Plantain?.. is that the same ''banana'' type family?... We don't grow that here, probably not hot enough
Not the same plant family, Holly, just a similar name. It grows all over in the US , so I am sure it can also grow in the UK as well. This one is part of the plantago family, also called the psyllium family.
I have a book of edible plants that grow here, you know...……… just in case. I'll get it out tomorrow and post some plants that are in it.
Plantain is generally considered a weed here, and I knew it was edible. I was not aware that it is the source of psyllium though. Thanks, @Yvonne Smith!
If it’s a plant, weed or not, and it is found to be healthy, Yvonne will eventually put it in a smoothie or in some saute’ or stew. She even did her part getting rid of some kudzu on a property we were living on a few years ago. Yup, smoothies, saute’s and stews. Actually, she would have been most welcome as a survival trainer in the Army. Much better than eating raw grubs and beetles.
The book I have is, "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" by Euell Gibbons. Some people regard this plant as a nuisance. The entire plant, stem, leaf, and flower bud is good to eat.
A few years ago, along with the Hardy Kiwi, which grows as high as I can build something for it to climb on each year, a couple of roses showed up in my garden planter. I didn't plant them, nor did I plant the kiwi, but it was apparent that they weren't weeds so I let them grow. However, I am no longer sure that the roses - one on either side of the planter - are actually roses. I hadn't doubted they were roses because wild roses sprout up wherever I will them grow in my lawn, and I have several of them growing. But, while the leaves, the stems, and the thorns of these roses didn't differ in any way that I could tell from roses, they did differ from the wild roses. The leaves were a more luxurious green, for one thing. That's the only reason I let them live because I wouldn't, otherwise, have let the wild roses take over my planter. I have enough of them trying to take over my lawn. But these were different from the wild roses. Still, I didn't doubt they were roses. However, this is the first year that one of them flowered and it doesn't look like a rose flower. Any ideas? Some of what you're seeing here are beans because it's in the bean patch, and at least one bean plant is climbing on it. The flower, however, is on the rose plant, or whatever it is.
Maybe an inch diameter. I'm going to look more closely tomorrow and see if maybe there isn't a bean directly beneath, where I can't see the plant, but that doesn't look like a bean flower to me either; plus, my beans all flowered quite a while ago, and the beans are about ready for picking.
Ken, I have wild strawberries growing in my yard. I remembered that the leaves look somewhat like those. I Binged wild strawberries and found this picture. Could this be what they are?
It almost looks like some kind of a berry blossom, like a blackberry. You can watch and see if it produces berries ! If it is a transplant seedling (from birds), it probably had to grow for a while before it produced berries. The blossom seems about the right size for a blackberry blossom. Here is a closeup picture of a blackberry blossom that I found online, and black berries are from the rose family, so not surprising that they would look similar. Do you have pictures of the wild roses when they are blooming ?
The flower is definitely from the (plant that looks like a) rose plant. I also have wild strawberries growing but this plant is more bush-like, as a rose plant would be. It grows to be a couple of feet high or more. Our wild roses look like regular rose blooms, only small and pinkish, but they have already bloomed and gone a few weeks ago. A blackberry plant would be a possibility, as that does look very much like the flower. Oddly though, I tried planting blackberries here shortly after moving to Maine but they didn't survive the winter. This is the third or fourth year that these plants have been in my planter, but the first year that any of them have flowered. That would be nice. I'd like to have blackberries.
As for the barberry, I decided to let it live. I think it looks kind of pretty, so I left it. I did have to remove it from another part of the yard, though. I have another one. I found some of these growing out at the town compost area a few years ago, and kind of liked it, knowing or suspecting that it was a weed. I planted it in our front garden and now we have several of them. They are nearing the end of their flowering period here, but they flower when the other perennials have dropped their blooms, and I kind of like the wild, otherworldly look of them. The bees like them, too. I don't know what they are, though.