Useful plants

The woods behind our house are fascinating to me. Watching them turn green (and purple and white and orange) and come alive over the past couple of weeks has been my favorite pasttime. I know so few of the plants I found that I decided to start researching them. Today I checked Peterson's Guides to Edible Wild Plants and Medicinal Plants and Herbs and started working on identifying what is out there.

American Brooklime. You can eat the leaves as salad greens.

Spring Beauty. You can boil the corm, or root, and eat it as a potato.

Crabapple. I think. I plan to make jam from the fruits, Lord willing.

Plantain. Ugly weed, I know, but a great healer for sores, an anti-inflammatory and antibiotic.

There is so much more out there, but these were some of the more interesting or beautiful.