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TBF if you're in North America, especially the northern United States east of the Mississippi, the nature is relatively safe. There are very few poisonous berries that will even damage you if you eat a handful.. you might barf but that's about it. I think the most dangerous things here might be...the occasional brain eating amoeba, certain water features, and the very rare timber rattler...and destroying angels. But generally we have it made here.
would you kindly elaborate on the brain-eating amoebae because I've done a lot of berry foraging on Long Island the last few years and now I'm convinced I have a brain-eating amoeba lol
Funny! And could be true. But I think most cases are from leaping into lake water off a dock or rocks and water going up the nose with force. I wonder if wearing a nose clip would prevent. Seems like it would.
Naegleria fowlerii. It's an amoeba that lives in warm fresh water and can (very rarely - about 2-3 cases per year in the US) cause an infection in the meninges and brain if it gets up your nose. Gets attention because despite being extremely rare, it's almost universally fatal within a few days of symptom onset. Also because, thanks to climate change, the range of suitably warm water for it to live in is expanding.
I don't think we've ever had a case of brain eating amoeba on the Island. If we have it's exceedingly rare.
Sidebar, where are you foraging for berries?
Naegleria fowleri is its name iirc. Lives in creeks and water bodies where there isn’t a lot of running water and at the right temperatures and generally goes to brain via the nose
They live in contaminated, warm waters in some places (notably, they contaminate the waters at the Roman Baths in Bath, UK). If you accidentally snort water containing the amoeba (n. fowleri iir), >!it digests your brain cells to feed. There's not much immune system in the brain, and even if there was, the amoeba's sheer size means there's nothing your body can do, and no medical treatment available. Delirium, madness and death follow.!< If you're swimming in the sort of places they inhabit, a nose plug is recommended, and if you use a neti pot or other device like that, you should be using boiled or distilled water.
FYI ate a blueberry in the wilds of northern Minnesota once and got a wicked case of giardiasis. Turns out spread by beavers so WASH those wild blueberries very well folks.
Those only happen when you go swimming in tepid water in the summer - fresh water bodies. The brain eating amoeba goes up your nose and travels through your brain. As far as I know it never goes through your mouth and doesn’t affect you if you drink it.
When I was a girl there were these two popular boys who went swimming just before school started, so, early August. They swam in a pond I think. They both got really sick, both were hospitalized. One got better, but the other boy, his brain swelled and he was reduced to being “slow”.
He went from being the boy that dated all the cheerleaders to being in special education class.
As it was the 1980’s, Naegleria fowleri was relatively unknown in the rural parts of the country.
I suspect this kid somehow got it or maybe something else and it did its damage. Since he was young maybe his body fought for his life and won.
All I know is, his life was ruined.
It is best to swim in a chlorine pool, or wear nose plugs (I guess, don’t take my word for it).
It can occur in tap water, so if you use a neti pot make sure you boil the water well (follow the directions that come with the neti pot) before using it to flush your sinuses.
Edit: I corrected mistakes I made in the text.
One of my neighbors developed this meat allergy after a tick bite. Two years later he did the Whole-30 diet for a few months (which I thought was stupid, except as an exercise in will power) and his red meat allergy disappeared.
YMMV.
Oh wow, that’s great for him! Research shows that some people seem to get over it like sometimes happens with more common allergies, but honestly we just don’t know much about it yet.
The hogweed got me. It was growing out of a hydrangea bush. “Look at that Queen Anne’s Lace. I’ll leave it there for swallowtail butterflies to lay their eggs.” It got really tall, which I thought was the plant trying to reach the sunlight from inside the bush. Finally I had to cut it down because it was so tall and wide. Had to chop it up. Then picked up all the sap-covered bits and threw them in trash. Continued gardening in the sun that day after rinsing my arms with a spray wand.
Had to get steroids to calm the horrendous weeping, itchy, rash that covered both arms.
(Had Lyme and babesiosis too, but I expected I’d get them eventually, since I live on the east end)
Oh my God the poison hemlock is the worst I've ever seen it in California. Huge stands of it. Pretty soon the whole state will be overrun with tree of heaven, thistle, and hemlock.
I teach university level biology courses (field bio, ecology, etc) in Missouri.
I generally have the same attitude as u/ocean_flan in that it’s really hard to get yourself in trouble here without purposely doing something you shouldn’t.
But I make a point to point out poison hemlock at all of my students in all of my classes because it’s one of the few things here that is capable of casually ruining your day, so to speak.
Like, if I see a student standing in a pile of poison ivy, I’ll point it out. Or a student in shorts getting ready to walk through a bunch of stinging nettle. But the first time we go to a site with hemlock, I’ll gather everyone around to make sure they can identify it before we do anything else.
Currently crying in lower Alabama. It’s peak snake season, there’s a noisy gator in the creek behind the house, and the shark attacks make the beach a nope nope right now.
Please enjoy the nice part of the country for all of us living in America’s Australia.
I feel your pain. I'm in az and we have a decent amount of rattlers along with our local coral snakes, and right by my house a jaguar has been sighted recently lol.
This isn’t true at all, especially for children. We have poison hemlock, snakeweed, pokeweed, datura, baneberry, oleander, a large handful of other toxic flowering plants that can be deadly like death camas and foxglove and hellebore. Most things are fine, but the ones that aren’t really aren’t.
Yes I know a child that ate something in their yard and got severe brain damage. I thought it was called nightshade, something that’s just all over. I was a kid though so I may have the actual plant name wrong
There’s also copper heads and cottonmouths to contend with in the snake department.
Also, rare to encounter for most folks but there are some highly venomous caterpillars (e.g. puss moth)
In the plant department there is Jimson weed and nightshade, which aren’t exactly native but are pretty easy to come across and are visually interesting to curious children.
It's funny the amount of plants we used to eat without knowing the real name of them. Just sharing knowledge between kids about what tasted good. Same way we used to all learn the same backyard games, even speaking different languages.
And they're pretty opportunistic. We have a HUGE patch along our sidewalk where nothing but them can survive and without them, that patch would be completely barren. When they break down, the oxalis and these little spurge looking things will move in, and then dandelions, and grasses
When I was a kid, we used to close our eyes, think of a fruit, squeeze the buds, then smell. We’d ALWAYS smell the fruit we were thinking of. I love these weeds!
Yay! That's a core memory unlocked:) I used to eat those all the time as a kid and never knew what they were called. I was an idiot obsessed with stories where kids had to run away and live off the land, so I'd pretend I was surviving off the foraged flowers, leaves, and nuts I'd fill my pockets with. Luckily, I lived long enough to develop some sense and stopped making mystery salads, but I still kinda love these.
Yep exactly. I remember this growing in our driveway as a kid and it wasn’t until a decade later that I actually knew what it was but the smell of pineapple was the thing that identified it for me, oh yeah that’s what grew in our driveway!
Okay, but I must check, as I see these commonly where I live. Is there any similar looking plants that when brewed will be terrible toxins? I ain’t about to have an Uncle Iroh incident if I can help it.
The only potential danger would be if it was ~~grieving~~ growing in a place where it had absorbed toxins from things like industrial waste.
To me the plant is distinctive enough that misidentification is nearly impossible, but I supposed that if it didn’t have the flowers on it someone might find something else that vaguely resembles it.
Necessary caveat, don’t take medical or edibility advice from strangers on Reddit or other social media.
Look up ‘pineapple weed tea’ in your search engine if choice and read the posts about it and decide for yourself, and check [the wikipedia entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matricaria_discoidea#Uses), as well as botanical sources.
>The only potential danger would be if it was grieving in a place where it had absorbed toxins from things like industrial waste
Poor guy! Already heartbroken and now has toxins because of where he was sad at.
Of course. Always take advice from strangers over the internet with a grain of salt. But asking my question both saved me a bit of a google search and provided a perfect joke opportunity
I’m very excited that it’s native to North America! I’ve been trying to increase my native plantings while also growing food plants and things I just like. This might check all three boxes.
Funny. I once worked for a helicopter service and in the outside in the back we had an inground tank where we dumped our used oils and such.
I suspected that the tank being so old had cracked and was leaching chemicals into the surrounding dirt.
There was a new pilot that lived in a camper just across from the sump and he was growing tomatoes.
I told him he was crazy growing food in that soil. I demonstrated it by picking a ripe tomato and threw it hard against the building’s brick wall and it wouldn’t even crack open!
The next time I went to the back, the tomato plants were pulled up. I probably saved his life. 🤣
For decades the dad of one of my ex-girlfriends dumped his used motor oil at the base of a peach tree he had.
It made the biggest peaches we’d ever seen. None of us ever felt safe trying them though.
—I told him he was crazy growing food in that soil. I demonstrated it by picking a ripe tomato and threw it hard against the building’s brick wall and it wouldn’t even crack open!
Tbf, a tomato would never be able to crack open a brick wall. No matter how hard one threw it. That’s like, Kool-Aid Man territory.
One might mistake wild chamomile/pineappleweed for common tansy, which also grows in disturbed areas and roadsides. Both are part of the Asteracea family
I have occasionally seen conical tansies. The big thing is, tansies will generally be super tall, about four or five feet or more, whereas pineapple weed only grows to about 6-8" max
A numbers of Trifolium/Trefoil/Clovers and relatives like Black Medic bear a passing resemblance. Not sure about toxicity, I've read that Black Medic seeds were used as a food crop once but these days it's found in yards and pastures. The leaves are very different though.
https://preview.redd.it/gnfwuuoccv7d1.jpeg?width=706&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b3d7c7a757c823292253da413acdd5c441eb3df
I had to google Uncle Iroh. Perfect. 😉👍🤣
Matricaria discoidea, commonly known as pineapple-weed and wild chamomile (source: Wikipedia), is correctly called pineapple-weed. However, chamomile is also an acceptable answer, even if it's not thoroughly stated.
Matricaria discoidea is the name you would use to be as specific as possible, but both common names posited are actually legit. It is both pineapple weed and wild chamomile. That's why we have Latin taxonomic names.
Wild chamomile (Matricaria discoidea), often known as pineapple weed, belongs to the same genus as German chamomile , learned that last year, started saving flowers for tea
It's VERY good in tea and when used in tea is a flavor equivalent to chamomile. My cousin is a tea person, makes her own from wildflowers, and I sent her some tea made of this and she pinned it as chamomile
Also I'm pretty sure the two are closely related
Matricaria discoidea
I know it both as pineapple weed and wild chamomile
Seeing as this is related to one type of chamomile, Matricaria chamomilla, I'm willing to accept both names
Correct, and that’s why it’s called wild chamomile.
https://preview.redd.it/00qz80ua1u7d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e659bee901be46112c10e3a8107d760250a0bf3b
I love pineapple weed, that and linaria sprout all over New England sidewalks and edges in summer. Pineapple weed and butter and eggs/toad flax,, add sweet rocket, sweet fern, bracken and you have a typical roadside
Fun fact! You can mow camomile like grass and the queen of England used to have a camomile lawn. It was said to be so soft you could drop an egg from the high palace windows and it would bounce!
It is Matricaria matricarioides or ‘pinapple weed’. Comes from Europe as a weed of disturbed places, especially hard packed walkways. Edible and sweetly nice. . .
Doesn't look like pineapple mint to me. Perhaps you meant pineappleweed? Gosh though what a lovely smell. I love that mint!
It definitely does look like *discoidea* / wild chamomile though! Deadringer for sure.
I believe they are supposed to be mosquito repellant too. Like if you squish them/the leaves and rub it on your skin it’s supposed to keep mosquitoes away
One of my favourite “mom banished us from the house and said we couldn’t come back in unless someone is bleeding” snacks along with the nectar from the bottom of those purple thistle looking flowers.
I typically hate the “you can eat it” answers because it’s usually some dirt smelling menace of a weed that nobody *wants* to eat. This one actually sounds tasty.
we loved finding these on school grounds as a kid! we would call them mini strawberries, pick the "strawberry" (just a couple) and squish them to release the fruity smell and sniff it til recess was over.
Pineapple weed! Close relative of Chamomile, you can dry it out and use it to make tea. It does really well in soil that’s compact and frequently walked over, every trail in my yard is lined with the stuff, it makes walking through my yard in summer smell like I’m in a lemon orchard
*Pineapple weed. We*
*Used to make tea with it. Tastes*
*Like chamomile tea*
\- Stinkerma
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Yes! this is pineappleweed also known as wild chamomile!! You can eat it, it is medicinal like regular chamomile you’d buy or think about and has the same calming properties. Now go make some tea!!
Pineapple weed! I loved these as a child! Me and my friends used to pick these a mix them in water to make "perfume". Though we used to call them "sweetie plants" because the flowers look like jelly tot sweets
pineapple weed! it’s also called wild chamomile, i have a— i don’t know what it’s called, but it’s a bunch of dried chamomile tied up with some twine that i harvested 2 or 3 years ago, i’m willing to bet you could make tea out of it
You already have ao many correct responses, but I went through a lot of them & didn't see my primary use, so I thought I'd share. It's AMAZING sleepy tea. The heads have insane amounts of essential oils in them & it's extremely effective if you have the tea an hour or so before bed.
Pineapple weed. It’s wild chamomile and has some of the properties of chamomile: digestive and analgesic. It also tastes good. I pick it and eat it, give it to my horses and also brew tea with it.
I wet horses feed with it as the secondi compounds are released when the plant is steeped in hot water.
I also drink the same brew.
Thank you for posting to r/whatsthisplant. **Do not eat/ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.** For your safety we recommend not eating or ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised that it's edible here. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yay Pineapple Weed! No pricklies. No itchies. Non-toxic. Smells really nice. Pretty flowers. Good for pollinators. And you can eat it.
Thisnis good to know because we played with these when I was a kid (pretended they were lemons) and definitely ate them lol.
Me too. I kind of get why my sister is a helicopter parent now, haha!
TBF if you're in North America, especially the northern United States east of the Mississippi, the nature is relatively safe. There are very few poisonous berries that will even damage you if you eat a handful.. you might barf but that's about it. I think the most dangerous things here might be...the occasional brain eating amoeba, certain water features, and the very rare timber rattler...and destroying angels. But generally we have it made here.
What are timber Rattlers and destroying angels
A venomous snake and a poisonous mushroom, respectively.
would you kindly elaborate on the brain-eating amoebae because I've done a lot of berry foraging on Long Island the last few years and now I'm convinced I have a brain-eating amoeba lol
I think the brain eating amoeba is from getting fresh water up your nose. Happened more in men than women for some reason IIRC
My theory is that men pick their noses more and will more often have deviated spetums. Just my hunch.
Neti pot users that use unboiled tap water are at risk!
there was a good doctor episode about this !
Funny! And could be true. But I think most cases are from leaping into lake water off a dock or rocks and water going up the nose with force. I wonder if wearing a nose clip would prevent. Seems like it would.
No, it’s from forceful leaping into the water, which guys do. It forces water up the nose.
Naegleria fowlerii. It's an amoeba that lives in warm fresh water and can (very rarely - about 2-3 cases per year in the US) cause an infection in the meninges and brain if it gets up your nose. Gets attention because despite being extremely rare, it's almost universally fatal within a few days of symptom onset. Also because, thanks to climate change, the range of suitably warm water for it to live in is expanding.
Always think about the wife when she was asked by her husband, what did you do all day? “Well, your kids are alive aren’t they?”
It's fairly common in Louisiana.
The amoeba itself is ubiquitous once the water hits a high enough average annual temperature.
Yeah. That makes it common in Louisiana. So is Necrotizing fascitis.
I'm not a doctor but, I think that if you're posting on here your brain is intact look at me thinking, no brain eating amoeba here!
I don't think we've ever had a case of brain eating amoeba on the Island. If we have it's exceedingly rare. Sidebar, where are you foraging for berries?
Naegleria fowleri is its name iirc. Lives in creeks and water bodies where there isn’t a lot of running water and at the right temperatures and generally goes to brain via the nose
They live in contaminated, warm waters in some places (notably, they contaminate the waters at the Roman Baths in Bath, UK). If you accidentally snort water containing the amoeba (n. fowleri iir), >!it digests your brain cells to feed. There's not much immune system in the brain, and even if there was, the amoeba's sheer size means there's nothing your body can do, and no medical treatment available. Delirium, madness and death follow.!< If you're swimming in the sort of places they inhabit, a nose plug is recommended, and if you use a neti pot or other device like that, you should be using boiled or distilled water.
FYI ate a blueberry in the wilds of northern Minnesota once and got a wicked case of giardiasis. Turns out spread by beavers so WASH those wild blueberries very well folks.
Those only happen when you go swimming in tepid water in the summer - fresh water bodies. The brain eating amoeba goes up your nose and travels through your brain. As far as I know it never goes through your mouth and doesn’t affect you if you drink it. When I was a girl there were these two popular boys who went swimming just before school started, so, early August. They swam in a pond I think. They both got really sick, both were hospitalized. One got better, but the other boy, his brain swelled and he was reduced to being “slow”. He went from being the boy that dated all the cheerleaders to being in special education class. As it was the 1980’s, Naegleria fowleri was relatively unknown in the rural parts of the country. I suspect this kid somehow got it or maybe something else and it did its damage. Since he was young maybe his body fought for his life and won. All I know is, his life was ruined. It is best to swim in a chlorine pool, or wear nose plugs (I guess, don’t take my word for it). It can occur in tap water, so if you use a neti pot make sure you boil the water well (follow the directions that come with the neti pot) before using it to flush your sinuses. Edit: I corrected mistakes I made in the text.
And wild parsnip, giant hogweed, and Lyme disease
And the tick-borne "allergy to all meat for the rest of your life" disease.
Alpha-GAL. I know two people with it and it sucks a *lot*, so be sure to take all precautions against getting bit.
One of my neighbors developed this meat allergy after a tick bite. Two years later he did the Whole-30 diet for a few months (which I thought was stupid, except as an exercise in will power) and his red meat allergy disappeared. YMMV.
Oh wow, that’s great for him! Research shows that some people seem to get over it like sometimes happens with more common allergies, but honestly we just don’t know much about it yet.
And there's always pokeweed
/r/itsalwayspokeweed
The hogweed got me. It was growing out of a hydrangea bush. “Look at that Queen Anne’s Lace. I’ll leave it there for swallowtail butterflies to lay their eggs.” It got really tall, which I thought was the plant trying to reach the sunlight from inside the bush. Finally I had to cut it down because it was so tall and wide. Had to chop it up. Then picked up all the sap-covered bits and threw them in trash. Continued gardening in the sun that day after rinsing my arms with a spray wand. Had to get steroids to calm the horrendous weeping, itchy, rash that covered both arms. (Had Lyme and babesiosis too, but I expected I’d get them eventually, since I live on the east end)
Poison hemlock isn’t native but is fairly common throughout the US and definitely not safe! Plus copperheads are all over the SE.
Oh my God the poison hemlock is the worst I've ever seen it in California. Huge stands of it. Pretty soon the whole state will be overrun with tree of heaven, thistle, and hemlock.
I teach university level biology courses (field bio, ecology, etc) in Missouri. I generally have the same attitude as u/ocean_flan in that it’s really hard to get yourself in trouble here without purposely doing something you shouldn’t. But I make a point to point out poison hemlock at all of my students in all of my classes because it’s one of the few things here that is capable of casually ruining your day, so to speak. Like, if I see a student standing in a pile of poison ivy, I’ll point it out. Or a student in shorts getting ready to walk through a bunch of stinging nettle. But the first time we go to a site with hemlock, I’ll gather everyone around to make sure they can identify it before we do anything else.
Currently crying in lower Alabama. It’s peak snake season, there’s a noisy gator in the creek behind the house, and the shark attacks make the beach a nope nope right now. Please enjoy the nice part of the country for all of us living in America’s Australia.
I’m in New Orleans, I feel your pain!
I feel your pain. I'm in az and we have a decent amount of rattlers along with our local coral snakes, and right by my house a jaguar has been sighted recently lol.
This isn’t true at all, especially for children. We have poison hemlock, snakeweed, pokeweed, datura, baneberry, oleander, a large handful of other toxic flowering plants that can be deadly like death camas and foxglove and hellebore. Most things are fine, but the ones that aren’t really aren’t.
Yes I know a child that ate something in their yard and got severe brain damage. I thought it was called nightshade, something that’s just all over. I was a kid though so I may have the actual plant name wrong
This is a dangerously reductive thing to say when talking about foraging anywhere, including the Eastern US.
Florida has manchineels. Look like a nice apple. Will kill you horribly.
Ticks. Unfortunately ticks are terrible in the northeast.
Yew berries aren’t exactly ideal but they’re in landscape settings mostly
There’s also copper heads and cottonmouths to contend with in the snake department. Also, rare to encounter for most folks but there are some highly venomous caterpillars (e.g. puss moth) In the plant department there is Jimson weed and nightshade, which aren’t exactly native but are pretty easy to come across and are visually interesting to curious children.
And ticks.
So many ticks!
Don’t forget the mushrooms …
Same, we used to call them Opal Fruit plants xD
It's funny the amount of plants we used to eat without knowing the real name of them. Just sharing knowledge between kids about what tasted good. Same way we used to all learn the same backyard games, even speaking different languages.
Core fucking memory
Also known as "Wild Camomile," and you can make a lovely tea with it.
And they're pretty opportunistic. We have a HUGE patch along our sidewalk where nothing but them can survive and without them, that patch would be completely barren. When they break down, the oxalis and these little spurge looking things will move in, and then dandelions, and grasses
Also known as wild chamomile.
Make cupcakes or cookies by infusing butter with pineapple weed! They’re delicious. Just don’t eat it if you’re allergic to chamomile.
This! In tea it tastes like chamomile had a baby with a pineapple :)
Dry it out and make tea. It’s really good as a sleepy time tea and works!
When I was a kid, we used to close our eyes, think of a fruit, squeeze the buds, then smell. We’d ALWAYS smell the fruit we were thinking of. I love these weeds!
It's also known as Wild Chamomile. It's native to North America. If you like chamomile tea, you can use the heads to make your own.
Now I want some.
make a great light tea too
How can I get seeds for it? Love it!
Yay! That's a core memory unlocked:) I used to eat those all the time as a kid and never knew what they were called. I was an idiot obsessed with stories where kids had to run away and live off the land, so I'd pretend I was surviving off the foraged flowers, leaves, and nuts I'd fill my pockets with. Luckily, I lived long enough to develop some sense and stopped making mystery salads, but I still kinda love these.
It’s pineapple weed not chamomile
I second this- roll the flower btwn your fingers- it will smell like pineapple
Yep exactly. I remember this growing in our driveway as a kid and it wasn’t until a decade later that I actually knew what it was but the smell of pineapple was the thing that identified it for me, oh yeah that’s what grew in our driveway!
Also makes a good tea though.
Okay, but I must check, as I see these commonly where I live. Is there any similar looking plants that when brewed will be terrible toxins? I ain’t about to have an Uncle Iroh incident if I can help it.
The only potential danger would be if it was ~~grieving~~ growing in a place where it had absorbed toxins from things like industrial waste. To me the plant is distinctive enough that misidentification is nearly impossible, but I supposed that if it didn’t have the flowers on it someone might find something else that vaguely resembles it. Necessary caveat, don’t take medical or edibility advice from strangers on Reddit or other social media. Look up ‘pineapple weed tea’ in your search engine if choice and read the posts about it and decide for yourself, and check [the wikipedia entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matricaria_discoidea#Uses), as well as botanical sources.
>The only potential danger would be if it was grieving in a place where it had absorbed toxins from things like industrial waste Poor guy! Already heartbroken and now has toxins because of where he was sad at.
Honestly, same
Of course. Always take advice from strangers over the internet with a grain of salt. But asking my question both saved me a bit of a google search and provided a perfect joke opportunity
I’m very excited that it’s native to North America! I’ve been trying to increase my native plantings while also growing food plants and things I just like. This might check all three boxes.
I just know it loves to live in gravel driveways. I have no idea why but it can survive where others fail.
Its all over around and under my car and drive over it everyday..
I'm totally into native edible perennials lately, it's very rewarding! I've got a pinon that's just now fruiting and a serviceberry
Funny. I once worked for a helicopter service and in the outside in the back we had an inground tank where we dumped our used oils and such. I suspected that the tank being so old had cracked and was leaching chemicals into the surrounding dirt. There was a new pilot that lived in a camper just across from the sump and he was growing tomatoes. I told him he was crazy growing food in that soil. I demonstrated it by picking a ripe tomato and threw it hard against the building’s brick wall and it wouldn’t even crack open! The next time I went to the back, the tomato plants were pulled up. I probably saved his life. 🤣
For decades the dad of one of my ex-girlfriends dumped his used motor oil at the base of a peach tree he had. It made the biggest peaches we’d ever seen. None of us ever felt safe trying them though.
That is so weird! I am painfully curious to know why and how!
me too!
—I told him he was crazy growing food in that soil. I demonstrated it by picking a ripe tomato and threw it hard against the building’s brick wall and it wouldn’t even crack open! Tbf, a tomato would never be able to crack open a brick wall. No matter how hard one threw it. That’s like, Kool-Aid Man territory.
lol!
Also maybe don’t pick from somewhere likely to be driven on or sprayed regularly
Or peed on!
One might mistake wild chamomile/pineappleweed for common tansy, which also grows in disturbed areas and roadsides. Both are part of the Asteracea family
I have occasionally seen conical tansies. The big thing is, tansies will generally be super tall, about four or five feet or more, whereas pineapple weed only grows to about 6-8" max
Good way to tell the difference for the unsure is the crushed leaf smell test
You could argue tansy is edible in small doses, the main toxic compound is also present in culinary sage
oh ok so pineappleweed and wild chamomile are the same thing?
Uncle Iroh: "Hmm, delectable tea, or deadly poison?..."
A numbers of Trifolium/Trefoil/Clovers and relatives like Black Medic bear a passing resemblance. Not sure about toxicity, I've read that Black Medic seeds were used as a food crop once but these days it's found in yards and pastures. The leaves are very different though.
Globe chamomile looks similar and is very nauseating just to smell. But does not have a pleasant aroma at all
https://preview.redd.it/gnfwuuoccv7d1.jpeg?width=706&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b3d7c7a757c823292253da413acdd5c441eb3df I had to google Uncle Iroh. Perfect. 😉👍🤣
Pineapple weed is also known as wild chamomile
It's a chamomile, just not Matricaria chamomilla but it is in the chamomile tribe within the sunflowe family.
Not only that, it’s a Matricaria species, M. discoidea.
True, even closer related
in czech called chamomile with targets
In Polish gypsy chamomile, or chamomile without ray florets.
In German it's dog's chamomile.
Matricaria discoidea, commonly known as pineapple-weed and wild chamomile (source: Wikipedia), is correctly called pineapple-weed. However, chamomile is also an acceptable answer, even if it's not thoroughly stated.
it is chamomile just different species of it - in europe it is called wild chamomile
Omg I’ve wondered about this for years!! Thank you!
I was all, we called it pineapple weed, but that probably isn't what it's called...
Matricaria discoidea is the name you would use to be as specific as possible, but both common names posited are actually legit. It is both pineapple weed and wild chamomile. That's why we have Latin taxonomic names.
Technically it's still *a chamomile* (a member of the chamomile tribe) just not Roman chamomile (*Chamaemelum nobile*).
To be fair they are very closely related. In fact wild camomile is another name for it.
It *is* a chamomile. Look at the name - it's a *Matricaria* too. It just doesn't have ray florets.
Wild chamomile (Matricaria discoidea), often known as pineapple weed, belongs to the same genus as German chamomile , learned that last year, started saving flowers for tea
Yea! They are related I think.
I think it's usually called pineapple express
It's VERY good in tea and when used in tea is a flavor equivalent to chamomile. My cousin is a tea person, makes her own from wildflowers, and I sent her some tea made of this and she pinned it as chamomile Also I'm pretty sure the two are closely related
Matricaria discoidea I know it both as pineapple weed and wild chamomile Seeing as this is related to one type of chamomile, Matricaria chamomilla, I'm willing to accept both names
They are the same thing. We make tea from it.
While sometimes called wild chamomile, it is a different plant to what is considered 'true' chamomile.
Correct, and that’s why it’s called wild chamomile. https://preview.redd.it/00qz80ua1u7d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e659bee901be46112c10e3a8107d760250a0bf3b
True blue chamomile and pineapple chamomile are the only two in the Matricaria genus I believe
I love pineapple weed, that and linaria sprout all over New England sidewalks and edges in summer. Pineapple weed and butter and eggs/toad flax,, add sweet rocket, sweet fern, bracken and you have a typical roadside
Which part is the edible part used for tea or toast?
The flowers, make a syrup.
Thank you
Wild chamomile also known as pineapple weed. I use it to make tea :)
I do too! I like to dry it & enjoy in the depths of winter
Awww pineapple flowers! My mom used to tell me to pick them, squeeze them, and take a whiff.
Fun fact! You can mow camomile like grass and the queen of England used to have a camomile lawn. It was said to be so soft you could drop an egg from the high palace windows and it would bounce!
Pineappke weed is really high in vit C 😃
My mom used to make tea with this for me when I was a kid! It's very nice and similar to chamomile
it is chamomile, just different species of it
Pineapple weed. It tastes amazing
It is Matricaria matricarioides or ‘pinapple weed’. Comes from Europe as a weed of disturbed places, especially hard packed walkways. Edible and sweetly nice. . .
Wild Chamomile/ pineapple mint
Also called pineappleweed! My favorite tenacious 'weed'.
Doesn't look like pineapple mint to me. Perhaps you meant pineappleweed? Gosh though what a lovely smell. I love that mint! It definitely does look like *discoidea* / wild chamomile though! Deadringer for sure.
Ty !
https://www.wildfooduk.com/wild-food-recipes/pineapple-weed-posset/
Pineapple weed, not pineapple mint, that's another thing.
I believe they are supposed to be mosquito repellant too. Like if you squish them/the leaves and rub it on your skin it’s supposed to keep mosquitoes away
Hyrule Herb I believe
One of my favourite “mom banished us from the house and said we couldn’t come back in unless someone is bleeding” snacks along with the nectar from the bottom of those purple thistle looking flowers.
learning that this is edible today .... I want to eat it
I typically hate the “you can eat it” answers because it’s usually some dirt smelling menace of a weed that nobody *wants* to eat. This one actually sounds tasty.
Pineapple weed. Can be dried and steeped like chamomile tea (honestly, tastes better)
we loved finding these on school grounds as a kid! we would call them mini strawberries, pick the "strawberry" (just a couple) and squish them to release the fruity smell and sniff it til recess was over.
Heh. I used to eat the flowers as a kid.
Hylian herb obviously
It looks like pineapple weed. (Wild chamomile. ) it's related to the chamomile plant and can be used as such. It just has a sweeter smell and flavor.
I always loved this as a kid. Walking on it in my grandmother’s driveway is a core memory
Pineapple weed! Close relative of Chamomile, you can dry it out and use it to make tea. It does really well in soil that’s compact and frequently walked over, every trail in my yard is lined with the stuff, it makes walking through my yard in summer smell like I’m in a lemon orchard
[Pineappleweed](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matricaria_discoidea)
it looks like hylian herbs to me lol. i spend alot of time playing zelda.
Looks like Hyrule Herb
Pineapple weed seems to grow best with motor oil
Looks like pineapple weed. We use it similarly to chamomile.
Could be false chamomile. Take a leaf and chew on it. If it’s flavorless, it’s false chamomile.
In Denmark it’s called “vild kamille” = wild chamomile. Known for being very fragrant.
I love these, move to smell them. They grow only in gravel for some reason.
🌼🌼🌼 it's really good flowers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matricaria_discoidea Pineapple weed, wild chamomile, disc mayweed, and rayless mayweed.
Pineapple weed. We used to make tea with it. Tastes like chamomile tea
*Pineapple weed. We* *Used to make tea with it. Tastes* *Like chamomile tea* \- Stinkerma --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
This is chamomile.
I ate these all the time when I was a kid. I always thought it was chamomile.
Camomile.
Loved this stuff when I was a kid. There was so much of it growing all around our property. Never knew what it was.
Pineapple weed, it’s a type of chamomile.
Yes! this is pineappleweed also known as wild chamomile!! You can eat it, it is medicinal like regular chamomile you’d buy or think about and has the same calming properties. Now go make some tea!!
Pineapple weed! I loved these as a child! Me and my friends used to pick these a mix them in water to make "perfume". Though we used to call them "sweetie plants" because the flowers look like jelly tot sweets
pineapple weed! it’s also called wild chamomile, i have a— i don’t know what it’s called, but it’s a bunch of dried chamomile tied up with some twine that i harvested 2 or 3 years ago, i’m willing to bet you could make tea out of it
You already have ao many correct responses, but I went through a lot of them & didn't see my primary use, so I thought I'd share. It's AMAZING sleepy tea. The heads have insane amounts of essential oils in them & it's extremely effective if you have the tea an hour or so before bed.
form of chamomile we call pineapple weed used in medicine, teas, jellies, and beauty products
Hylian Herb.
Dewy you don’t want none of this shit right here
where is this? i definitely recall seeing it as a child, somewhere
I just recently bought some at the local nursery. It was listed as Chamomile on the tag.
My chickens eat this stuff when it's small 🤷
I’ve always heard this called wild chamomile in CA, US
99% sure thata pinapple weed, its safe !
Pineapple weed syrup is very tasty, I made an upside down cake with it last year.
Pineapple weed. It’s wild chamomile and has some of the properties of chamomile: digestive and analgesic. It also tastes good. I pick it and eat it, give it to my horses and also brew tea with it. I wet horses feed with it as the secondi compounds are released when the plant is steeped in hot water. I also drink the same brew.
It tastes like pineapple too. Good with icecream.
You can infuse vodka with the flowers. Add some syrup and party.
Pineapple weed as others said, and a tip: it's one of the most favourite plants for rabbits
Pineapple weed also known as wild chamomile
You can make a tea out of them, make sure you don't pick ones from paths as dogs pee lol
I dont know what it is called but we used to feed out rabbits with them, they loved it.
Tansy for comparison https://preview.redd.it/puxcaqmtgw7d1.jpeg?width=224&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8fcd034b43eb33e62a201536609115b0a8c720e
Chamomile also known as pineapple weed
Also known as mayweed in the uk :)
Please keep in mind that "pineapple weed" has a mild laxative effect
What about nightshade berries?
Pineapple weeeeeed
Pineapple weed is in the chamomile family. Brew it into some tasty, relaxing tea.
Matricaria discoidea
This is chamomile isn’t it?
Related!
Wild chamomile, its growing everywhere on the property I'm at
It looks like Chamomile to me
wild chamomile or pineapple weed - works the same as regular chamomile
 Salad time?!