Black Mustard is an edible wild flower it is easy to forage for

Black Mustard Photo by Steve Andrews

Black Mustard (Brassica nigra) is a very common and widely distributed edible plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. It is easy to find on waste ground in late spring and early summer because its bright yellow flowers catch the eye and it grows in clumps. 

Black Mustard comes from the Mediterranean area of southern Europe and is thought to be native to parts of Asia too, where it has been used in cooking for thousands of years. Black Mustard, which can reach over two metres in height, though is usually much shorter, is found in the UK and many other parts of the world where it often grows as a weed. It is frequently found growing along pathways and in waste places. 

Black Mustard on waste ground. Photo by Steve Andrews

Black Mustard has a spicy flavour that is a bit like cabbage but mostly like the mustard we are familiar with and use to spice up and add some heat to our foods - mustard on hot-dog sausages, for example.

Mustard is made from the ground seeds of the plant that are made into a paste. The mustard seeds can also be used a spice and as an ingredient of curries or savoury dishes. 

Brassica nigra. In Public Domain

The Black Mustard seeds ripen in August and September but gathering them in quantity though can take a long time and a long time getting them out of the seed-pods they form in. It is much easier to buy mustard from the grocery store or the seeds that can often be found on sale in the spices section.

Best-selling author Richard Mabey, in his classic guide to foraging Food For Free, suggests that we “Try pressing a pinch of seeds into the cheese on the top of Welsh rarebits before cooking.” He also recommends the young leaves as an addition to salads or cooked as a green vegetable. Black Mustard is cooked as greens in Ethiopia.

The yellow flowers can be added to salads too but I like to munch on them when out walking.

Black Mustard has medicinal properties too. The ground up seeds have been mixed with honey and used to treat coughs in eastern Europe. In eastern Canada it was also used as a remedy for respiratory problems. The ground seeds were made into a paste with flour and water and this was applied to the chest or back of a person suffering from a bronchial infection.

Black Mustard is one of the easiest plants to find when out foraging and its distinctive taste will help in its identification.

Fly Agaric Magic Mushroom linked with Father Christmas

Fly Agarics. Photo in Public Domain

The Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a brightly coloured hallucinogenic mushroom that is often used in illustrations for fairy stories, and perhaps with very good reason. The substances muscimol and ibotenic acid it contains produce intoxication and altered reality and consumption of this toadstool has been used to produce visionary states. Because of this it is included in my book Herbs of the Northern Shaman.

Because of this, and its known use by shamans of Lapland, Siberia and elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, the fungus has been linked with the myth of Santa Claus. The Fly Agaric is coloured red and white just like the traditional costume that Father Christmas wears.

The Fly Agaric is sometimes eaten by reindeer and Santa Claus travels in a sleigh drawn by these animals. They fly through the sky and it has been suggested that hallucinations brought about by the ingestion of this fungus might have something to do with this fanciful idea.

The author and ethnobotanist R. Gordon Wasson suggested that the Fly Agaric was the mystical soma mentioned in the Rig Veda, sacred book of the Hindus. John Marco Allegro in his 1970 book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross went as far as suggesting that the Christian religion was founded by practitioners of an ancient fertility cult who were ritual users of this fungus and Biblical texts were inspired by visions they experienced. 

It has been suggested that part of Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland was inspired by the Fly Agaric because it is known to cause hallucinations in which size becomes distorted. 

Hookah Smoking Caterpillar and Alice - Illustration by Sir John Tenniel (Public Domain)

Fly Agarics grow in groups under pine and birch, as well as under other trees.  They can be found in autumn and are common in some places. They grow in the UK, many parts of Europe, and across Asia, as well as in Canada and North America. 

Fly Agarics are reported to be edible after parboiling and the fungus has been eaten in some places. Recreational drug users and modern neo-shamans use the fungus as an entheogen, especially after the psilocybin magic mushrooms became an illegal drug in many countries such as the UK. 

The Fly Agaric is a fungus we all know about, if only from having seen it in fairy tales and in artwork.

Fly agarics in Rubezahl by Moritz von Schwind (Public Domain)

Edible wild plants found near the sea: Tree Mallow

Tree Mallow in Santiago del Teide, Tenerife. Photo by Steve Andrews

The tree mallow is a very tall species of mallow, hence its name, and is often found growing on cliffs and at the tops of beaches. It has attractive pinkish-purple flowers and blooms in summer.

Known to botanists as Malva arborea or Lavatera arborea the tree mallow is a biennial or short-lived perennial. It can grow to as much as 3 metres in height and forms a very thick stem like a small trunk. It is a handsome plant that stands out in its natural habitat.

The seeds are tiny nutlets and are edible and known in Jersey as “petit pains” or little breads. The leaves and flowers can also be eaten The leaves have a lot of mucilage and this is good for combating inflammation.

In herbal medicine the tree mallow´s leaves are steeped in hot water and used to make a poultice for treating sprains. Like other mallow species the tree mallow has a lot of mucilage in its leaves.

The tree mallow is listed in the book Food For Free which is Richard Mabey´s classic guide for foragers. It is a wild flower to look out for when on a coastal walk.

The tree mallow grows on coasts in the UK but is also found in Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as Libya, Algeria and the Canary Islands. It is resistant to salty spray from the sea and is often found on the coasts of islands.

The tree mallow makes an attractive garden plant and will grow happily away from the sea. It will self-seed and is easy to maintain year after year. 

Dragon Trees in Portugal and Gibraltar

Dragon Tree growing at the Lisbon Botanical Gardens. Photo by Steve Andrews

Dragon trees come from Tenerife and the Canary Islands, and it is said they are also found in Cape Verde, Madeira and parts of Morocco, so I wasn't expecting to find them in Portugal or Gibraltar. However, they do grow in these places and grow very well there, as I was to discover.

Dragon trees can be seen in a botanical garden in the centre of Lisbon in Portugal and also in parks and gardens in Gibraltar. The dragon trees in these locations were just as healthy and well-formed as most of their counterparts in Tenerife, though admittedly not as big as some of the very old trees found in the Canary Islands.

Dragon Tree in Lisbon. Photo by Steve Andrews

The dragon tree (Dracaena draco) is a weird plant, not really a tree, although it grows to tree-like proportions. It has spiky leaves that grow in rosettes and bears small white perfumed flowers that turn into orange-red berries as they ripen.

Dragon Tree berries. Photo by Steve Andrews

Dragon trees get their name because if cut they bleed a red sap known as Dragon’s Blood, and also because aerial roots that hang downward can resemble a dragon’s beard.

The dragon tree produces a mushroom-shaped head of branches that fan outwards. The many branches in these dragon tree crowns are said to be like the hundred heads of a dragon that the hero Hercules killed.

Drago Milenario. Photo by Steve Andrews 

Dragon trees can grow for a very long time and the Drago Milenario that grows in Icod de los Vinos in Tenerife is said to be 1,000-years-old, though estimates put it more like somewhere between 250 and 650 years in age.

Whatever its age, the Drago Milenario is a majestic specimen and is the oldest dragon tree in the world. It has become a plant symbol of Tenerife and many tourists flock to see it in the Parque del Drago it stands in.

Dragon trees are very rare in the wild but are extensively cultivated in subtropical gardens and parks. They take a very long time to grow and only have a single trunk until the first time they flower when the tree produces side shoots from its crown. It can take 10 years before a dragon tree is big enough to flower and then branch.

Branching Dragon Tree. Photo by Steve Andrews

The dragon tree has been classed as a medicinal herb because its sap is said to be good for strengthening the gums.

The Guanches, who were the people who lived in Tenerife before the Spanish Conquest made shields out of the trunk and held the dragon tree in great reverence.

Dragon tree berries have one or two seeds and can be germinated easily enough though they may take as much as a month before sprouting.