What's your favorite plant family and one thing you hate about it?

My favorite is Lamiaceae, the mint family. So many beautiful flowers and tasty leaves in this family. Also I’ve heard American Beautyberry makes good jelly. I haven’t tried it yet myself.

One thing I hate: the fact that Perilla is invasive. I’ve heard it advised not to eat the invasive variety in the US because it may be high in perilla ketone which is toxic in large amounts. I found some of the invasive one and I thought it smelled bad so I didn’t taste it. I have the green shiso variety in my garden. It smells great and is delicious. I’m careful about not letting it escape. It never goes in the compost. I burn the seeds and extra plants (more sprout than I need). I don’t share seeds. If someone wants to eat some, I give them leaves. Exception being that I gave some plants to my friend Sara because she already has the invasive one in her neighborhood. I told her to not grow it from seed because it may cross with the invasive one. I will give her new plants next year.

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Through no fault of its own though. The fault is on people bringing it to where it is not native I’d think.

Other culinary mints don’t try to take over though. And I don’t hate Perilla. I hate the fact that I have to worry about it escaping.

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One among my several favorite plant families is the Fabaceae.

First comes the good stuff, then we’ll end with the bad. I like the flowers, which have great form and come in a wide variety of colors among the thousands of species in the family. Black Locust flowers fill the air with a wonderful aroma in the spring, and it’s really pleasing to walk though fragrant expanses of grass full of clover. The pods of Kentucky Coffeetree and Honey Locust are magnificent, as are the thorns of the latter. Mature Black Locust has wonderful ridged bark. Here’s a youthful specimen with a great future, since it’s on state-owned land:


Observation 318439389

Nitrogen fixation also deserves a strong mention. :clap:

Mesquite adds great flavor to food, and many great flavorful forms of beans are available for meals. However, that leads to what I don’t like about the family, which is the uncomfortable aftermath of eating too many tasty beans. :grin:

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Legumes also seems to have become one of the dominant plant families right after the K-pg event, and were instrumental in wresting away the crown from gymnosperms.

Carvalho MR, Jaramillo C, de la Parra F, Caballero-Rodríguez D, Herrera F, Wing S, TurnerB, D’Apolito C, Romero-Báez M, Narváez P, Martinez C, Gutierrez M, Labandeira C, Bayona G, Rueda M, Paez-Reyes M, Cárdenas D, Duque A, Crowley JL, Silvestro D. Extinction at the end-Cretaceous and the origin of modern Neotropical rainforests. Science 372: 63–68. DOI:10.1126/science.abf1969

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