any uses for alcanet leaves?

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eli

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any uses for alcanet leaves?
« on: November 15, 2010, 10:08 »
hello all :-)  i'm new here :-)

does anyone know of any good use for the huge amounts of alcanet that i've cleared from my garden?
can i compost it?
cos its will to live is truly remarkable and its seems almost immortal!

i'm diggin all the roots out and dryin them out to kill them but the leaves MUST be good for somethin, any ideas?
thanks in advance

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mumofstig

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Re: any uses for alcanet leaves?
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2010, 11:38 »
It makes good compost :)

The roots make a dye, but I can't remember which colour :unsure:  ::)

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eli

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Re: any uses for alcanet leaves?
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2010, 17:17 »
cool, thanks :-)
its a right shame they're not edible cos they're everywhere.
well, i dunno whether they're actually un-edible, but my instinct tells me not to eat them, i think because i find them too hairy and kind of grim-lookin to be edible.

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Trillium

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Re: any uses for alcanet leaves?
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2010, 19:30 »
Here's some general cultivation info on alkanet:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2092417_grow-alkanet.html

About all they're good for is to compost the leaves, and the flowers are very attractive to bees as alkanet is part of the borage family.
But unlike borage, alkanet contains toxic alkaloids which can build up in your liver system and eventually poison you, so unless you're working with a trained herbalist, I'd avoid ingesting any form of this plant.


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