lax. To remove this outer shell, toast the seeds to make the shell brittle, then "grind" them between the palms of your hands to shatter the shell off the seeds. Take this shell/seed mixture and go outside during a light wind and pour the mix back and forth between two bowls, allowing the wind to blow away the lighter shell material. This is called winnowing.

The seeds can be roasted then eaten as a snack or ground into flour, boiled into porridge, added to bread, etc... Really, their use is limited only by your imagination! My favorite way is to mix them with cream cheese and slap it on a Ritz-style cracker. They add a nutty, quinoa type flavor to soups and stews.

Tea made from dried roots of curled dock has been used medicinally as an anti-cancer agent though little research supports this use. The roots' antibacterial and antifungal properties are well documented, as both a wash or applied as a poultice. Mashed-up fresh roots were used to treat minor skin issues such as scraps, rashes, and abrasions. It has anti-inflammatory powers when taken internally. I personally use a vodka-based tincture of chopped curled dock root as a "bitters" for mixed drinks. Woo hoo!



Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.