These plants CAN be a nuisance, with some species having stinging hairs… BUT they are edible and highly nutritious, with various other uses as well!
This tree has large, opposite, palmately compound leaves and pyramids of flowers around May. It is often planted in parks and along city streets.
The local Philippines call this woody vine “tayabak”. Related to the green beans we grow in our gardens, this species’ unique turquoise claw-shaped flowers are pollinated by bats.
This velvety rootbeer-colored, moist-looking, rubbery-textured, somewhat cup-shaped edible fungus grows on trees and downed logs
This is the species that is used as THE cultivated walnut tree. It has pinnately compound leaves with about 7 alternate leaflets, larger towards the tip or terminal end.
A familiar weed of lawns, fields, roadsides, and gardens, this plant and its close relatives are the only species eaten by beautiful monarch butterflies.
Similar in many ways to the American Goldfinch, this little bird has a heavily streaked breast and can often be found in sizeable groups.
Birders in the eastern half of America welcome this bird as one of their most colorful and recognizable, with its classic blue plumage, contrasted with a little red and white