The golden weeping willow

Species name: Salix alba var. vitellina

Common name: golden weeping willow

Location: Ontario

This variety of the white willow is native to Europe, along with the species from which it is derived (Salix alba) and all other varieties with that species name. It is incredibly cold hardy for this area of North America which helps with its attractiveness as an ornamental tree species. The "golden" part of the name comes from the colour of the twigs when young; they're a bright golden yellow which is unusual for willow trees. Unfortunately, like the true weeping willow Salix babylonica from China, this tree is truly a pest when it comes to the roots growing where they don't belong. These species of willow are excellent at searching out water during times of drought, and the roots are strong enough to crack through concrete sewers and completely clog up the inside of the sewer with root growth. They will do the same to your house with your plumbing, and they don't care if they're growing in the fresh water pipes or the sewer pipes; one would be worse than the other for smell once it started backing up in your back yard! I would exert extreme caution if you're thinking of planting one of these in your back yard, and would suggest you seriously think about removing it if you already have one. Plus, they're non-native anyway!

Willows have a long history of being used as a medicinal tree, even back to the times of the ancient Egyptians. Even Hippocrates advocated its use in a tincture to ease fever and pain associated with headache and illness. To make a willow tincture, you take the bark, boil it to release the juices, then mash it up into ethanol (purified alcohol) to make a very thick liquid. Strain the liquid to remove any chunky pieces, and the resulting mixture is consumed. As you can probably imagine, the resulting drunkenness would probably do quite well in removing headache pain all on its own, but all of these herbalists of various ancient times were all onto something; salicin, the chemical derived from willow bark, is incredibly effective against general aches and pains and fever. Henri Leroux was the first to crystallize this chemical, then Raffaele Piria isolated it in its pure form. We now know it as salicylic acid (named after the genus name for willow, Salix) and it can be found as the main medicinal ingredient in aspirin. If we look back in history at all of the plants that were used to treat various medical conditions, most of them are only somewhat effective via the placebo effect: you truly believe you're taking something that will help you, so it does (at least temporarily). This is one of those few exceptions of plants that truly do have very strong medicinal values, and are still being used today.

The bark itself also has other uses aside from medicinal ones; it has been used for centuries as a dye during the leather tanning process. The wood, when burned under low oxygen conditions, results in a specific type of charcoal that was important in the manufacture of gunpowder (although this use has all but disappeared with advances in gunpowder technology). The wood has also been used as lumber, but it is very susceptible to decay so is not used often.

The phytolace sewn by Queen Anne

Species name: Daucus carota

Common name: Queen Anne's lace, wild carrot

Location: Ontario

Queen Anne's lace is native to Europe and parts of northern Asia, although it is now considered naturalized in North America and an integral part of a prairie landscape. This doesn't, however, mean that it can't be invasive still; there are certain instances where it is a better competitor than native species and so the USDA has listed it as a noxious weed. The common name of this plant, Queen Anne's lace, is derived from the look of the flower: it is a type of inflorescence called a compound umbel, and at most stages of its development it looks like lace. The purpleish-red flower at the very centre of the inflorescence acts as a pollinator attractant, but is also said to be the drop of blood from where Queen Anne pricked her finger while making the lace.

The wild carrot has been domesticated into a subspecies of plant that we now use as the cultivated carrot. The genes that produce beta-carotene have been selected for over-production, so the cultivated carrot is orange compared to its white wild relative. The carrot is a biennial plant, which means it completes its life cycle over two growing seasons (in Canada, this would be two years since we have winter). The leaves appear the first year, photosynthesizing and making sugars to be stored in the taproot, the carrot, as starch. The plant then uses this stored starch to create a new shoot the next year which produces a flower and then seeds.

In agriculture, there are certain circumstances where this plant is actually a beneficial weed. The flowers attract wasp pollinators, which can benefit other plants surrounding it. When Queen Anne's lace is planted in tomato fields, the tomato yield increases over fields that don't have it. Not a bad idea for increasing yield chemical-free! There are some dangers to this plant, however. It has a wild relative that is also a look-alike called poison hemlock which can cause death to humans with consumption of only 6 or 7 leaves. The most famous victim of this poisoning is, of course, Socrates. Even without the poisonous plant confusion, wild carrot on its own can be harmful. The leaves contain chemicals which can cause severe light sensitive areas (burning, blistering, and extreme itching upon contact with sunlight) on the skin if you're especially sensitive to the chemical; if you're not as sensitive then it will just cause an itchy rash.

Medicinally, this plant was popular in the time of Hippocrates 2,000 years ago. He reported that this plant should be used as a contraceptive, and it was used for such a purpose for hundreds of years. The seeds were crushed, and the powdery substance was consumed. It was shown relatively recently that there are chemicals in the seeds of this species that do disrupt egg implantation, so I'm sure it would have been at least partially effective in the time of Hippocrates (and now). There is also some evidence to show it disrupts progesterone synthesis, which could also explain its potential effectiveness as a contraceptive. Very little mention is made of exactly how many seeds one would have to consume to get any noticeable effect.