Most of the yard attached to the house where I live belongs to the city. Past landowners have fenced it in, creating a de facto private space. My housemates and I have a large vegetable garden in the side yard, but in back it is…the wasteland. An interesting phenomenon occurs in the wasteland. Natives, like bigleaf maples (Acer macrophylllum) and Indian plums (Oemleria cerasiformis), coexist with feral, cultivated plums (Prunus spp.), squirrel-sown horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum) and Eurasian ruderal ‘weeds’ like dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), money plant (Lunaria annua), hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta), purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) and chickweed (Stellaria media) and of course, stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), which is native here and in much of the northern hemisphere, occurring from the most wild and remote places to the heart of the city, the plant equivalent of the coyote (Canis latrans) in North America.
Acer macrophyllum (bigleaf maple) flowering in April.
The sap of bigleaf maple is edible, though not as sweet as sugar maple (Acer saccharum). The flowers are eaten in a variety of ways and the leaves and bark have been used for medicine.
Oemleria cerasiformis (Indian plum) flowering in April.
The fruit are small, the seed is large and the taste is unexceptional, but Indian plums are everywhere. They are dioecious (some plants have all female flowers and produce fruit, some plants have all male flowers and produce no fruit), so, if you see no fruit and it is fruiting season, look for a nearby female plant. The bark of Indian plum has been put to various medicinal uses.
Prunus sp. (plum of unknown origin)
In midsummer, Asian plums mature and a bit later, the European plums. Dandelions might be all you really need to survive, but throw in some Italian prune plums and you will be happier. They are so easy to dry (they’re freestone) and they make a plum butter to die for. Seriously, every home should have at least one prune plum tree.
Aesculus hippocastanum (horse chestnut) beginning to flower in April.
Horse chestnut seed extract is used to treat chronic venous insufficiency. If you have to ask what that is, you probably don’t need horse chestnut seed extract.
Lamium purpureum (purple deadneattle)
Leaves, stems and flowers are all edible. The same goes for Lamium album (white deadnettle).
Taraxacum officinale (dandelion)
Dandelions are almost always flowering almost everywhere. They’re about all you really need to stay alive. Eat the flowers, eat the leaves, eat the roots. A weed, perhaps, but a superfood, yes. Most Americans don’t get enough bitter foods in their diet. Bitter dandelion greens stimulate the gall bladder to produce bile which helps our bodies break down fatty foods. Mmm…fatty foods!
Stellaria media (chickweed)
In pesto and salads, steamed or stir-fried, chickweed is a dependably abundant green in the average urban garden.
Cardamine hirsuta (hairy bittercress)
Pick hairy bittercress before it goes to seed and you have an excellent alternative to watercress.
Lunaria annua (money plant)
Money plant seeds have been used as a mustard substitute; roots and young leaves are edible.
Urtica dioica (stinging nettle)
Wander the northern hemisphere and find this native stinging nettle. It’s a food, fiber, medicine and dye, all in one ornery little package.
Many of the plants in our urban green spaces are used as food, medicine, fiber, dye or all of the above. And they are where they are; the city is a vast tapestry of microhabitats, so I keep my eyes open all the time for foraging opportunities. There is certainly an ecological argument to be made for monitoring and, in some cases, controlling plants that are likely to disrupt the equilibrium of native ecosystems. But many of the plants that we urban foragers consume are here to stay, ineradicable and reasonably benign. Most are colonizers of disturbed soil, often protecting it from erosion, and they’re rarely seen outside the edges of human settlement. And, as my backyard wasteland demonstrates, many native plants and nonnative plants coexist quite peacefully (with the exception of tree killers like the various species of Clematis and Hedera that thrive in our urban forests). If you’re interested in learning about your urban environments on more intimate terms, do yourself a favor and get a good field guide. Arthur Lee Jacobson’s Wild Plants of Greater Seattle is an excellent resource. You can find it at local, independent book stores or order it directly from him http://www.arthurleej.com/wpogs.html, and start getting to know your city green spaces from the ground up.
step into the fringe
you see hiding in plain sight
this verdant wasteland
See you in the garden.