Remember that Joni Mitchell song about paving over heaven? Imagine someone paving over a meadow back when Joni recorded 'Big Yellow Taxi' back in 1970. That meadow is now my driveway. I live in a very old building with a couple of different apartments in it, and the driveway accommodates three cars on a regular basis. Who knows how many exhaust pipes have coughed lead-laced fumes into the gravelly earth, or how many fluids have leaked from cracked gaskets. Who knows the trash that has languished there and bled icky juices into the dirt, what dog poop has been smeared, what pesticide residues persist. Turns out, though, that heaven isn't so easy to squish.
 Plantain aka Plantago major. Followed European settlers across the water. Likes to be stepped on. Very safe edible and first aid plant, but make sure you harvest from a clean place. Apply a leaf poultice to abrasions, rashes, stings, bites, or irritated skin. The long, upright seed stalks bear seeds that are edible and very mucilaginous. Plantain seeds (different species) are what metamucil is made of! |  The leaves of plantain are edible, but I personally don't find them tasty. Best time to eat is in the spring when they are tender and young. Look for a basal rosette, entire leaves, parallel leaf veins, and veins that are tough and elastic-y when you pull the leaves apart. Has a close cousin, Plantago minor, who is also awesome but not in my driveway. |
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