From Wilderness Time Travel To Modern Apps

The world is saturated with news and social media coming at you from every direction these days. It's nice to know that if you're willing to take a walk into a nice patch of woods you can get a break from all that. Sometimes I get a feeling of time disorientation when I'm deep enough in the woods. If this patch of woods had a time portal that brought me back to 1826, would I be able to tell that I left 2026 behind? There are no buildings or man-made objects. There is only wilderness which seems timeless to me. 

Eastern Towhees existed in 1826 so that wouldn't be much help!

Now back to 2026. I started using an app called PlantNet which diverted me from bird watching and sent me down a rabbit hole. I always wanted to learn a little more about flowers and plants that you come across in the woods but didn't had the patience to flip through a field guide to figure out one plant at a time.

I believe this first plant is called Panax trifolius commonly called dwarf ginseng. It is native to the northeast. The tubers are edible and it was used for traditional medicine by Native Americans. One of the things that amazes me is the number of plants in the woods or in your backyard that are considered edible. I've taken a chance on a few things that I was positive about but if you make a mistake you can get very sick or worse!

I've seen these plants many times in the woods. The app identified it as false hellebore. I have noticed that the app does make mistakes. It relies on the photos you upload and usually sends a response of likely possibilities. Sometimes 90 percent likely and other times 20 percent likely but usually not 100 percent on anything. It seems that false hellebore is extremely toxic to humans and cause severe in livestock if it is eaten during early pregnancy. Yikes!

From wilderness time travel to identifying plants with a modern app! A walk in the woods can be very rewarding if you're mind can remain in the present!