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Ripe for Picking: a Guide to Collecting your own Bountiful Botanicals

Fresh batch, but I'm running out of species, so this'll be the last one from me for this year. Top row: Bamboo (Fargesia rufa), Willow (Salix sp.), and Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia). Bottom row: Pear (Pyrus communis), Cherry (Prunus cerasus), and Amelanchier spicata. Note that cherry leaves are mildly poisonous though, I have not had any trouble using them in the past, but maybe don't go and dump bucketfuls of fresh ones in your tanks. For reference, 1ml contained about 1 crushed cherry leaf (ie about 500 for a 100l tank).
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Edit: After 1 week. The bamboo leaves might have been collected a bit old (meaning that a lot of colour had leached out already), but the others should be fairly representative.
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Thought it might be interesting to compare some botanicals that aren't native to the UK.
Preparation of these were different to the other tests I've done, so bear this in mind when comparing tint.
4 Parviflora pods, rinsed, scalded with boiling water and left for 24hrs. The contents of the jug will be added to tank this afternoon 😀
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I tested out using Apple leaves after @Tyko_N 's experiment. I have to say it's produced the exact golden colour I was looking for and it really didn't take many leaves to do it! My top off water only has one Apple leaf in it and all of the water is stained beautifully gold.

I'll definitely be collecting more if I get an opportunity before Christmas.
 
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Went on holidays to the beach to Phuket last week. The hotel I was in had Catapa trees next to the sea front. Tree was shedding all its leaves so I collected a few fallen ones unsure if they were suitable for tank use. I suppose they are.
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This is after just a few days of being air dried.
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Leaves are huge. To give a sense of proportion here is a picture. They are the length of my forearm (~30cm) and ~15 cm wide.
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Leaf underside with all sort of pest.
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I decided to boil them for 5 minutes to remove all sort of unwanted critters and perhaps also remove any salts that could be on the leave. I then dried them under a book to flatten them. This is purely because I have OCD and I need to fill my day with useless tasks. No need for such flattening shenanigans.
I'll leave them there for a few more days then I'll air dry them again and expose them to sun light so they can fully dehydrate. They need to become more brownish and crunchy.
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After boiling.
Upperside:
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Underside. they look much cleaner now with all the pest gone.
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Been out and about over the autumn and winter since I moved back to the lovely Leicestershire countryside, and hit the motherload a few times. Top left to right - alder cones, acorn cups, larch cones, beech seed pods. Bottom left to right - beech leaves, oak leaves, and silver birch leaves.

Not sure if the larch cones are okay to place in an aquarium, but I know young cones can be pickled or fermented, so should be safe. Maybe someone who knows for sure can vouch either way.

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I’ve been deadheading my azaleas today, and it occurred to me that maybe the seed pods would make a decent addition to my botanicals collection. Anyone used them before or could offer some advice?

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I would not risk it @Tim Harrison considering that Azaleas are poisonous. From what I could find, all parts contain grayanotoxin, including flowers and nectar. Looking at the toxins structure it seems to be water soluble, so might be possible to remove with prolonged leaching by boiling or similar, but I would avoid them just to be safe.
 
Thanks @Tyko_N. Looked grayanotoxin up and came across the Wikipedia entry. Seems it can have interesting effects especially honey made from the nectar of plants that contain it, known as mad honey. Always wanted to to take up beekeeping 😁
 
Tim Harrison said:
known as mad honey.
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Yes the honey seems especially bad. Here in Sweden marsh-labrador tea (Rhododendron tomentosum) is often confused with bog-myrtle, which has traditionally been used to flavour home-made schnapps, and although it's supposed to have narcotic properties serious poisonings seems very rare so it can't be that dangerous, or at least not much worse than drinking lots of schnapps... Swimming in a tank that contains the stuff is probably not a good for the fish long term though, but maybe they would get a buzz from it in the beginning (Ironicly meant! Don't try this at home!).
 
I'm not doubting anything that's been posted about azalea above but azalea is used in aquaria quite a bit in aquaria (so are normal rhododendron) as spiderwood. I know the greatest concentration of grayanotoxin is in the nectar but how long does it stay in the plant once it has died off. The roots may have smaller concentrations but they are obviously ok in the long run. I must confess I don't know how long these roots will have been dead before people buy them but can imagine it's not more that 6-12 months. I wonder if after a winter of rain (not that we've had much) and nearly a year on the plant after flowering, if they might be safer than we think. I'm not suggesting chucking them in with live stock but the old daphnia in a bucket test might give an inkling.
 
Thanks @mort, good point, it'd crossed my mind too. If I can find any daphnia I'll definitely give the toxicity test a go.
It'll be worth it. I have a few mature shrubs with a load of seed pods. Could be a great resource, plus they look pretty cool as well.
 
mort said:
I'm not doubting anything that's been posted about azalea above but azalea is used in aquaria quite a bit in aquaria (so are normal rhododendron) as spiderwood.
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That's been bugging me as well, but I have a working theory: The bulk of that wood will be xylem, dead cells where the cell wall's the only thing remaining, that conduct water and minerals. With no living tissue and a constant water flow any toxins should be leached away rapidly, probably even long before the plant dies, leaving safe-to-use wood.
 
Tim Harrison said:
I’ve been deadheading my azaleas today, and it occurred to me that maybe the seed pods would make a decent addition to my botanicals collection. Anyone used them before or could offer some advice?

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It’s a big shame, as azalea has great looking dried flower heads and leaves, but don’t use them. <See the third post in this thread where I highlighted its toxicity>. If you want to experiment, know that it could kill your creatures, it might be fine but it’s a gray area 😛

Tim Harrison said:
Thanks @mort, good point, it'd crossed my mind too. If I can find any daphnia I'll definitely give the toxicity test a go.
It'll be worth it. I have a few mature shrubs with a load of seed pods. Could be a great resource, plus they look pretty cool as well.
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Interesting idea! Note that as with the “mad honey”, that inverts like bees seem to be less affected by it, so it could be fine for them and then less fine for fish later. Someone experimenting with these beautiful but suspicious botanicals is welcome though.

mort said:
I'm not doubting anything that's been posted about azalea above but azalea is used in aquaria quite a bit in aquaria (so are normal rhododendron) as spiderwood. I know the greatest concentration of grayanotoxin is in the nectar but how long does it stay in the plant once it has died off. The roots may have smaller concentrations but they are obviously ok in the long run. I must confess I don't know how long these roots will have been dead before people buy them but can imagine it's not more that 6-12 months. I wonder if after a winter of rain (not that we've had much) and nearly a year on the plant after flowering, if they might be safer than we think. I'm not suggesting chucking them in with live stock but the old daphnia in a bucket test might give an inkling.
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The toxin is highly concentrated in the leaves and flowers of the plant - ie. The bits that are eaten, so the roots are much less likely to be affected. Poisons are lots of energy for plants to produce so generally they only put them where necessary. It’s totally possible that the plants suck the toxins back in before they drop their leaves and flowers, but generally it’s very difficult to find other plants that will grow underneath these toxic bushes. There’s also the complication that some azalea and rhododendron are much more poisonous than others, so some might be fine and others rather deadly!

Tyko_N said:
That's been bugging me as well, but I have a working theory: The bulk of that wood will be xylem, dead cells where the cell wall's the only thing remaining, that conduct water and minerals. With no living tissue and a constant water flow any toxins should be leached away rapidly, probably even long before the plant dies, leaving safe-to-use wood.
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100% my thoughts on it too!
 
Thanks for the info @shangman, I somehow missed your toxicity table even though I went back through the thread.
shangman said:
Interesting idea! Note that as with the “mad honey”, that inverts like bees seem to be less affected by it, so it could be fine for them and then less fine for fish later. Someone experimenting with these beautiful but suspicious botanicals is welcome though.
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Yes I read that about the bees, and it seems likely that certain species have evolved to resist the toxin. On the other hand, the use of daphnia to test toxins is a well established methodology, supported by a wealth of peer reviewed literature. So I'd be confident of the results either way. However, I'm in no rush and happy to err on the side of caution so there won't be the slightest probability of harming any livestock.
 
Hi all,
Tyko_N said:
The bulk of that wood will be xylem, dead cells where the cell wall's the only thing remaining, that conduct water and minerals. With no living tissue and a constant water flow any toxins should be leached away rapidly, probably even long before the plant dies, leaving safe-to-use wood.
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That is where I'm <"coming from as well">. I think the BOD concept is really useful, where you evaluate <"how polluting an item will be">.

cheers Darrel
 
shangman said:
The toxin is highly concentrated in the leaves and flowers of the plant - ie. The bits that are eaten, so the roots are much less likely to be affected. Poisons are lots of energy for plants to produce so generally they only put them where necessary. It’s totally possible that the plants suck the toxins back in before they drop their leaves and flowers, but generally it’s very difficult to find other plants that will grow underneath these toxic bushes. There’s also the complication that some azalea and rhododendron are much more poisonous than others, so some might be fine and others rather deadly!
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Thinking more the roots have obviously been processed and cleaned up. Probably washed multiple times as well before we get them.
The area under the plants that prohibits growth is an accumulation over time but I do agree they are very toxic plants. A friend lives in the new forest had a neighbour where a group of animal rights people let their sheep out of the field (because they thought they were freeing them presumably) and they made it into the forest and feasted on the rhododendrons. In total about 40 odd sheep then had to be humanly killed because they had poisoned themselves.

I don't have that mad scientist gene, I'm very cautious when it comes to animals but I'm very surprised what people have got away with adding to their tanks. Part of the treatment for animals that have eaten these is charcoal and in the intestines the toxin is partly broken down, so I would imagine a good boiling and perhaps a cautionary charcoal soak may help mitigate a lot of the problems. In Japan they are very popular plants and can be found growing around many of their koi ponds. I know dilution is the solution to pollution but not all these ponds are particularly large.
Would I use azalea personally, no, and if I did I wouldn't use it straight off the plant but with a quick boil like other botanicals, I don't think I'd rule it out yet.
 
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