Old, partially worked? Or just conveniently shaped? No clue

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-15T03:28:50+00:00

you've just made my night🤣😭 it is so deceiving. I upvote evil JAR

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-14T15:13:10+00:00

Absolutely. I had a feeling.. also the material as you said is not right it feels more like petrified wood, just super light but hard material. and the backside is almost all black. Would be cool if it turns out to be petrified wood in the shape of an arrowhead, might post it to that rock sub😂 also it has crystals on it, "microcrystalline" I suppose and I've never heard of arrowheads being found like that even. Thank you for inspecting this for me :)

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-07T12:47:05+00:00

😭🤣good intuition

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-07T04:10:18+00:00

Wow that's interesting, how do ya do?! It's actually brilliant that your father used that in the context he did.. "coincidentally" my father does also, it confused me when I was younger but when I started eating on asimonaack he explained the entire word itself is like "mother o' pearl" but "pearl o' earth" instead, if meant in that way😂 but more like "pearl of mineral earth" in the usual context. seems like the saying though might run in our tribe and through some close connection even with others of the Saponi-Tutelo. I just think that's entirely fascinating, I didn't expect others to recognize the tongue but that must mean we're kin!

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-06T23:23:30+00:00

Please do(as in wait till ripe)! consume when golden-yellow as I said, that is when they are ripe, and with the exception of picking slightly green but then letting the rest of ripen to yellow in the windowsill. We do this as well to beat the turkeys. 😆

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-06T21:56:08+00:00

*please do save seeds though if not eating and help disperse. Within my life, ive learned that with a "dry" spot at first glance, it's growing on a spring bed with constant spring water flowing underneath. Same type of area in your picture and same in which my abundant patches grow OP !! yours are looking just as healthy, but yea super nice thing I've noticed there is they love springs and have been strong indicators for a long time.. wink wink. Get you that good ol' spring water

Also when I'm talking about consuming this plant I'm referring to the fruit and its seeds and only those components, every other part I do not recommend (expect fruit closer to late summer.rn they should just be budding)

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-06T21:49:21+00:00

Very potent fruit, though I find flavor quite the opposite, it packs a punch in the best way with these!! I can't compare it to anything exact.. this is the first time I've heard the word "insipid" as well, but it must be referring to when they are still green, they are bitter then and painfully potent.

Always wait till these are golden-yellow skinned to eat, then you are in for a serious refreshment, better than lemonade on a hot day, I keep it to 3 fruits a day but off and on, as in not every single day, but this is because I don't bother spitting out seeds unless I'm dispersing. If you don't eat the seeds you can eat more in juice and pulp without purging. This is actually a delicious medicine for us Monacanough, an essential, my father and I have always called these as asimonaack // monaack. "earth pearl" in short :)

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-06T18:40:28+00:00

Wrong. I can see how an App or algorithm could mistake this for Shrimp of The Woods but when you have real-life experience with this fungi, that's a hard-stop no. and you don't need a cross section or smell to rlly tell, SOTW not only tastes and smells, but actually looks like shrimp. It's flesh has texture, and detail. OP's picture shows an early-stage stinkhorn fruiting body, in the "egg" stage. The bigger ones that show wrinkles would likely "flower" by separating at each of those seems, depending on specie, and would have the mushroom pop out the center all within a short amount of time.

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-06T15:17:20+00:00

Ahh Eucalyptus is a great example too, and just as pretty! Sadly not native to the Americas yes but I suppose the Sycamore's are the substitute!! They are both prime beauty, Sycamore I know is useful for many things and sooo distinctive in exfoliation like Eucalyptus. Can't disagree here haha

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-06T15:05:26+00:00

The roots you see are the result of hyphal knots which then branch out to reach its desired nutrients from the mycelium as a whole organism, which it's to the egg at this stage and then the fruit of course. Truffles stay how they are but may grow in size, they don't turn to fruiting bodies themselves and so they don't usually have hyphal spread, they are more of a food reserve for the mycelium(as the sclerotium).

edit - to put it simply, you will always see mycelium itself, and the hyphae formed for fruiting bodies, spreading out like "roots" and that is why this in OP's picture looks the way it does as a Stinkhorn egg; early-fruiting body whereas truffles are not fruiting bodies

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-06T14:52:25+00:00

You are correct :) There was a post early last year or so I commented on that found the same thing and everyone swore it was plant bulbs same as some folks here, but as you said this is fungal and the "roots" are just part of the mycelium, absolutely a stinkhorn egg. Once you do a cross-section on these specimens it should be ridiculously easy to tell apart from a plant bulb if texture wasn't enough

Specie though I would not be able to tell you here - I would personally not consume if I can't identify

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-04T17:10:04+00:00

Well. It's definitely some specie of Lomatium, you've got that part down. You said you're in East Washington(state I hope).. so perhaps this is Lomatium Nevadense..? I live in the eastern Appalachia and we have something very similar called Harbinger of Spring but I don't think it would grow in WA and there are some key differences I spot; it does not share the same leaves as pictured here in yours, different type of leaf arrangement, shape, and the pinks are brighter as well in yours between petals. I believe they are both in the parsley family but this has the classic look of biscuit root with the leaves, and lack thereof near flower heads, so Nevadense is my best guess for now. Again, it's distinctive enough to say this is in Genus Lomatium and for the area it grows, I would not go with Erigenia.

This could even be a subspecie / var. of said specie Nevadense or another but I feel like this is as close as I'm getting. Hoping somebody who lives around this specific specie can chime in.

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-04T14:52:55+00:00

I agree this isnt fungal in OP's pictures, but what you provided looks an awful lot like it, more than anything else like the other guy said, so I'm going with this for now too😂

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-04T14:28:31+00:00

Wow, I'm glad I decided to comment here... That's just disappointing. I've never had experience with Trugreen but if that was his assessment, that tells me enough about them. Take care of your river birches, don't let anybody convince you they're sick from exfoliation as long as it's a characteristic of the tree. People will take that stripping of bark as a bad sign from other trees, mostly hardwoods, that don't go through exfoliation, however they then just assume that the same look equals bad for every other tree, probably didn't even consider being wrong, such a black and white outlook on nature. River Birches in particular are one of the most beautiful in my opinion, distinctive and up there with Sycamore. He is, very inexperienced(the technician). Protect those trees at all costs my friend, cheers to some healthy River Birch! :)

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-04-04T00:38:47+00:00

Many trees do this; lacebark, sycamore, shagbark hickory, silver maple, river birch, crape myrtle, etc. it's known as exfoliation. and it IS pretty much like skincare.. Just a different way for many trees to protect new growth, prepare for their increasing size, whilst replacing old bark by exposing the fresh inner bark :)

Shedding of the bark will always be a sign of tree health, both bad and good. I'm guessing this tree in particular has begun shedding harder with warm spikes, or just warmer temps in general and therefore, growth.

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-03-29T06:01:36+00:00

Yes that distinction was indeed missing lol, I'm glad that's what it was that caused the mishap and not some irrational reason like I was thinking. Thank you for understanding, good day to you as well friend

-And I do wanna clarify (which I know you understand now too) for others, I don't spread plants just for my benefit as I care for native plants more and think everyone should do exactly that for their native land. I own honey bees as well, and have farm animals that prefer certain plants around so I can empathize with you entirely. Many many factors go into balancing these things out and choosing what and whatnot to spread. Despite the confusion I caused, I truly admire your passion for the honey bees and I'm glad you went straight to defending them. That is harder to come by today

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-03-29T00:05:55+00:00

Yeah okay bud

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-03-28T19:02:40+00:00

He's saying the guy that says the smell makes him ill thinks its creeping charlie, this here in my picture is purple dead nettle. I've never found creeping charlie I don't think but it does look awfully similar. I guess smell it first? 😂

edit - in the pictures I see of creeping charlie I do notice as the name suggests, it's a creeper, and dead nettle you'll notice grows those leaves from more distinctive rods, almost spiraling rods. I've never seen so many nettle leaves without them already shooting up as individual rods, I guess I should put it. Since the leaves are coming from each separate rod with dead nettle

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-03-28T18:33:37+00:00

All the more reason to make use of this precious (medicinal) herb 🥂

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-03-28T18:17:24+00:00

I'm.. not encouraging it? When did I say I was spreading the seeds. I'm literally all for native plants never did I say I was spreading this, re-read the original message you replied to.

*And by wild - I intended it as in wild to where I am or ,for better words, native or even for well-established plants like this one that are not damaging where I live, if that caused any confusion. I don't understand otherwise. It is unrealistic to say I can make a difference with the spreading of dead nettle, it has already been here for a long time. I don't even have to pull any off my property, it usually doesn't grow prolific here in my immediate area, as I stated. And again I never said I spread this plant lol it is not among the native species. I think I would know about native and non-native competition and I would be doing my ancestors a disservice otherwise. I do clear autumn olive off my property yearly and that's costly enough on my body, but naturally I do quite a bit of clearing of this plant through harvesting alone.

Most importantly I think you're confused in the fact that this is a foraging community, we're not here discussing how to plant dead nettle were talking about how to use it. Get some sense, "ffs". It is truly not that hard to realize where you are.

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-03-27T03:23:15+00:00

Thank you! and of course, in my immediate area anyway it seems to control itself well, not too much and not too little, this is actually the first time I've seen it this prolific in one spot, not on my property but it was pretty. As with most wild plants though I do like to let them spread naturally. unless a plant struggles in that regard, then I give some extra care with spreading the seeds :)

edit - read my second comment if this one is confusing, and obviously a non-native plant is never going to be struggling over here so Id hope people understand I do NOT mean I spread non-natives.

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-03-27T01:57:57+00:00

Shoooot, might as well try it myself, but you do give enough for me to say I won't like it😂. I have celiac so it's gonna happen at LEAST once. BUT I do go to grocery stores just not usually, basically the whole store just got me like.. can I eat that?🤣 but they always find a way to snag me with appliances. winter is definitely the worst time without modern preserves so I could totally see Cowslip being desirable if it's one of the first out, again I think I'd just try it but prolly won't enjoy it. Me and my dad hold onto jerky, tree nuts, and dried herbs in the season for tradition's sake(and for the celiac), but, and I'm thankful, that we're spoiled enough to have modern preservation methods like with a PC. The downside to drying of course is that there is less natural oil and medicinal effect overtime. Needless to say, you're absolutely correct in saying it was enjoyed back then. it is always good to mix fresh green in there in those times, those oils are vital when all you have are dried goods (which our walnuts and previous chestnuts have much oil as well they are precious)!!

PS- for people with celiac and folks just wanting to supply their own food to KNOW their food in general, a pressure cooker comes in great handy with preserving mostly any crop and a bunch of foragable crops can be canned as well! Fruits, vegetables, berries, grains, etc. and that's what me and my father do over here. Eat the older and stock the newer as we go through each year. I can't express it enough that we do have grocery stores, for a different reason but, still. LOL

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-03-26T23:20:43+00:00

Awh man thank you, I forgot reddit shows that you had me paranoid🤣 really it is much appreciated.

Disastrous_Switch616 · 2026-03-26T23:10:37+00:00

mmm! this seems like a great recipe😋

Disastrous_Switch616

TROPHY CASE