Weeds of the Friendly City (part two)*****

an expedition to the sidewalks of Hudson's south side....

Fleabane: does it really work?

Further down Union Street, I encountered this weed. Actually, it's more of a flower few people would really object to  in their garden.  I thought it was a miniature daisy but it turns out that it's called Fleabane (probably Erigeron annuus).  The plant gets its common name from its supposed ability to kill fleas. Might not be a bad idea to add a few dried stems to your dog's bed. 

Bindweed: a real thug

     On a less cheerful note, the plant pictured above is definitely a weed.  In fact, it even has the word in its common name, bindweed,  also known as Convolvulus arvensis, which translates into something like "field morning glory".  Don't be fooled: buy morning glory seeds at the garden center and forget about bindweed. To say it is a nuisance is to understate its behavior. Simply put, bindweed strangles everything in its path including, as you can see in this photo, pieces of metal.  True, it sports small white trumpets, but the damage it can do in a garden is stupendous. Yanking it out rarely works because it usually leaves tiny pieces of root in the soil, and the fragments happily regenerate. To eradicate takes deep and careful digging, plus vigilance.  I don't approve of herbicides, but if ever a weed deserved RoundUp, bindweed is it. It just doesn't have any redeeming qualities. 

    But the world of weeds is not all gloom-and-doom: near South 2nd Street I found a small but healthy specimen of burdock (Arctium lappa).  Not much to look at, the specimen in the photo below could grow up to a gangly 5 feet high, at which point it begins to look somewhat alarming. Don't be frightened: burdock roots are good medicine. Extracts from the taproots are reputed to cleanse the blood and detoxify the liver.  Gobo, steamed burdock root, is featured at many Japanese restaurants.  Burdock  flowerheads form globular clasping structures that will latch onto clothing and animal fur to hitch a ride to a new spot to drop seeds. They're so sticky, in fact, that the burr of the burdock was the inspiration for Velcro fabric. 

Burdock: the Japanese know best

***** SOME OF THESE PLANTS ARE DESCRIBED AS HAVING MEDICINAL USES. DO NOT USE THEM WITH-OUT A PHYSICIAN'S SUPERVISION. DO NOT COLLECT THEM FROM PRIVATE PROPERTY OR FROM LAND THAT HAS BEEN WITH PESTICIDES OR EXPOSED TO POLLUTANTS!