Friday 10 April 2015

A to Z Challenge: I is for Inedible Plants and Weeds

This month, I’m taking part in the A-Z Blogging Challenge, the annual event where hundreds of bloggers write 26 blogs—one for each letter of the alphabet—and post them each day of April, except Sundays. This year, I’m blogging about: THINGS THAT GROW IN ALBERTA. Don’t forget to check back daily and leave a comment on my blog, Facebook page, Twitter, Tumblr or via email at chase.superman.duffy@gmail.com. I’ll randomly pick a few winners who will WIN a SIGNED copy of one of the Chase “Superman" Duffy comics.


On Saturday, I blogged about dandelions, which, as it turns out, aren’t quite the horrible weed my dad, the lover of perfect lawns, led me to believe. You can even EAT them, and the young leaves are considered by some to be quite a delicacy! (I haven’t made up my mind about that yet.)

Despite the popularity of stinging nettle in some of the new Alberta restaurants, MOST weeds are inedible. And some are even poisonous—not only to humans, but also to animals. Did you know that there are about 200 different plant species in Alberta that are toxic (aka: bad news) for livestock?

Most plants are only considered dangerous when too much is consumed or at certain times of the year.  But a few, such as the Western Water Hemlock are extremely poisonous even in SMALL amounts. Now that’s scary!

Check out the names of some of these other potentially deadly plants:

Seaside Arrowgrass
Death Camas
Milk Vetch

They sound like comic book villain names, don’t they? Wait! Maybe they SHOULD be! (* jots down idea for a short story *)

As always, be careful if you decide to become a plant scavenger—some of those plants can be real pests. Oh…and speaking of PESTS, here’s your chance to WIN a copy of AMELIA XERCES DUFFY, the fifth book in the Chase Superman Duffy series. Just comment on one of my social media links listed above.

Gotta jet! Tomorrow, I’m rounding off the week with a cool “J” word. See you then!

— Chase Superman Duffy

2 comments:

  1. Bookmarked this one to check out again later. I also ran a post on toxic garden plants at http://www.authorsupport.net H for Heliotrope. I'm always looking for odd ideas for my cozy mysteries :-)
    Cute blog. Shall drop in again,
    Anne

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  2. Thanks for stopping by the blog. I like to write too, and I can definitely see how "toxic" or "poisonous" plants would make for great mystery stories. Good luck!

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