Connecting to your Environment through Plant Recognition

Connecting to you environment means knowing who lives around you, humans, animals and plants alike. Children are naturally interested in exploring and learning about their surroundings and might even surprise you with how keen they are to learn about plants. Discover ways to enhance your family time in nature through plant recognition.

Our Preschoolers in The Heights foraging Cleavers, also known as sticky weed

How many plants can you name that grow outside your window, right in your neighborhood, or that park you go to so often? If you could name at least two, I’m proud of you! We have become so busy as a society, so detached from our surroundings that we don’t know the names of the creatures that make the air we breathe. And if you get to know them, they have so many other gifts to share too! I think children intuitively know this. Or maybe it’s the gatherer instinct in us, I’m not sure. But I would have never thought that my Wild Schoolers would be so interested in learning about plants that grow at our park, so good at identifying them and so happy to help me harvest them, as well as pick some for themselves! 

Spring is the time when so much goodness is starting to emerge from the ground. What if at your next family hike, you started noticing the plants that grow around you, some characteristics that define them and tried to identify their names?

The art of slowing down and noticing

Starting to identify plants provides an opportunity for slowing down, connecting to our environment, learning, as well as greater appreciation for the beauty and intelligence around us.

One of the first plant names I put an effort into learning was the tree that grew in front of my balcony, the Live Oak. I had looked at that tree many times, but once I learned its name, I started truly seeing it! I saw the particular leaf shape it had, how it was evergreen, and how it lost its leaves in the Spring, at the same time as it was growing new ones. It became an inspiration of mine! I started noticing these little balls that sometimes grew on the tree, some fuzzy and small, some bigger and with a hard shell. These are Oak galls, little nurseries for wasp larvae, that start off as fuzzy and turn hard as they mature. There was a whole intelligence I had no idea about just existing right in front of my balcony. 

In the world we live in today, where we have so much accessible information at our fingertips, all we need to do is to notice and get curious about our surroundings. This simple act of pausing and taking a look at the world around us with a new eye can be meditative. Just walk with the intention of noticing and when you see a plant that looks interesting to you, stop and really observe it. 

Foraging: Why it should be a family activity 

Foraging is identifying, gathering and using herbs. This can be using them for eating, making tea, herbal medicine, or in other ways. The act of foraging itself has so many benefits for children. Here are some:

• It helps them connect to their environment and strengthens their bond with nature

• It’s a fun way to explore new textures, smells and gain knowledge

• It gives them a greater understanding of seasonal changes and nature’s wisdom

• Plants that grow in the wild have a much higher nutritional value than domesticated plants and once you gather them, you can consume them

• Anything you have picked yourself tastes better, so this might encourage your children to try new, nutritionally packed foods

• It’s empowering! Learning about all the goodness that grows around you for free and knowing how to utilize them can make children feel more safe and stable in the world

Some tips for successful and safe foraging with your family

It can be intimidating to start foraging if you’ve never done it, so here are some tips to set you up for success:

• There is a lot of fear mongering around plants, so the first thing you need to do before you go foraging is rid yourself of the mindset that plants are “dangerous”. Learn the poisonous plants that grow in your area and make sure to teach these to your children.

• You could find a plant identifier app to start with, or just google the observations you make about a plant you or your child show interest in.

• Set some rules with your children around foraging, like that they have to be accompanied with you or other trusted adults to forage. Or that they need to be 100% sure they know what the plant is before picking it.

• Take something to cut with and some sort of bag to gather your plants in. 

Plants you can forage for now

Of course I’m going to leave you with some plant names that you can research now and look out for next time you’re out in nature with your family. 

• Cleavers has been a star among my Wild Schoolers, because it has tiny hairs growing on it that make it stick to your clothes like Velcro. If it sticks to you, you know it’s Cleavers. Cleavers offers great lymphatic drainage support and is great for opening up detox pathways after the stagnation of Winter (Mother Nature’s wisdom). It’s also full of minerals and vitamins. 

• Chickweed is another amazing lymphatic drainage herb and you can identify it by its tiny white flowers. Chickweed is another superfood with all of the nutritional and health benefits it offers. 

• Henbit Deadnettle and Purple Deadnettle are packed with minerals and vitamins. They look alike and have very similar benefits. You can identify them by their small purple flowers. The reason why they are called deadnettles is because they don’t sting like Stinging Nettle.

• Wood Sorrel is another fan favorite among our Wild Schoolers, because it’s deliciously sour. It’s also rich in minerals and vitamins. The leaves, stems and flowers are all edible. They look like Clovers but have heart-shaped leaves instead of circular leaves and have distinct purple or yellow flowers. The variety with purple flowers has bigger leaves and the variety with yellow flowers has smaller leaves.

All of these can be eaten raw or cooked, added to smoothies and juice, or made into herbal infusions, which are strong teas that you brew for at least four hours to extract all of the goodness. 

These are only a handful of herbs and there are so many more that you can find and forage for yourself. Do make sure to only harvest what you need, leave plenty for the bees and other bugs and thank Nature, in turn teaching your child respect and gratitude. 

Taking a moment to pause, observe and get to know what’s growing around you is not only an opportunity to slow down but to explore a plethora of knowledge you weren’t aware of before. Foraging helps us and our children ground, connect to the world around us and become aware of Nature’s intelligence. This inherently leads to a greater appreciation of smaller things, empowers us and helps us nourish, strengthen and heal our bodies with the bounty of gifts that Nature offers us.

At The Wild School, we help children connect to and learn about nature through fun and hands-on activities every day. Try a class today!

Email us at info@thewildschool.org to learn more about our programs!

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by Viktorya Avetisyan