MEDICINAL PLANTS
Medicinal plants must be used with care: proper identification and deep knowledge of the effects is essential. No claims are made regarding efficacy or safety of use. Some plants my be toxic if used improperly.
A few of the useful plants that thrive:
anise hyssop, burdock, button weed, comfrey, chokeberry, cramp bark, clary sage, dandelion, elderberry, fennel, heals all, hyssop, lavender, oregano, peppermint, poke weed, mallow, milk thistle, mugwort, mullein, parsley, plantain, rosemary, sage, spearmint, tarragon, thyme, winter savory, witch hazel, yellow dock
WILD FOODS, & Edible flowers
violet, borage, calendula, burdock, button weed, dandelion, mugwort, nasturtium, lamb’s quarters, lily, plantain, milkweed, sorrel, white pine needle
ANNUAL FOOD CROPS
lettuce, potato, peppers, cabbage, kale, collards, carrots, millet, squash, eggplant, melons, tomatoes, cucumber, beans, oats, barley, corn, ground cherry, tomatillos, beets, radishes, kolrabi, broccoli, komatsuna, mizuna, chard, garlic, corn, amaranth
PERENNIAL FOOD CROPS
elderberry, raspberry, gooseberry, currant, western sand cherry, jerusalem artichoke, juneberry, grape, rhubarb, beach plum, hazelnut, Nanking cherry, pear, american plum, strawberries, chestnuts, paw paw
CRAFT PLANTS
job’s tears, basket willow, cotton, flax, eastern white cedar
NATURAL DYE PLANTS
(colors vary due to fixing agents and other factors)
By Plant
Amaranth – pinks
Comfrey – light to deep greens
Dyers Coreopsis – yellow – orange
Daffodils – yellow-green
Dandelion – yellow & green
Elderberry – purple, dark blue & gray
Fennel- yellow & green
Goldenrod – bright yellows to golds & greens
Japanese maple leaves – a pink blush
Mint – green
Mustard blossoms – yellow
Nasturtium – bright green
Onion skin – yellow
Polk Weed – brown
Red cabbage – from lavender to brilliant blue
Sour grass (wood sorrel or oxalis) – summery yellow
Sorrel – pale yellows & greens, roots – reddish-browns
By Color
Yellow Calendula, Chamomile, Goldenrod, Marigold, Tansy, Catnip
Greens, Artichoke, Black-Eyed Susan, Hyssop, Plantain
Pinks Amaranth flowers, Sorrel root
Reds Dandelion root, Japanese maple
Blues – Purples Cornflower, False indigo, Grape skins
Browns, Comfrey
Grays & Blacks, Iris
COVER CROPS
buckwheat, Dutch white clover, barley, oats
SEEDS, BERRIES AND VEGETATIVE COVER FOR BIRDS
Currant
Gooseberry
Inkberry Ilex glabra
Songbirds: thrushes, mockingbirds, catbirds, robins, bluebirds and thrashers
Raspberry/Blackberry Rubus allegheniensis
Blackberries rank at the top of summer foods for wildlife.
Even late into the fall and winter, the dried berries are eaten by many species.
Pin Oak Acorns are a good and abundant staple food source for many songbirds.
High Bush Cranberry Viburnum trilobum
Berries Sept-Feb still edible off the bush in mid-winter; popular with dozens of bird species, especially waxwings.
Elderberry Sambucus Canadensis
Elderberries are especially important sources of summer food for catbirds, robins, thrushes, sparrows, and many other songbirds.
Flowering dogwood
Dogwood fruits are important to many songbirds in late summer and fall.
Some primary users are cardinals, thrushes, and cedar wax-wings.
Rose
Rose hips, which remain on the shrubs through the winter and into the following year, are and important wildlife winter food source.
Winterberry, Ilex verticillata
Songbirds: thrushes, mockingbirds, catbirds, robins, bluebirds and thrashers.
Snowberry or Waxberry Symphoricarpos
Good wildlife cover and forage.
Eastern White Cedar Thuja occidentalis Arborvitae screen
Red Cedar fruits are eaten by cedar wax-wings, purple finches, robins, bluebirds, tree swallows, myrtle warblers and other songbirds.
Black Chokeberry Aronia melanocarcarpa
Black fruit from Sept – Nov is eaten by songbirds.
Red Chokeberry Aronia arbutifolia
Red fruits which appear Sept to Dec are an occasional winter food source for many bird species.
Juneberry or Western Serviceberry or Saskatoon Shadbush,
Amelanchier ainifolia Popular with wildlife.
Thimbleberry
Beach Plum
Native Plant List compiled by Cindy Goulder Nov 2012
Aesculus parviflora – bottle brush buckeye
Amelanchier alnifolia* – juneberry
Amelanchier canadensis
Aronia melanocarpa – chokeberry
Aronia brilliantissima
Baccharis halimifolia
Cercis canadensis*
Clematis virginiana
Cornus florida
Cornus sericea
Fothergilla minor*
Hammamelis virginiana
Hydrangea quercifolia
Ilex glabra
Ilex verticillata
Ilex verticillata ‘Red Sprite’
Myrica pensylvanica
Pinus sylvestris
Prunus besseyi*
Prunus maritima
Quercus palustrus
Rhus aromatica ‘Gro-low’
Rubus odoratus
Sambucus canadensis ‘Johns’ & ‘York’ Spiraea latifolia
Symphoricarpos orbiculatus Symphoricarpos alba
Thuja occidentalis*
Vaccinium angustifolia
Viburnum opulus
Aesclepias incarnata
Aquilegia canadensis
Aster ericoides (Symphyotrichum)
Aster laevis (Symphyotrichum)
Aster novae-angliae (Symphyotrichum) Baptisia australis
Cimicifuga racemosa (Actea racemosa)
Eapatorium coelestinium
Eupatorium fistulosum/maculatum/purpureum
Geranium maculatum
Helenium autumnale
Helianthus divaricatus
Helianthus tuberosus
Iris versicolor
Lobelia syphilitica
Monarda fistulosa
Phytolacca americana
Polygonatum biflorum
Polystichum acrostichoides
Rudbeckia hirta
Rudbeckia triloba
Solidago caesia
Solidago graminifolia (Euthamia )
Solidago nemoralis
Thalictrum pubescens
Tiarella cordifolia
Viola canadensis
Woodwardia areolata
Bottlebrush Buckeye
Western Juneberry, Pacific Serviceberry Juneberry, Shadbush, Serviceberry Black Chokeberry
Red Chokeberry
Groundsel Bush
Redbud
Virgin’s Bower
Flowering Dogwood
Yellow-twig Dogwood
Witch Alder
Witch Hazel
Oakleaf Hydrangea
Inkberry
Winterberry
Bayberry
White Pine
Western Sand Cherry
Beach Plum
Pin Oak
Thimbleberry
Elderberry
Meadowsweet
Coralberry
Snowberry
Eastern White Cedar
Lowbush Blueberry
Highbush Cranberry
Swamp milkweed
Columbine Many-flowered
Aster Smooth Aster
New York Aster
Baptisia
Black cohosh
Bugbane
Mist Flower,
Hardy Ageratum
Joe Pye Weed
Sneezeweed
Woodland Sunflower
Jerusalem artichoke
Blue-flag Iris
Blue lobelia, Blue cardinal flower Beebalm
Pokeweed
Solomon Seal
Christmas Fern
Black-eyed Susan
Brown-eyed Susan Blue-stemmed Goldenrod Grassleaf Goldenrod
Gray Goldenrod
Tall Meadow Rue
Foamflower
Violet
Netted chain fern