Here's something I didn't know....according to the
Rose Gardening Made Easy website, wild roses have been around for 70 million years, and were established in the Tertiary Period (between when the dinosaurs went extinct and before the most recent Ice Age). By contrast, the earliest evidence of daisies goes only 4000 years. Well, there's nothing like a classic. Here's a Wild Rose bush I found in Hawk Island Park.
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| Wild Rose |
There are lots of uses for roses -- you can eat the flowers and rose hips and make tea out of the leaves.
One website says they taste great infused with honey -- but what wouldn't? :-D Roses also smell great of course, and the nice thing about simply smelling them is that you can use them over and over again!
Roses have been prized throughout history -- they were found entombed with ancient Egyptian pharaohs and were prized by Greeks and Romans. Napolean's wife Josephine loved roses and is responsible for many of the hybrids we have today.
By contrast, the White Baneberry plant, though attractive, is very toxic, though it was
used in traditional medicine. Here's what the flower looks like.
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| White Baneberry |
Since 'bane' means 'something that causes death', that's a pretty strong clue that you should avoid the berries, although birds and small animals eat them. Here's what the berries look like:
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| White Baneberry berry -- DO NOT EAT! |
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