What's this plant/herb?

[gtarman]

I'm trying to find out the names of some plants I see growing around the place. Despite having a relatively green thumb I can't identify many plants, and haven't grown a very wide variety or learned about that many. So I thought I might post some things here to learn the names and become more wise.

This herb is growing all through the dry areas of my lawn, and reaches a height of around 20cm, spreading out to about the same, maybe a bit wider (last pics with 20c coin for reference):

[bogfrog]

Need better pix. Hard to tell because its going to seed, lots of plants look similarly lanky when going to seed. It looks a bit familiar, kinda reminds me of seeding coriander but the leaves look too thin, I might be able to tell if you can take a clear photo of the foliage.

Good on you for deciding to learn about weeds. Many are useful and edible.

I suggest hiring out a weeds book from the library. Should fill you in on what's what.

[gtarman]

Yeah, sorry lol. My phone is ultra-crap. One day when I'm not poor or when I become morally corrupted enough to steal things I will have a good camera.

But yeah it doesn't really have 'leaves' as such. I don't know the botanical name for them, but they're just the fine needley wispy things like on dill and fennel. This looks quite similar to dill actually, but not quite as bushy I think. Hmmm..I'll see if I can play around with the resolution settings on my phone's camera tomorrow

[bogfrog]

Hmmm you might be right ya'know..

Dill:

I often use botanical drawings for id'ng herbaceous plants, it seems to be easier to tell the exact details from than a photograph.

If it is indeed then you're off to a great start lol.

[gtarman]

Would be uber-cool if dill grew as a weed at my house lol. Unexpected culinary herbs for the win! Although I might not try eating it til I get a better picture and some more feedback

[EthnoGuy85]

If it's dill it should have that distinct smell when the leaves are crushed. Fennel will have a wide stalk near the base

[gtarman]

^ yeah, it's definitely not fennel, that one I can spot quite easily, and it usually gets much taller.

As for the smell, it's a bad sad but I can't actually remember what dill smells like. I'm sure I've eaten it a million times, but nobody has ever told me "here, this has dill on it", and I've never really used it in my cooking. Was going to attempt better photos today but the heat has stopped me from doing anything that isn't napping and complaining

[bullit]

dill smells like anise looks way to small 4 dill seed heads i think

[ThunderIdeal]

slender celery

its an annual weed of brisbane

Edited November 9, 2013 by ThunderIdeal

[gtarman]

Looks like Thunder may have nailed it!

Do you know if it's useful in any way? :-s

Double-edit: Slender Celery sounds like a good rap name lol

Edited November 9, 2013 by gtarman

[ThunderIdeal]

maybe as a salad but nothing i'm aware of. if its edible you should have no shortage of salad greens.

[paradox]

yeah it's edible. doesn't look much like it but it's closely relate to commercial celery. it's flavor is strong so it can be really useful for flavoring salads or other dishes..

[gtarman]

Yeah a quick Google search says people do eat it, but that it may actually be somewhat toxic to mammals. Thanks Mr. Google, really cleared that one up for me

[paradox]

well it's extremely aromatic which i guess is due to high levels of phenolic compounds, which in high doses would most probably tend to become toxic. the amounts that a foraging animal might eat might also tend to be a lot more than a human might eat.. ive tried it a few times, just tastes like a very strong celery, you would never want to eat too much because the flavor is so strong, so i doubt it would ever be an issue.. i dunno though.. all i know is i remember reading about it in a good book about edible weeds & them saying it's closely related to commercial celery & it may be a good candidate for selective breeding to produce a good quality aromatic celery herb

[gtarman]

Hermmm. I might have a crack...but I'm not sure. I'm a bit paranoid about these sorts of things generally.

[paradox]

i couldn't find any info about toxicity & it's widely described as being a stock fodder & that cattle love it. only thing is it may make their milk taste a bit funny if they eat too much.

i wouldn't be too paranoid about it, it really doesn't seem to be a problem chemically, just edible terpenes.. & theres much documentation as a stock feed without any problem except for said milk tainting.. even large quanities eaten by cows doesn't seem to be any issue in terms of toxicity,.

check this

http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=CH9690495.pdf

[gtarman]

Cool, might have to try it out in a salad..maybe even save some seeds and see if I can't get something going.

I actually just went to crush some in the garden to smell, and I didn't even need to crush it - that shit is pungent. Should be called smellery.