Are there any Wild Edibles Plant Foragers here?

[professor_porcupine]

@sethshively

“Weed” is typically applied to plants just because humans think they’re ugly.

I’ve heard the same too, that’s why I thought an “Invasive species” is just a really really bad “weed” for scientists .

@sethshively

“Invasive” refers to non-native species which have proliferated to the point where they cause real ecological damage, sometimes including extinctions.

so… does this mean “Invasive species” existed before humans were even around?

@elpatitojuan2

An invasive species is a species that has been taken out of its natural range by humans to another place, where it doesn’t belong to, and it breeds and starts modifying the colonized ecosystem, usually negatively.

who decides where it belongs or doesn’t belong? by natural you mean it got there by non-human ways?

@elpatitojuan2

A pioneer species has totally nothing to do with an invasive species. A pioneer is a species of plant that starts colonizing a previously disturbed area. It is part of vegetation cover regeneration.

But aren’t many “Invasive species” also Pioneer species?

@screedius

I already told you, an invasive species is a non-native species that decreases the overall biodiversity of an ecosystem.

Can a “Native” species be invasive too?

@screedius

Native species are integrated into the ecological web of their respective regions.

So in other words they have naturalized? Won’t every “Invasive species” eventually become “Native”? How did “Native” species evolve in the first place? and why can’t we evolve new species as well?

@elpatitojuan2

Man, I don’t know if you are being sarcastic,

Not sarcastic, I just never learned a concrete definition of "Native’ that didn’t have loopholes that break the whole definition making the term useless.

@elpatitojuan2

In case you are the latter thing, a native species is a species growing in its natural conditions, in its natural place without human intervention.

So any species that formed Symbiosis with Homo sapiens is not “Native” no more?
What about new species that have been created thru domestication like Cucumis melo, Cucurbita pepo, Zea mays, Solanum lycopersicum, Solanum tuberosum and the new Genus Brassicoraphanus which is an intergeneric hybrid between Brassica x Raphnaus.

Where is Brassicoraphanus “Native” to? Where it was first created right?

@elpatitojuan2

If they are, that still means they are very different and definitely do not fill the niche (not Nietzsche) of cottonwoods and willows.

Perhaps but they allow many other species to grow thanks to holding the soil & improving with nitrogen fixation. Essentially fixing broken soils to support more life.

@jasonhernandez74

From a wild foods perspective, these are some of the most valuable. So, understandably, a wild foods forager may have a different perspective on nonnative plants than a pure ecologist would.

Agreed, many of these plants provide more food overall for both human & Animal. I get sadden when the birds eat all the wineberries, clearing my local enviroment is tell me it needs more berries, like Wineberries, Black raspberries ect.
I also learned why Blackberries became thorny, it’s because of deer. Deer also don’t eat Garlic mustard, Shiso, Garlic, Spicebush, all of which are “Invasive” to Maryland (They all grow like weeds, most abundant plants in my local forrests).