plant-ings

I'm reading a book called Where There are Mountains by Donald Edward Davis and some of this guy's takes on Native American practices feel really simplistic, and he says a lot of things that have me like, "Hey. I bet you could just ask a Cherokee person."

But he mentions that early settlers thought Native Americans were lazy because they didn't weed their fields, and outlines how that is wrong because the common "weed" species were themselves semi-domesticated and used as supplemental food sources.

Amaranth (a genus with several species) is one of the worst agricultural weeds in the Midwest, and huge amounts of money and pesticides are spent trying to contain it.

It also happens to be edible, and grain from it may have been the main source of calories for some pre-columbian civilizations.

Because Google is totally useless and won't help you with ANYTHING

iNaturalist: Take photos of living things you see, post them, and the community will identify them for you. Data from iNaturalist is used in scientific research.

Wildflower.org Plant Database: Enter search criteria and find some plants. Very useful if you're looking for plants with specific qualities or know what you have in mind.

Native Plant Finder: This website is still in beta and is a work in progress, but it will show you plants for your area ranked by the number of butterflies that use them for their caterpillars.

WildflowerSearch: AMAZING resource for identification and for learning about new plants. Shows you where plants are native/not native, TONS of search filters.

Native Plant Trust: A New England organization, but probably useful to anyone.

Northern Forest Atlas: Great images and identification resources for trees; has good pictures of bark, seeds, buds, leaves.

FloraFinder: Another plant database site that's being slowly built up by a passionate nerd.

MonarchWatch milkweed by USA ecoregion: Tells you what milkweed species you should plant for monarch butterflies.

Native Beeology: Not plants, but a closely related subject.