This Easter holiday I’ve been having so much fun with my daughter in the woods! She has been fascinated to learn about the, wonderful wild plants that grow all around us.

Each day when we returned to the woods she would repeat with excitement what she had learnt the day before, and ask me about new plants and what they could be used for. It was a lovely bonding moment for us and for her and the forest.

There is nothing better than sparking your child's love of nature so I thought I’d share some of the facts she found interesting so other parents can share them with their kids too.

10 Wild Plants That Will Spark Your Child’s Love of Nature

1 - Hawthorn

Leaves used to be called “bread and cheese” by children who would snack on it as they walked past. But it tastes neither like bread nor cheese (encourage them to taste if you can 100% identify the tree!). It’s great for your heart ❤️

2 - Dandelion

They are called “piss en lit” in France which means wet the bed, because they are diuretic and could cause wee accidents if consumed too close to bed time. Each individual petal is actually a flower in its own right and which is why it produces so many seeds .

3 - Plantain

If you rub the leaves really quickly and then smell them, they smell like mushrooms! Also helps with nettle stings. For more on plantain click here

4 - Pineapple weed

Smells and tastes like … pineapple.

5 - Nettle

Yes, they sting (ouch!) - but also can be heated with sugar and lemon to make a delicious syrup. It has twice as much iron as spinach and twice as much calcium as a glass of milk! Also it’s stalks can be spun into cloth - it was used by the Germans to make uniforms in WW1!

6 - Yarrow

Was used by the great hero Achilles to heal his soldiers wounds after battle. One of its common names is “nosebleed” as you can literally shove it up your nose to stop bleeding!

7 - Bramble

Everyone loves blackberry picking but the Small leaf buds can be eaten too - they are really astringent. There are over 200 Micro species in the Uk!

8 - Cleavers aka Sticky Willy

Not so much a fun fact so much a fun game. You can play “it” by sticking it on people and running away before they can stick it back on you. You can infuse it in cold water to make a refreshing and healthy drink. For more on cleavers click here.

9 - Lords and ladies

Not to be consumed - eating it tastes like ingesting shards of glass!!

But its flowers do an amazing job of attracting insects for pollination - they mimic a rotting carcus by emitting a foul stench and heating up so insects are attracted to it, then they trap them inside the flower and sprinkle pollen all over them before letting them go on to deliver to other flowers

10 - Rose

Rose hips are full of vitamin c - 20 times as much as in oranges!! During WW2 people picked them to ensure people got enough vitamins.

For more on rose click here.

Thoughts to leave you with …

Kids are like sponges and they have such an innate curiosity for the natural world. It’s no surprise really, as we are built to notice what’s growing around us, rather than screens. Let me know if you have shared any of these facts with your kids or if there are any other fun plants they love learning about.

If you’re interested in starting to forage - either with your kids or on your own - then you may want to consider downloading my check list for beginners. You can receive this by subscribing to my newsletter, Wild Soul Whispers, which also gets you a free wild plant profile sent directly to your inbox each month.