Killing Ranunculus ficaria

Judy Glattstein jgglatt@gmail.com
Sun, 18 Apr 2010 12:38:46 PDT
At this point I have about 10 gallons of plants that I dug complete with 
tubers, leaves, and adjacent soil in the black plastic bag and another 5 
gallons still in a bucket. There are more in the ground but this is a 
good part of what was there. I do patrol down the intermittent drainage 
creek looking for outliers, where tubers have floated downstream and 
rooted where they come to rest.

Microwaving would probably work but A) mine is not large enough to  more 
than a quart or so at a time and B) wonder what it would smell like - 
oven-baked soil smells pretty rank. And my husband already complains 
about "your stinky plants" -  Fritillaria imperialis and Dracunculus 
vulgaris

Brian, I concur that plants I don't want to kill always die rapidly at 
the smallest faux pas such as the oversight of leaving them in an open 
tray.  Those I want to kill (like Ranunculus ficaria) seem immortal.

Today someone told me he did eat Ranunculus ficaria leaves, mistaking 
them for Caltha palustris. That's what comes of reading Euell Gibbons 
"Stalking the Wild Asparagus" at an impressionable age. My friend was 
young and foolish, survived the misidentification with no ill effects 
because - he thinks - the leaves were cooked rather than raw, in a 
salad. Not worth it, to my mind.

Keep those suggestions coming folks. I'm happy, happy with the responses 
so far.

Judy, who want to earn the epithet of "bane of the lesser celandine"


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