Foraging Alpine Bistort Bulbils

On Sunday, we went for a walk up to a mountain farm (seter) near to the lake Foldsjøen in Malvik with the main aim to gather alpine bistort (harerug) bulbils (Polygonum viviparum / Persicaria vivipara) to dry for the winter. This is one of the 80 plants in my book and I grow various accessions of this plant also in my garden! See also my post on 25th June: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=22680
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ou can often find large quantities of this plant in open sheep pasture and dampish meadows.  I hadn’t been to this “seter” before and right enough there were large amounts of this plant, although the bulbils were still not fully grown.  We walked from Verket, an outdoor museum on the site of Mostadmark Jernverk, the site of an old iron furnace (see https://www.malvik.kommune.no/mostadmark-jernverk.6168342-478994.html) up through the forest past Hulåsen to the seter, returning via Slåttdalen and returning along the side of the lake. We didn’t meet a single person or car all the way! At the end you can also see a number of pictures and films of nature and some fungi we found along the way!

Here’s a short film showing thousands of flowerheads in a damp meadow (the flowers are sterile, the plant almost only multiplying vegetatively by bulbils):

 

Bumblebees love Allium pskemense

The bumblebees love Allium pskemense, the largest onion in my garden, probably the closest perennial onion tastewise to the common bulb onion Allium cepa and it can be very productive, see my blog about Pskem Onion Soup here: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=1940

Tide line

A front/tide line moving into the bay on 4th July. Floating material is trapped in the convergence zone of the front.  The speed of the front can be seen in the second video.
This is a regular occurrence here which I see a couple of times a year. See also http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=11274

Swallows, swifts and a heron

A couple of videos of birds from this morning. First, a group of swallows (lævesvale) and a few swifts (tårnseiler) were hawking after insects above the tree tops in the garden today, desperate for food in the record cold weather!
Second, a grey heron (hegre) flying past.

Atropurpureum and Validum

First flowering of Allium atropurpureum…seed from Mark McDonough 8 years ago and planted out in 2012. I had thought I’d lost it and then it was suddenly In flower…always nice with surprises like that! 

Allium validum (Pacific onion), an important wild edible for native americans and one of the 80 plants in my book Around the world in 80 plants is back in flower again for the first time for a few years. It had been in a pot whilst I redid my overgrown pond and boggy area.

Sonchus and Basil Pesto

Common sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) is now in season in my garden another plant categorised by most as a weed, but for me one of the most important vegetables in my garden from now until autumn. It even saves me work as the only thing I have to do is NOT weed it!! It is at its best when the leaves are shiny:

I made a sow thistle basil pesto last night together with basil grown in my office at the botanical gardens! I’m an office basil grower of over 40 years, having started when I was a student in 1978 (see  http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=5221, where I made pesto and Allium wallichii, the Sherpa or Nepal onion)
Last night I used garlic and more Johannes’ shallots (Allium x cornutum; see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=22601)

Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden