Saturday, June 26, 2010

Blueberries and Meadowsweet

The first blueberries are almost ready, about three weeks earlier than last year.

Here's the upper blueberry hill, where the bushes around the edge of the below shot are highbush blueberry, about 8-10 feet high, surrounding the central area full of Meadowsweet (which I just identified today thanks to Newcomb's again!)

Meadowsweet flowers ready to pop.  I used flowers from last year to count 5 regular parts.


 There are some lowbush blueberry (I'm guessing), about ankle high with my foot to the left.

Wikipedia says that Meadowsweet contains salicylic acid, one of the components of aspirin.  The fellow that invented aspirin for Bayer used this plant as the starter.  It was used in the middle ages to strew on floors for the good smell, and for bridal garlands. Apparently, chewing part of the plant relieves headaches.  Who knew this plant I thought was junk was such interesting stuff!
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1 comment:

  1. My Edible YardJune 28, 2010 at 4:41 AM

    Your blueberries are making my mouth water. Wow. Truly gorgeous. We planted our first 4 blueberries bushes this year in containers and so far so good. We are in the heat of south Florida (zone 10b), the subtropics, so used varieties that are supposed to do well here. They seem to be thriving and getting new foliage. We're hoping for a small crop come next spring. If we do, I will definitely plant more because I eat them like they're candy. Nothing tastes better than a freshly picked blueberry.

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