Flora and Fauna 5/day - Day 1

As a part of IWG study, I must learn large mount of flora and fauna lives in Finnish wildness. It is must, because if a wilderness guide was asked on the job to ID some plant and he goes "... sorry, I am not familiar with this one...." to most of species, then what would be a point on being a Wilderness guide. 

The course and the examination required us to learn only important ones in Finland, so that is not that bad I though... till I saw the list. It covers the number of 350 species and need to learn them in 10 month, so that will make about 1 - 2 species per day.  But as you can imagine, the best time to learn them are in summer time, so I have even shorter time to experience it to learn.

I love learning the way of nature, but one thing I do not like is to sit on the desk to study. The only time I like sitting on desk is when updating my blog and making knives, so this is my way of moving my lazy study ass to start studying them: I will be posting 5 species per day on my blog!

(From the day 2, I will not include this series in IWG category. If you wanna follow this series, click on the categoriy "Flora & Fauna".)

The day 1

LA: Athyrium filix-femina
EN: Lady Fern
FI: Hiirenporras
JP: N/A
Location: Tampere
Surrounding: Sun reaches well, but not strongly.  not dump nor dry ground.

LA: Equisetum sylvaticum
EN: Wood horsetail
FI: metsäkorte
JP: N/A
Location: Tampere
Surrounding: Sun does not reach well. Covered by canopy of taller plants. Usually seen in clustered.
Note: Not to confuse with Equisetum arvense (Field Horsetail, Field Horsetail, スギナ), which is edible.






LA: Plantago major
EN: Greater Plantain
FI: Piharatamo
JP: セイヨウオオバコ
Location: Tampere
Surrounding: Open filed often on the side or the rode where no other plants blocks the sun light. 
Note: Leaves and seeds are edible. Medicinal use for treating snake bite (used in the past), scarring and skin care.






LA: Trifolium medium
EN: Zigzag Clover
FI: Metsäapila
JP: N/A
Location: Tampere
Surrounding: Good sun light. Growing with other plants of similar height.
Note: Not to confuse with Trifolium pratense (Red Clover, puna-apila, ムラサキツメクサ) ID by white bow-shaped marking on leaves.





LA: Quercus robus
EN: Pigweed
FI: Jauhosavikka
JP: シロザ
Location: Tampere
Surrounding: Very Good sun light. Growing with other plants. Quite dry or good water drainage ground.
Note: Seeds and young leaves are edible but the leaves must be cooked, or might get allergic reaction. Seeds are high in protein, vitamin A, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium.