Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Thank you chefswild! That's all very helpful!

It's good to hear hemlock has a bad smell: that pretty much clears the stuff I'm seeing, as it has the little trefoils under the flower cluster and definitely smells carroty.

EEK on the livestock and abortifactant though! The stuff is settling in all over our back sheep pasture.
How bad is the toxicity issue, do you think? It doesn't look like they've been going after it at least...

in descending order:

rose (rosa species)
queen anne's lace (daucus carota)
some or another aster (symphyotrichum species)
staghorn sumach with insect galls on leaves (rhus typhina)
goldenrod (solidago species)
autumn olive (elaeagnus umbellata)
*pic is too blurry*
jewelweed (impatiens capensis)
some kind of sedge
clematis (Clematic species)
another aster (symphyotrichum species)
some kind of thistle (cirsium species)
more pics of the galls/insects on staghorn sumach
an ash leaf (fraxinus species)
birch polypore (fomitopsis betulina/piptoporus betulinus)

I use most of these in my herbal practice.

YOU. ARE. AMAZING!!!!!!

Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!

I'd learned (finally) staghorn sumac this last year, because it is all over - but the insect thing just threw me for a loop: I went back this year and... just sumac.
Much nicer.

I guess it's time for another walkabout with cheat sheet in hand and see if I can find them all again.

depending on where in new england you are, there may be a lot of resources in the way of herbalists doing plant walks, which would help with ID and actual usage...

Got another one!

... buckthorn, I think? It's ~14 feet tall at a guess, lots of blue-black berries.

And here's another funny thing, these little splats make a groundcover I haven't been able to figure out yet. They're ~2-4" across, and love love love the packed earth and gravel of the logging road - the same kind of ground Virginia Creeper likes.

Any ideas?

Yes to the buckhorn and I think the splat is mouse-ear hawkweed but not 100%