Edibles and non edibles

Blackberries are edible, they have long, thorny stems and produce  dark purple-black fruits made up of many small juicy drupelets.

Blackberries don’t all ripen at once — each bramble can hold flowers, unripe green berries, red berries, and ripe black ones all at the same time. This means they provide food for wildlife over several weeks — bees love the blossoms early in summer, and birds and mammals feast on the berries later on.

Blackthorn is a spiky, hardy shrub commonly found in UK hedgerows and woodland edges. It has small white spring flowers, and dark blue-black berries in autumn — it’s an important plant for hedgerow biodiversity, providing food and shelter. 

Sloes are extremely tart and bitter if eaten fresh, so they’re usually used in cooking or to make sloe gin, jams, or preserves after being softened (traditionally by freezing or gently squashing).

 The berries typically appear in late September or October, often after the first frost, which helps soften their tartness.   Birds like thrushes and blackbirds feed on sloes in winter, helping to spread the seeds.​

Loved by pollinators: Foxgloves are a favourite of bumblebees, who climb deep inside each bell to collect nectar and pollen.

Highly poisonous: Every part of the plant — leaves, flowers, and seeds — contains digitalis, a powerful heart-affecting chemical. It’s used (in very small, controlled doses) in heart medicine, but can be deadly if eaten.

Our woodland is home to a fascinating variety of mushrooms and fungi, each with its own unique shape, colour, and role in the forest ecosystem. We’re still discovering and learning their names, so to stay safe, we follow a simple rule — we admire them, but don’t eat them.

The rowan tree, also known as the mountain ash, is a graceful native tree found across the UK

In late spring it bears clusters of creamy-white flowers, followed by bright orange-red berries in late summer and autumn.

Interesting facts:

Wildlife feast: Rowan berries are a vital food source for birds, especially thrushes, blackbirds, and waxwings, who help spread the seeds far and wide. The spring flowers attract bees and insects, making rowan a wonderful all-season tree for woodland biodiversity.

The berries should not be eaten raw as they taste bitter and can upset the stomach, but when cooked they can be made into rowan jelly — often paired with game or meats.

Fly agaric is instantly recognisable — the classic fairy-tale mushroom with a bright red cap covered in white spots. It usually grows under birch, pine, or spruce trees, often in late summer and autumn. The cap can range from vivid scarlet when young to a deeper orange-red as it ages, with a white stem and a skirt-like ring beneath the cap.

While strikingly beautiful, fly agaric is poisonous if eaten raw and can cause nausea, dizziness, hallucinations, and confusion.

Despite its toxicity, it plays an important ecological role — forming symbiotic (mycorrhizal) relationships with trees, helping them absorb nutrients from the soil.