2012/07/27

Follow up of Pukala trip

Last weekend, me and Weekedn Woodsman had great time spend on day trip at Pukala recreational forest. I knew the weekend woodsman can tell the story of it really well, so I did only made post about it in Japanese.

If you would like to read the story in English, go check out the blog Weekend Woodsman.


The trip was real fun and relaxing. we have talked about many different topics, from bushcraft to personal life. But there was something from the trip, we needed to look up and have exchanges few emails...



It was about the wild edible. Weekend Woodsman has shown me the plant Epilobium angustifolium, commonly known as Fireweed. The leaf of this plant is edible and that I knew. But the problem was that from the pictures on books and so on, I did not got the clear difference, or how to ID correctly, which is the "Fireweed" or "Lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus)".  


So, I have asked him a question, "was't there a poisonous one looks just like Fireweed?" while he was chewing the leaf he just picked from Fireweed.


He got worried....


I guess I owe him an apology... I did not mean to, just I did not remember the name of plant. all I remember was that those are similar in looks.

On the end, those could be looks similar, but if get closer and look at, those are nothing alike.
leaf are different, the size of the plant, the only similarity was the color of flower and how it arranged.



How ever, I thought this was a good example of the case of "really should look and examine the real plant on hand before speak or try". Books and so on will provide the initial information, but in my opinion, nothing will teach better than real subject on hand.



It was the moment, the knowledge and experience came together to form a skill....


thanks to Weekend Woodsman for helping me getting the correct information and sorry about the confusion and worries I caused!



3 件のコメント:

  1. I'm glad the two of you had an enjoyable and educational time.

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  2. I had researched fireweed a few years ago and didn't think there was a poisonous look-alike (based on the research), so when you mentioned the possibility, I got very worried! I thought maybe I had missed something in my research.

    I was very relieved to find that you were thinking of the lupine, as I am familiar with this plant and know that it is poisonous. I definitely wouldn't eat that one by mistake!

    Anyway, it was a great trip (other than that scare ;), and I'm looking forward to the next one!

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