Plants – Learn Your Land

No, This Is Not Wild Ginseng

Adam Haritan — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 13:33:25 +0000

*Not American ginseng. This is Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia). Recently, I thought about a forest I visited 8 years ago, and I wondered if two American ginseng plants were still growing there. To get an answer, I decided to visit the forest and see for myself. The only problem was that I never dropped a […]

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Is Black Walnut Killing Your Plants?

Adam Haritan — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 18:03:14 +0000

“Black walnut kills plants.” I first heard this statement many years ago. Occasionally, I still hear some version of this claim: Black walnut engages in warfare by releasing a chemical into the soil. This chemical kills or inhibits the growth of plants. But is this entirely true? Does black walnut actually kill plants? Some people […]

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Are Oaks In Trouble?

Adam Haritan — Wed, 29 May 2024 15:20:42 +0000

We can predict future ecosystems based on current observations. Consider a mature oak forest, for example. Looking at an oak forest today, we might hope that conditions will remain stable for many years. Any native plant enthusiast will tell you that oak forests are repositories of biodiversity. Without oaks, other organisms that depend on oaks […]

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The License Plate That’s Making People Upset

Adam Haritan — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 15:00:45 +0000

You never know what will spark a controversy. This time it’s a license plate. Vehicle owners in Pennsylvania can now purchase a new license plate featuring a purple flower and three insects. A portion of all proceeds from license plate sales will be deposited into a fund that supports pollinator habitats. The fund is part […]

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Edible vs. Poison Sumac — Learn The Difference

Adam Haritan — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 13:35:55 +0000

Years ago, a friend told me about an edible plant called sumac. She taught me how to make a refreshing beverage from its fruits. “Tastes like pink lemonade,” she said. “Really easy to make, too. But be absolutely certain that you’re foraging an edible sumac and not poison sumac.” Poison sumac, she told me, is […]

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The Wildflower That Came Back From The Dead

Adam Haritan — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 13:05:00 +0000

In 1959, a botanist named Ronald McGregor began a two-year search for a wildflower known as Tennessee purple coneflower (Echinacea tennesseensis). He knew that Tennessee purple coneflower was rare, but he didn’t know how rare the plant actually was. Despite his best efforts, Ronald McGregor didn’t find a single specimen. In 1968, he stated that […]

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How To Identify Conifer Trees

Adam Haritan — Fri, 12 May 2023 13:39:09 +0000

Two years ago, I explored a remote bog in northern Pennsylvania. It was the peak of the autumn mushroom season, but I wasn’t there to look for mushrooms. Archery season had just begun, but I wasn’t there to harvest deer either. After a few hours of wandering through the bog, I eventually encountered the only […]

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Foraging The Most Inconspicuous Edible Wildflower

Adam Haritan — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 13:36:37 +0000

A typical walk in nature can be slow. From an outsider’s perspective, it can be painfully slow. A 1-mile walk might take a naturalist 4 hours to complete — a pace 12 times slower than the average walking speed. While it’s true that a turtle could probably outpace a botanist walking through a flowering floodplain, […]

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What Field Guides Don’t Tell You About Mushrooms

Adam Haritan — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 17:26:28 +0000

Gary Lincoff said something interesting to me 8 years ago. We were sitting at a picnic table during a mushroom foray in Pennsylvania. He just finished giving a presentation on edible mushrooms and agreed to sit down for an interview. My plan was to ask him several questions about his life as a mycologist. The […]

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To Squash Or Not To Squash: Musings On Invasive Species

Adam Haritan — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 19:17:37 +0000

The devil was on one shoulder. An angel on the other. Both were telling me how to proceed, but I couldn’t decipher which voice belonged to which entity. “Cut the bag open,” one voice instructed. “Leave it alone,” said the other. Apparently my former sense of good and evil was blurred. Who was the devil, […]

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Water Hemlock — The Deadliest Plant In North America

Adam Haritan — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 13:02:05 +0000

In 1992, a 23-year-old man and his 39-year-old brother were foraging for wild ginseng in Maine. The younger brother harvested several plants from a swampy area and took three bites from the root of one plant. The older brother took one bite from the same root. Within three hours, the younger brother died. The older […]

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Foraging The Elusive Mayapple

Adam Haritan — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 14:36:22 +0000

Tropical fruit flavors are not commonly detected in my neck of the woods. When they are, the experience is unforgettable. Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) is an eastern North American plant whose ripe fruit tastes like a mix between pineapple and Starburst candy. All other parts of the plant (e.g., rhizomes, leaves, stems, and unripe fruits) are […]

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