- Wugmeister ( @ThisIsAManWhoKnowsHowToGling@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English40•2 months ago
I know nothing about plants.
- FartsWithAnAccent ( @FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io ) 35•2 months ago
Yeah, I am not botanical enough to get this, but presumably it’s something poisonous?
- Ragnarok314159 ( @Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz ) English22•2 months ago
Look up “Sardonic Grin”. It’s one of those things that makes you think this is interesting, and also never going to eat wild plants again.
- flora_explora ( @flora_explora@beehaw.org ) English2•2 months ago
Well, if you are just avoiding Apiaceae (the carrot family) plants aren’t that hard to ID safely and the likelihood of you poisoning yourself should drop by a lot. But yeah, you’d need to learn a bit about plants in the first place and not a lot of people are motivated enough to do that.
- Chuymatt ( @Chuymatt@beehaw.org ) English8•2 months ago
Hemlock, I believe.
- flora_explora ( @flora_explora@beehaw.org ) English3•2 months ago
Apparently it is indeed referring to hemlock (Oenanthe crocata):
Contains oenanthotoxin. The leaves may be eaten safely by livestock, but the stems and especially the carbohydrate-rich roots are much more poisonous. Animals familiar with eating the leaves may eat the roots when these are exposed during ditch clearance – one root is sufficient to kill a cow, and human fatalities are also known in these circumstances. Scientists at the University of Eastern Piedmont in Italy claimed to have identified this as the plant responsible for producing the sardonic grin, and it is the most-likely candidate for the “sardonic herb”, which was a neurotoxic plant used for the ritual killing of elderly people in Phoenician Sardinia. When these people were unable to support themselves, they were intoxicated with this herb and then dropped from a high rock or beaten to death. Criminals were also executed in this way.
(From Wiki page on poisonous plants)
But the main wiki page on Oenanthe crocata doesn’t even mention this.
- idiomaddict ( @idiomaddict@feddit.de ) English3•2 months ago
Holy fuck, Sardinia. Being dropped from a great height or beaten to death by people I held as babies while tripping sounds like one of the worst ways to go.
- flora_explora ( @flora_explora@beehaw.org ) English3•2 months ago
Sounds like the movie Midsommar may have taken some inspiration from it haha
- Swedneck ( @Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ) English35•2 months ago
it baffles me that there are ID apps that don’t follow the model of 1) very clearly SUGGESTING what it MIGHT be, and 2) only present a level of precision it’s actually confident in
having it always present a specific species and just pick the most likely one is so dumb and irresponsible of the designers.
- interdimensionalmeme ( @interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml ) English9•2 months ago
Oh so poisoning the elderly with hemlock was more common than just executing annoying philosophers eh ?
- Blackmist ( @Blackmist@feddit.uk ) English5•2 months ago
I don’t know who is using these things. If you’ve got a phone and a signal then you’ve got a shop. Go to it and buy the things you need.
- flora_explora ( @flora_explora@beehaw.org ) English8•2 months ago
I would say that most people foraging wild plants in western societies aren’t doing it to sustain themselves. It is usually has to do with learning more about their surroundings, to revive old knowledge or for fun. And as long as you double check, play close attention to detail and most importantly don’t blindly follow an app you should be completely fine with this. (Well, foraging plants from the Apiaceae (the carrot family) is not really a good idea due to the close resemblance of most of its members.)
- evranch ( @evranch@lemmy.ca ) English2•2 months ago
Been using one of these apps to try to identify the many wild plants in my native pastures. Mostly just out of curiosity and conservation. Likewise it helped identify some trees and shrubs the previous owner planted around the yard.
They are far from perfect but are a good starting point as you get lots of pictures to compare to your mystery tree, you finish the job yourself.
- Pulptastic ( @Pulptastic@midwest.social ) English4•2 months ago
My app only says “dicot” so now that’s what I call all plants.
- optissima ( @optissima@lemmy.ml ) English6•2 months ago