"Barbara" wrote in message
om...
snip
we did find a mystery plant we later identified asGarlic
Mustard, (Alliarea Petiolata, as well as catnip, Great Burdock,
Stinging Nettle. It's fun to go on field trips and learn from each
other. As for Garlic Mustard, if you crush the leaves, it smells
garlicky, and is great for making pesto. Hoping to hear from others
in the Germantown or Gaithersburg, MD, area interested in joining us
to learn more about our native plants.

I would guess that Garlic Mustard is probably not truely a native plant. It
grows in abundance at the girl scout camp where I am nature director and it
is the one plant that we can pick as much as we want of on hikes without
worrying about destroying natural ecology. In fact, we are encouraged to
pick all we see. If you see it later in the summer with full seed pods
you'll se why it is so prolific. At this camp in michigan it is encroaching
on the needs of true native plants. Garlic mustard originally came from
europe and was called "sauce only" (I forget the french for this, even
though I'm supposed to be fluent, it's another common name of the
plant.....). The reason for this name is that poor peasants who could not
afford salad dressing would add this plant to their salads as a natural
dressing.

Were I in MD I'd love to join the group, but as I am not, I can't.

Em.