Today a garden on Linneausstraat with Ground elder (Aegopodium podigrarium)
And the continuing leaves of Hollyhock on the Middenweg. Will they be there for a full year? If so I’m very excited as it’s relative Marshmallow, has completely died back in the park.
Thanks fellow Urban Herbie Elodie, for this lovely photo of a Celery plant growing near her Amsterdam home!
And here is a wonderful (though very toxic internally) Greater celandine, useful for removing warts and similar skin growths and anomalies, on Tolstraat. That street is full of the plant.
There are still lots of edible plants around in Amsterdam. Here are just a few…
Yarrow.
Hairy bittercress.
Medicinal, astringent, bruise evaporating Witch hazel is now in full bloom. I usually buy distilled witch hazel but may try tincturing some this winter. This is my favourite sign of early spring. Such fascinating flowers!
Pain controlling Willow. Heaps of the just cut withies are lying around at the moment. If they are still I’m the park on Monday I’d like to make herb drying trays from some, with my apprentice group.
I’m looking everywhere for Sweet Cicely at the moment. It’s usually the first carrot family member to flower in the New Year and I never usually have trouble funding it in Amsterdam. I found lots of toxic Hedge Parsley today – again! A few plants are in flower, a few were quite red stemmed, maybe baby Hemlock. None smelted safely of aniseed our had the characteristic leaf. Where are you Sweet Cicely?
The above photo shows Hedge parsley and an Elder with plenty of young leaves. Our cold weather is yet to come.
Inedible but a pretty symbol of early spring – my first Snowdrops of 2013, in Park Frankendael today.
And this crazy sort of Cabbage looking perennial plant, making a.breakthrough from the soil. They grow where the Fuki relatives (a type of Butterburr) grow in the park. I’ll keep a close eye on them. Last year fellow Urban Herbie, Youko and I missed our chance to properly identify them, because they flower so early. All members of that family contain some toxins but highly regarded Fuki is harvested really young in Japan, cooked in a specific way and I feel for myself at least, that a small amount of toxin intake is worth it for the taste – but only if it’s really Fuki! Time, a magnifying lens and several guided books, will tell.
Loads of other herbs are around in Amsterdam but I was too busy to photograph more of them today. Look out for Comfrey, Ground ivy and Chickweed in particular.
Slightly sunnier photos today, of a mini Dandelion in the crack between a house and pavement…
And this deep green plant, which looks like Hairy bittercress at first glance but is most likely to be White Mustard (Sinapis alba) or Hedge mustard (Sisymbrium officinale). I think it’s most likely the first mustard but it will be easier to tell of it gets a chance to flower.
Not much chance for herb hunting today but I did see lots of Chickweed (Stellaria media) looking very tasty in various dog-free locations. Chickweed is a great wild winter food and a useful medicinal herb. It helps combat itches, skin heat conditions, winter nutrient deficiency and much more. Look up Susun Weed’s commentaries on this wonderful plant for further information.
Here’s one patch, a little too dark for seeing details but yummy none the less…
I’ve been nibbling on yellow Winter Jasmine flowers this afternoon. They don’t have much of a taste to shot about but they are palatable, very mildly astringent and could liven up a winter salad. Winter Jasmine seems to do well in Amsterdam geveltuinen (pavement gardens) and certainly looks attractive (if you like yellow). The flowers are easy to identify and easy to pluck.
I thought that this is Malva sylvestris, Common Mallow though it more likely could be a stunted Lavatera arborea (must look at it again this week), growing in one of my neighbour’s roadside planters. This plant seems to offer flowers all year long! The whole plant is edible and soothingly medicinal – if it’s Malva. If it’s a Lavatera then the leaves and flowers are also edible though the medicinal qualities are far less than Mallow.
I believe that this is Slender Speedwell (Veronica filiformis). Its a pretty little plant with forget-me-not style flowers, which is edible and medicinal. The ladybirds were having a field day on it, munching through aphids, not yet killed off by cold weather. Here’s a useful and inspiring blog post about Speedwells, which may be of interest.
And here is one of the easiest and most useful herbs to grow in Amsterdam. Calendula officinalis. You can save the seeds and they’ll reward you handsomely next season, add the flowers to cooking pots (it’s called a pot herb for this reason) for colour and bitterness, make healing oils, ointments, lotions, lip balms, dyes, soaks etc from the leaves and flowers. It’s a magical plant. Here it is still flowering along my street, in another neighbour’s pavement garden pot. If you’d like something very simple to grow and safe (well, within reason of course) then I’d go for Calendula.
Back to plant watching today. After a nice lunch in Merkelbach restaurant, I found these interesting edible and medicinal herbs in park Frankendael…
Herb Robert (above).
Garlic mustard.
Viola sp.
Greater celandine (note the bright orange toxic (externally therapeutic in ways) sap).
Copper beech, leaves lost finally.
Hairy bittercress
Comfrey.
Rosehips and winter Jasmine (I’ve no idea of the Jasmine of this sort is useful).
Young and often misleading hedge parsley (toxic)
We’re back home and the weather in Amsterdam is mild (10 °C) but dull. This photo of my geveltuin, sort of reflects that. It needs a new year spruce up.
Whilst I have been away Dana Marin has kindly taken some Amsterdam herb photos and sent them to me for the 365 project. Many thanks Dana, I’ll be back home very soon so the project will resume fully then.
Here are some for the lovely photos which Dana took in park Frankendael and along Bertrand Russelstraat over the recent days…
Chickweed (Stellaria media)
Ivy (Hedera helix)
A Brassica, not sure which at the moment, possibly BarbaraKruid, possibly not!
Hedge parsley, toxic. It may be an edible member of the carrot family (I’m looking forward to finding Sweet Cicely very soon, but most likely Hedge Parsley).
Urban Herbology 