Wild Harvest: William Cullina points out some native plants with edible and ornamental appeal

摘要

IN THE SPRING of the year, just before our lovely little black flies begin their annual assault, Mainers hike low woods and paddle rivers in search of wild fiddleheads, an annual ritual that is as much about tradition as it is about sustenance. My wife's family has been picking fiddle-heads for three generations in a secret spot along the Aroostook River in the northern reaches of the state, and several times I have tagged along, not so much to collect the ferns as to collect photographs of the various wild-flowers that cohabitate in the mucky soil they all relish.