Japanese Hawkweed - Youngia japonica

dayna · Feb 23, 2014

I've got this growing everywhere on my property.

Anyone know if it's rabbit safe. So far I'm not finding out much... other than it's safe for people.

http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?Lat ... a+japonica

the reluctant farmer · Feb 23, 2014

I'm not sure, but found "It is a close relative of dandelions and contains all the same beneficial nutrients" from this site
http://www.foragingtexas.com/2008/03/ja ... kweed.html. That sounds promising...I hope it is bun-safe, cause I've got it around here, too.

dayna · Feb 23, 2014

Well, I guess what I'll do is take my least favorite bun and do a trial run! Done it before. lol Sometimes that's the best way to try out a possibly healthy delicious plant.

MaggieJ · Feb 24, 2014

I couldn't find any information about rabbits eating it, but it is probably safe. In my experience, most plants that people can eat raw are also safe for rabbits. I do hope, Dayna, that if you test it on a rabbit you will report the outcome in this thread.

LPH_NY · Feb 25, 2014

We have both the yellow and the smaller orange kinds of hawkweed here. Last fall my rabbits were all on 80% forage and 20% hay. I included hawkweed in their forage and they had no problems with it. I spent a great deal of the summer researching every single local weed I could find and annotating whether it is edible. I can't say "yeah, it's 100% safe-go for it." But I can tell you my rabbits liked it and suffered no ill effects.

I put a flag next to the only remaining orange hawkweed flower in my yard back in October. I was waiting for a seed head to develop so that I could save it and replant where I wanted in the spring. Right before the gorgeous flaming orange was spent, my son picked it.

I almost cried.

Zass · Feb 25, 2014

It looks like rabbit food to me.

Totally test it out, and if you don't, I will on some of my older growouts this summer. I usually have some between 14 and 16 weeks hanging around just growing fur. Those make good test buns.