Marc Williams, Ethnobotanist, comes to the holler!

Monday evening found about 12 of us plant lovers gathered at my place to meet with Marc Williams (ethnobotanist and real sweet feller) and walk on the land to check out plants. In true holler fashion, we gathered and chilled out for a while first, enjoying beverages and snacks and plentiful conversation. When Marc arrived, we were off into the woods.


We walked for about 2 hours, stopping to examine various plants and trees, listen to Marc's seemingly endless information and history and stories about the plants and their families, taste and smell various wild foods and medicines, and ask questions of Marc and each other about plants. It was fantastic to have a community of people whacking their way through the woods and the vines and fallen down trees (and some poison ivy) happily, in the pursuit of deepening their knowledge of the plant world. I was of course just tickled pink and found lots of little moments of humor. For example, Marc told us that bears sometimes will use "bear corn" (Conopholis americana) to help loosen and release their winter "sphinctor plugs," Susie thought he meant the bears would back right up to the plant and use it manually in their anuses to get the plugs out. (Rather, he really meant that they would eat it as roughage and perhaps some kind of laxative to make them go number 2 after a long winter of not.) That was pretty funny, and yes I did wake up at 4:45 the next morning laughing out loud in the bed over it ...
All participants (mostly neighborhood folks) were completely engaged and game to learn as much as possible.


Marc was a truly magnificent leader, with his calm but totally alert and focused demeanor and so much information about plant families, plant history, human relationships to various plants (food and medicine) and interspecies dependence and connectedness. I have known Marc for years now, but this was my first plant walk with him and I was thoroughly impressed. I would like to hearby recommend all of you dear readers to check out his website in progress, which is www.botanyeveryday.com.
I was excited to learn about the one of the predominant plants in the meadow area of my place- it grows all over the place but I didn't know what it was. Green-headed coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata) is an edible green which is called So chane in Cherokee. Here is a picture.


I learned that spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is in the avocado family and is an Appalachian relic of the tropics. Spicebush is one of the predominant species of my place. I also learned that cleavers are in the same family as coffee. I actually am commencing an online course led by Marc Williams in which I will be learning about the characteristics of the main plant families, so hopefully by this time next year I will not be surprised by family business...

Here is a cool shagbark hickory (Carya ovata):



This is Iliana checking out a lycopodium:


Thanks Marc and neighbors for a great evening!