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 humble plant is easily overlooked, both in its quiet early blooming and later leaf unfurling. You can find it in wetlands and riverine forests in the NE quarter of the US, up into Canada.
This velvety rootbeer-colored, moist-looking, rubbery-textured, somewhat cup-shaped edible fungus grows on trees and downed logs
This tree has large, opposite, palmately compound leaves and pyramids of flowers around May. It is often planted in parks and along city streets.
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.
Similar in many ways to the American Goldfinch, this little bird has a heavily streaked breast and can often be found in sizeable groups.
A low-growing “trefoil” weed of lawns and disturbed, nitrogen-poor soil, distinguished by its tiny hop-like yellow flower clusters, pointed tips on each leaflet, and the terminal leaflet on a longer stalk or petiole
This brightly colored, chunky bird is not found in America but frequents gardens and backyards in the UK and throughout much of Europe.