Eating outside in PA

Ninalb

Ninalb

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Mar 17, 2022
Messages
20
Reaction score
4
Points
165
Location
St. Petersburg
Hi! My four guineas love to graze outside. But there are some new plants in the yard. I'm nervous that they may be dangerous. Can someone help identify so I can have peace of mind? I am in eastern pa in the suburbs in a old growth forest.

1st: the fuzzy plants with purple stem next to the clovers
2nd: flat heart shaped leaves with serated edges
 

Attachments

  • image.webp
    image.webp
    164.7 KB · Views: 2
  • image.webp
    image.webp
    156.2 KB · Views: 3
I don't know about those plants, I'm sorry I’m not in the US. FWIW I had guineas for about 25 years and during most of that time I had access to more of a meadow than a lawn, so many more plants than just grass. Sometimes the blades of grass were greatly outnumbered by everything else and my guineas would still eat grass above all else. They'd really search it out! Just recently I found out that moss is poisonous and there was moss all over the place. The guineas sat on it, but never ate it. I did have a guinea who once ate buttercup leaves, which are mildly poisonous, I do admit but it didn't seem to affect her.
 
The heart shaped ones might be ajuga reptans. It's easiest to give the Latin name. Or maybe viola odorata.

Are there any forager groups in your area, possibly with a website? They might be able to help you identify these plants.

There aren't a huge number of Americans on this forum, but hopefully someone from there has an idea about plants.
 
Ajuga reptans is called bugle in the UK.

Could you use a plant identification phone app to identify the plants? I'm forever using the one I have, in my garden.
 
I had a look at them with Google lens. It thinks that the small furry plant is Common Mouse-ear aka Mouse Eared Chickweed. I don't know if it is ok for guinea pigs though. Common chickweed is in some pellets, but it's not the same plant. You could try looking on Guinea Lynx, which is more US based, there may be more detailed information there.
 
The first photo looks like chickweed (and my plant identifier app PictureThis also thinks this). This is safe for piggies to eat.

Second one looks like Common blue violet according to the app but I only use these app results as a starting base for identifying plants (cross-checking with other sources before being 100% confident!).
 
Ninalb said:
2nd: flat heart shaped leaves with serated edges
Click to expand...
These could be Glechoma hederacea, which seems to have a whole bunch of names in English like ground ivy (though it is NOT a type of ivy), creeping Charlie, cat's foot and run-away robin. Humans can certainly eat these leaves and the flowers, I've been using them myself these past few days, mixed with other wild herbs, I wouldn't eat a ton all on their own. The leaves in your photo look bigger than what I'm harvesting, but maybe you've had more rain or other such better conditions in the past weeks.

If you haven't been able to identify these plants so far, seeing how the plant develops over the months on until autumn can be helpful - buds? flowers? scent? scent of the leaves if you rub them between your fingers, any change of plant colour in autumn, root?
That's partly how I learnt from other foragers - learn to recognise all aspects of the plant, so you're really sure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top