Queen Anne’s Lace differs from Poison Hemlock in several ways. QAL is usually hairy, its stems are green, and it has narrow divided bracts just under the flower cluster. It’s seeds are bristly. Poison Hemlock is much taller, hairless and lacking bracts just under the flower cluster. Its seeds are not bristly.
I believe public forums for specific interests are pretty few and far between nowadays, they’ve mostly been subsumed into places like Reddit (which I don’t recommend joining at all, for a multitude of reasons). Probably your best bet is trying to see if you can find a private gardening forum somewhere through anyone else you know of who shares the same interest, like a discord chat or something
Yes Blackraspberries absolutely have huge potential to be so much more, imagine crossing them with Wineberries & all the other Rubus species? Here’s somethings that could be achieved with Black Raspberries Genetics.
Different Ripening times, thus extending the Raspberry/Bramble Season.
Unique & incredible flavor combinations never tasted before! + Increased Fruit Size.
Superior climate resilient genetics, that way they can survive Climate Change & other Harsh enviroments/soils.
Throns can be bred out (However in areas with lots of deer, more nasty thorns may need to be selected).
I understand that many annoying plants have been domesticated into staples we depend on (corn, taro, etc.), but when it comes to berries especially, humanity has tried many times and failed. Miserably. It’s not that I just prefer wild berries to their domesticated counterparts, it’s that I hate store-bought berries. Blueberries may as well be blue water balloons, and raspberries are no better than the glue some of us ate in kindergarten. They’re not better, they’re just bigger.
Honestly, I like them. Makes you work for your meal. Otherwise, you get lazy. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer has many tales of this, so I won’t parrot her. Just check out the book - it’s great.
We’re getting really far off track from Queen Anne’s lace.
Your theory that wild plants can be “improved” from the the human-use point of view and still remain viable as wild plants. You really need to get a better understanding of how selective presure works. Have you ever come across wild tomatoes? I have. Whatever cultivar they desended from can no longer be determined because they revery back to the wild-type of tiny berries. This is my observation of a muskmelon in the wild. You can see that it no longer resembles a domesticated muskmelon; it has reverted to a berry.
I recommend that you study the basics of evolutionary biology to understand how selection really works.
To bring this back on-topic of Queen Anne’s lace, address @professor_porcupine 's idea, and respond to the the original question, all at the same time, I turn to a writing by Euell Gibbons, way back in 1966. The following are exerpts from “Wild Carrot, Bird’s Nest, or Queen Anne’s Lace,” which is chapter 24 in Stalking the Healthful Herbs.
Probably no other plant so well illustrates what can be done by plant breeding, seed selection, and cultivation as the ordinary carrot. It always amazes me how few people recognize that the rich orange-colored, crisp, and delicious garden carrot and the common old-field weed, Queen Anne’s lace, are exactly the same species. Whenever I point out that these two are really the same plant, the first reaction always is, “Did our domestic carrot come from that weed?” Then I have another surprise ready. In America there is a far greater probability that “that weed” came from the domestic carrot!
Garden carrots can sometimes “go wild” in a single generation. In almost every planting of carrots there will be a few atavistic specimens that will produce white, tough, slender little roots that are not worth gathering. If these roots are left in the ground and allowed to seed, the next summer they will be indistinguishable from the wild Queen Anne’s lace, and their seed will produce only wild types.
Good carrots never get a chance to go wild. Even if good carrots are abandoned or overlooked by the human beings who planted them, they will not be overlooked by the rabbits, field mice, chipmunks and other rodents who know a good carrot when they taste it. These hungry little animals will see to it that a good carrot never gets a chance to set seed.
So that’s why you can’t “improve” wild plants: the very qualities that make a domesticated strain desirable from a human standpoint are also the qualities that make it vulnerable to being eliminated by natural selection. That’s also why the commercial carrot seed growers don’t want Queen Anne’s lace within pollinating distance: it would introduce undersirable qualities such as small size or toug stringiness.
Now there are permaculture systems where adapted landraces can be developed; but these are not “wild” ecosystems. They are actively managed using integrated pest management to protect the plants.
In the same chapter, Gibbons also provides an answer to the orginal question, which was about how to be sure of the identification:
These roots are easily identified by anyone with a normal nose, for they have exatly the same smell as garden carrots, although they are white instead of yellow or orange.
He also felt that the seeds are the most valuable product, as they can be winnowed and then powdered in a blender to use as a culinary spice.
I feel you, your’s not alone, I also dislike Most grocery store berries. Lots of the grocery store berries taste boring but that’s because they don’t pick them at peak ripeness so it’s not fair. This is why You-Pick-Farms have better tasting berries because you can pick the ripest ones. but also wild blueberries concentrate more nutrients compared to the bigger blueberries counterparts, even at peak ripeness.
My question is why aren’t blueberry breeders incorporating these valuable wild blueberry genetics into their landraces? I know it’s possible to breed an even more concentrated, nutrient rich blueberry that taste Fantastic.
, I’m thankful they exist because if it weren’t for the thorns, the deer would’ve ate all the plants anyways. I’m also thinking of breeding the most nastiest thorns possible for this exact effect. Just imagine a border of thorny blackberries defending an Apple Tree or any other vulnerable plants.
Well isn’t this what Landrace Gardening is all about? Isn’t plant breeding simple a selection pressure?
By saving seeds of the plants I like that survive, I select for their traits to continue. Is this not how selective pressures work? If not please correct me, I want to get a better understanding.
Yes, I’ve found feral tomatoes growing in an urban abondend parking lots, twice. I saved those seeds. They were cherry tomato size and not quite like a pea/currant size.
Altho I never planted my limited collection of wild tomato seeds to see if they would persist cuz my local ground hogs, rabbits & deer would eat them anyways (Crazy, don’t they know tomato leaves are toxic raw!?).
Fantastic Observation, altho they resemble feral escapes of the Vine Peach cultivar (Maybe even Dosakai Melons). I’ve done some researching and this is the cultivar that seems to be escaping wild in the Southeastern U.S. I assume by resembles a domestic muskmelon, you meant the big sweet Honeydew/cantaloupes right?
This is a Dosakai Melon I found at a Grocery Store. I sent seeds to my friend and they grew bonkerz. Domestic melons aren’t supose to have such good growing/adaptability traits right? But maybe this is why the cultivar resembles your feral/wild melon. Any thoughts?
Now Kiwano (Cucumis metuliferus) also goes just as Bonkerz! Think about the crazy adaptable offspring a Dosakai Melon (Cucumis melo) x Kiwano (Cucumis metuliferus) hybrid cross could generate. They’d probably smoke all the other wild Cucumis species in competition.
However what’s really sad, when my local “Native” Blackberries taste so horrible. Barley any sweetness even at peak ripeness. I know there are better wild blackberries out there but my local ones are trash. It’s why I prefer Wineberries & Blackberries.
Dang… so it’s literally animals that will not allow a good tasting/improved carrot to continue making seeds? What abour.t in places where animals don’t exist or populations are hunted by predators?
It’s sad… why are we humans the only ones who can hold back on eating to save seeds from the plant? Why are we the only species capable of this kind of symbiosis?
Is this also why the roots become white color? Are the other root colors too attractive to herbivores? Makes me wonder why domestic Carrots fail to persists but feral domesticated Parsnips persist so well? What is the parsnip doing that carrots can’t?
Also is natural selection by definition any selection not done by Human beings?
In other words humans aren’t capable of natural selection?
Ohh! I’ve tried this one, makes me want to breed queen anne’s lace for better flavored seeds. Since roots can’t persist well due to herbivors.
Corn used to be very small and hard, the wild version of taro has raphides that turn your mouth into a cactus soaked in lighter fluid and chucked into a volcano if not prepared correctly (which if I am not mistaken is by drying them for a very long time), etc.
, I’m thankful they exist because if it weren’t for the thorns, the deer would’ve ate all the plants anyways. I’m also thinking of breeding the most nastiest thorns possible for this exact effect. Just imagine a border of thorny blackberries defending an Apple Tree or any other vulnerable plants.
