💥 Avoid Toxic Plants: Wildcrafting and Seed Harvesting

Wildcrafting is something that has been happening for centuries. What is wildcrafting, you ask? Wildcrafting is harvesting wild plants for food, medicine, and other uses. Over-harvesting or collecting too many plants from a single area can lead to a decline in population and ultimately threaten their survival.

Sustainable Seed Harvesting and Collecting

Care needs to be taken when collecting seeds or native plants in general. That’s why collecting seeds, with these thoughts in mind, as opposed to digging up and replanting, has been my option to grow the native plants I would like to have.

The Challenge of Plant Identification

Identification can be tricky. For example, one day while I was taking a walk, in all the green along the road a plant with a stem that had a spear of tiny white flowers caught my eye. I took a picture and looked it up in my field guide. I narrowed it down to Black Cohosh.

As I continued to search online, the description of the foliage did not match what I thought I saw, which is circled on the picture. When I walked past it again, I looked closer going down the stem to the actual foliage, a totally different leaf.

My continued search brought me to “look a likes” on Black Cohosh. What I found is that Mountain Bugbane can look a lot like Black Cohosh. From there I started looking at other differences, such as flowers (single pistol) and stem (smooth, without ridges).

The leaf on the left is from the Black Cohosh and the one on the right is Mountain Bugbane.

Final Identification and Conservation Choice

In the end, I believe this plant was actually Black Cohosh. This is important medical plant that was in decline due to over wildcrafting. Knowing this, I decided not to harvest it's seeds and just watched it, hoping I will see it spreading next year.

Ethical Harvesting Practices

On that note, there are two things I wanted to make sure to point out. As you are collecting, be conscious. Remember that for the plant to continue to reproduce, it needs it’s seeds. If you take them all, there won’t be seeds left to drop and regrow.

Also, many animals and insects (including beneficials) can have very specific food, like some seeds. If they are all gone, it can be detrimental to them.

Toxic Plants Awareness

Another issue is toxic plants.

Again, during a walk, I noticed a plant with white umbral flowers growing on the side of a creek running along the road. It was too far out of reach (I did not want to fall in this fast-moving water), so I took a picture and made observations.

Water Hemlock

The one thing that really stood out was the fact that the leaves resembled Marijuana leaves (I’m an old hippy, I know what they look like). So, I went online and looked up “plant with white umbral flower with leaves that look like marijuana leaves”. What I got was Water Hemlock.

As I continued to do some research, I found that Water Hemlock is extremely toxic and is considered one of the most poisonous plants in North America. Even a small amount of this plant can lead to severe poisoning or death in both humans and animals.

Queen Anne's Lace has similar umbral flowers

Needless to say, at this point I’m realizing I am glad this plant was out of my reach because I would have picked a flower as I had been with the many umbral plants, like Queens Anne’s Lace.

Lessons from the Field

I will be watching these two plants, hoping the Black Cohosh will spread and the Water Hemlock does not.

Hence, this is a good time to repeat this: You need to learn to identify the plant you are collecting seeds from!

Proper identification is crucial! It’s possible to be trudging along somewhere between brush and rub up against a poisonous species, much less collecting seeds from them and growing them somewhere else (which you don’t want!). Be sure of what you are collecting and propagating!

Where to Buy Native Seeds

I have been asked where native seeds can be purchased. There are several places, but when I can, I prefer checking with groups who are in charge of producing seeds. I’m more comfortable ordering seeds from companies like this.

For good information, look online for Florida Native Plant Society.

For seeds try Florida Wildflowers Growers Cooperative.

On their home page, click on “Seed Packets by Categories,” which is on the left side of the page.

Hopefully this will answer some of the questions I’ve been asked recently and give you some direction on this subject.

If you want to see how I collect seeds, I made YouTube video for you! Hot off the press, check it out below:

Happy Harvesting!