How to Identify rose bay willow herb

Description

in this Video, I fozz of Forrester Bushcraft take a look at Rosebay willow herb and a couple of its uses. Rose bay willow herb is also known as fire weed, Mistakenly in the video I say that it is called this because of its usefulness in fire lighting, however this plant actually gets its name from its tendency to grow in places where there has previously been a fire.

Tags: Bushcraft,survival,ray mears,bear grylls,camping,how to,Flora,Plants,Fire,outdooors,nature,Herbaceous Plant,Survival Skills (TV Genre),Food (TV Genre),wild food,foraging,sustainability,Green,Garden

Video Transcription

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alright guys who I've got for you today it's just a little bit of a plant ID for you today we're gonna be looking at Rose Bay willow herb which is also known as fire weed and it's this plant here it's a really really common planet it's a really really useful one gets its name Rose Bay well I heard a little flowers on it because it actually looks like the willow plant the leaves are very very similar

the reason this plant is really useful for us reason number one the primary reason fit is the these seed heads that you can find at this time of year which is kind of early autumn is very back end of summer and these seed heads are brilliant just have a look at them because they make absolutely excellent tinder so I kind of like a flash tinder those really quickly takes a spark really easily just like a piece of cotton wore and I'll just very quickly big like that for you you see how quick it goes just goes absolutely instantly okay so that is one use of the raspberry well I hear it's really easy to identify this plant it grows quite tall and it grows pretty much everywhere so roads hedgerows forests it's a really really common plan so the leaves of it are these long kind of smooth edge quite crinkly looking leaves like I said they look just like willow leaves so do be careful when you identifying this because the other use of it is actually bit the piss of this plant is edible it's a little bit late in the year for this and I've decided to do this video Leighton you because it's got these very very pink purpley pink flowers which also brings in the camera now show you make identifiable but this time of year it's got both the seeds on it and the flowers which is you know really good time to show you how to identify this really quickly

early spring is the best time time here for the pit is this really like I can just open it out splits for you nicely as well believe you can also make cordage from this plumber I have never actually tried that myself so the pith of this plant not sure where the camera is picking that up it's not really focusing on it but I will do some pictures as well to throw it at the end of this and the very very central very white pith of this is actually edible something to try back that now tastes kind of like cucumber not much not much flavor in it and but it is good for thickening up stews and things I like doing a bit of campfire cooking it's really really useful and also the leaves I believe although I've never tried this myself that I'd be really interested see if anyone has you can collect them really easy because like like I've just done you can dry them out you can actually get tea out of them but as I said I've never actually tried this so I can't tell you what it tastes like

so you go go that's that's the Rose Bay willow herb or fire weed grows in a lot of places gets pretty tall well you can make carnage out of it apparently but I'm told it's not very very good cottage and the seed heads make excellent excellent tinder particular spark hope that's been of use to you guys thank you very much for watching