Turk's Cap

Common Names: Turk's cap, sleepy mallow, sleeping hibiscus, wax mallow, cardinal's hat, turk's turban, ladies teardrop, scotchman's purse
Latin Names: Malvaviscus arboreus
Type: Shrub
Origin: Native

Edible: Flowers and young leaves are edible cooked or raw. The fruit can make jelly. The fruit and flowers can make herbal teas. The flowers can make a lemonade-type drink.

   --> Flowers are sweet tasting and excellent. Blooms May-August.

Notes: Attracts butterflies and hummingbirds. The flowers never fully open. In the hibiscus family. Grew fast from a section of a neighbor's plant.

Turk's cap (June)

Turk's cap (May - Year 2)

Turk's cap (May)

Turk's cap (July)

Eastern Poison Ivy

Common Names: Eastern poison ivy

Latin Names: Toxicodendron radicans

Type: Vine

Origin: Native

Edible: No!

Other uses: Deer and rabbits eat it. Birds eat the fruit and bees are attracted to the blooms.

Notes: I'm definitely allergic to this! In some trees along the line of the woods.

Poison ivy (July)

Poison ivy (April)

Honeysuckle

Common Names: Honeysuckle

Latin Names: Lonicera japonica

Type: Vine

Origin: Eastern asia - invasive plant and can kill a tree with these vines

Edible: Flowers are edible raw or cooked. The nectar in the flower can be sucked out for a sweet taste. Young leaves can be eaten after cooking (some sources say one should change the water during the process). Leaves and flowers can make a tea.

Other uses: Vine can be used as a twine, fiber or for baskets. Flowers and dried leaves used in Chinese medicine.

Notes: One of the vines trying to take over the edge of the woods. Hummingbirds are attracted to the flowers.

Honeysuckle (May)

Honeysuckle - flower (May)

Honeysuckle (May)

Honeysuckle - flower (May)

Bottlebrush

Common Names: Bottlebrush, weeping bottlebrush, creeping bottlebrush
Latin Name: Melaleuca viminalis
Type: Shrub
Origin: Australia, used for landscaping in Florida

Edible: Possible tea (see other uses).

Other uses:  Leaves and flower can make a tea. The tea is listed as an antifungal / antibacterial used for internal infections, a laxative, or a wash for skin infections. Flower is more a sweetener than a tea. Flowers and leaves can make a dye. Wood can be used but normally too small for anything but handles or used as fuel.

Note: Bloomed in May then stopped. Neighbor's bottlebrushes still blooming in July. Love these blooms! Bees also love them. The vitinalis leaf smells like medicine while the citrinus smells like lemon.

Bottlebrush (April)

Bottlebrush (May)

Bottlebrush - flower (May)

Bottlebrush bark (May)

Bottlebrush - leaves (May)

Climbing Hempvine

Common Names: Climbing hempvine, climbing hempweed, louse-plaster
Latin Names: Mikania scandens
Type: Vine
Origin: Native

Edible: No

Other uses: Grown as a cover crop or livestock fodder. Used in butterfly gardens. Various medical uses including for stings and bites.

Note: Grows at pond. Takes over trees and shrubs.

Climbing hempvine (July)

Climbing hempvine (July)

Climbing hempvine (April)

Climbing hempvine (August)

Climbing hempvine (August)

Unknown Water Plant 1

Common Names: x
Latin Names: x
Type: Herbaceous
Origin: x

Edible: x

(April)

(April)

Water plant? (May)

Water plant? (July)

Water plant (July)

Loblolly Pine

Common Names: Loblolly pine
Latin Names: Pinus taeda
Type: Tree
Origin: Native

Edible: Needles can make a tea and considered high in vitamin C. Comment made online is that pregnant women should not use this tea. The needles need to be chopped small and the water should be hot, not boiling. Seedlings can be added to a salad.

Other uses: Sap is considered antifungal & antibacterial. Whole trees are logged and used for wood, mulch, and turpentine. Sap was used as a glue.

Notes: Southern yellow pine

Loblolly pine (May)

Loblolly pine (May)

Loblolly pine (June)

Loblolly pine (June)

Loblolly pine (April)

Water Oak

Common Names: Water oak, potted oak, duck oak, punk oak, orange oak, possum oak
Latin Names: Quercus nigra
Type: Tree
Origin: Native

Edible: The acorns can be eaten and this was a staple food for Native Americans. The seed is dried, ground into a powder and used in stews as a thickener or to make bread. The seed is full of bitter tannins so it must be leached (soaked in running water) either as a seed or in the powder form. The seed can be roasted and used as a coffee.

Other uses: Acorns eaten by animals. Wood is used and normally sold as red oak or used as a fuel.

Note: It is a red oak. The water oak has a variety of leaf shapes that are said to depend on the age of the tree, amount of sunlight, and soil. We have at least a couple of different leaf shapes.

Water oak (April)

Water oak (April)

Water oak (April)

Water oak (May)

Water oak (April)

Water oak (April)

Red Maple

Common Names: Red maple, swamp maple, water maple, soft maple
Latin Names: Acer rubrum
Type: Tree
Origin: Native

Edible: Maple syrup can be made from the tree but must be tapped very early before the buds come out. The sugar maples is a better source than red maple. Inner bark can be dried, ground, and then used as a thickener. The inner bark can also be eaten raw, boiled, or roasted. Young leaves can be eaten raw or cooked.

The seeds can be boiled and eaten hot or roasted. The wings must be removed first. Sometimes it can be bitter, so they have to be leached like an acorn (soak in several changes of cold water or boiled changing the water). Dried seeds can be ground to make a flour.

Other uses: Wood is used for furniture and is less expensive than sugar maple because it is softer. The inner bark is used as a dye. The bark can be used for medicinal purposes.

Red maple (May)

Red maple (May)

Red maple  - leaves (May)

Red maple - trunk (June)

Live Oak

Common Names: Live oak, southern live oak, Virginia live oak, bay live oak, scrub live oak, plateau oak, plateau live oak, escarpment live oak
Latin Names: Quercus virginiana
Type: Tree
Origin: Native

Edible: Cooking oil from the nuts (boil the internal nut to get the oil). The leached seed can be cooked to use as a thickener or roasted to be eaten whole. Roots of seedlings form an edible tuber like a potato.

Sources say that the live oak acorn is one of the mildest acorn (less tannic). However, acorns must be leached to remove the tannic acid both the improve the taste and so the acid won't damage our kidneys (!). Process:
- Put acorns in water. Any floaters should be thrown away. Dry the ones that sink (oven, frying pan, or just in the sun).
- Shell the acorns to get the nuts inside.
- Dry and coarsely grind the nut. Put in a net bag and into a pot of water. Keeping changing the water until the water stays clear. This may take up to a week (!).

Other uses: Medicinal purposes from various parts of the tree. Wood is hard and strong. The wood used to be used in ship framing. Leaves were used to make rugs. Bark can make dyes (tannin) or used as an astringent.

Notes: Can live for hundreds of years. Acorns eaten by many animals.

Live oak (June)

Live oak (June)

Live oak (May)

Unknown plant 1

Common Names: x
Latin Names: x
Type: Herbaceous
Origin: x

Edible: x

(May)

Virginia Creeper

Common Names: Virginia creeper, Victoria creeper, five-leaved ivy, five-finger, woodbine
Latin Names: Parthenocissus quinquefolia
Type: Vine
Origin: Native

Edible: The berries are edible but aren't supposed to taste very good. Other sources say the berries are toxic. The young stalks and the roots can be cooked.

Notes: One of the vines that is trying to take over the edge of the woods. Leaves can turn red in the fall. Some people are sensitive to the sap. Can kill trees with its weight and reducing the sun to the tree.

Virginia creeper (May)

Virginia creeper (May)

Virginia creeper (April)

Virginia creeper (April)

Virginia creeper - green berries (July)

Sweetgum

Common Names: Sweetgum, American sweetgum, American storax, hazel pine, bilsted, redgum, satin-walnut, star-leaved gum, alligatorwood
Latin Names: Liquidambar styraciflua
Type: Tree
Origin: Native

Edible: Can chew the dried resin which is harvested in the fall. The gum is supposed to be fragrant but bitter.

Other uses: Animals eat the seeds. Wood is a major crop in Southeastern U.S. The resin is amber color and smells good. The resin and bark is used medically.

Notes: Leaves can be colorful in the fall.

Sweetgum (June)

Sweetgum (April)

Sweetgum (June) - bark

Sweetgum (April)

Sweetgum (April)

Sweetgum seed (May)

Sweetgum seed (April) - from last year