Ligaya Garden
a little garden near Gawler
Wild foods & medicines
You’ll often here the phrase ‘a weed is just a plant that is where we don’t want it’. That may be true, but if we don’t understand the plants and their uses, how can we be sure that we don’t want them?
Many of our Australian weeds originally arrived here, by various means, from the Europe and Asia, where they have a long tradition of being used medicinally as herbs. That’s a good thing because it means that we can easily find detailed information on them.
Many weeds are also visual indicators of what is going on in the soil around them. They can indicate the richness and moisture of the soil and sometimes, what it is lacking. For the medicinal use, please refer to our ‘Herbs in the Garden‘ page where you can find the remedial uses of some of our more common plants. This page is for non-native plants. ‘Bushfoods & Bush Medicines‘ covers a lot of the useful, local Native plants.
Flowering times are approximate. Plants don’t take a lot of notice of calendars and the changes in our climate are mixing things up a bit. The times we’ve given are from our own local experience and we are even seeing some plants flower earlier and for longer as global heating kicks in.
I’ve included the taxonomic names for clarity and the Family so that you can follow up and see which other amazing plants are related to each of the plants listed below.
We’re always learning about our by botanic community, taking new pics and meeting folks who know a lot more than we do, so keep checking your favourite plants in these pages. There’s always more to come!
(Lycium ferocissimum)
(Rubus species)
(Solanum nigrum)
(Tribulus terrestris)
(Ricinus communis)
(Hypochaeris radicata)
(Stellaria media)
(Gallium aparine)
(Lepidium africanum)
(Oxalis corniculata)
(Taraxacum officinale)
(Rumex species)
(Rosa canina)
(Foeniculum vulgare)
(Fumaria officinalis)
(Chenopodium album)
(Amaranthus viridis)
(Marrubium vulgare)
(Mesembryanthemum crystallinum)
(Malva species)
(Silybum marianum)
(Ficus macrophylla)
(Trapeolum majus)
(Urtica dioica)
(Euphorbia peplus)
(Pinus species)
(Plantago lanceolata)
(Lactuca serriola)
(Opuntia species)
(Portulaca oleracea)
(Hypericum perforatum)
(Capsella bursa-pastoris)
(Oxalis pes-capre)
(Sonchus oleraceus)
(Drosera species)
(Allium triquetrum)
(Cynara cardunculus)
(Avena sativa)
(Polygonum aviculare)
Many plants have uses we wouldn’t normally think of. We use quite a few that you may be interested in. You can find them on the following pages –
Note: It can be illegal to harvest from the wild without the appropriate permit or licence. This is especially true of seaweed. Different councils, however, have different rules and regulations on the matter, so check with them before you go out.
Ligaya Garden 