The hoax I wish would get around is that it is really good to smoke is dandelion roots. I love to imagine groups of teenagers running around at night digging out dandelions from random people's (especially mine) yards.
There are a lot of invasive species you can actually (theoretically) get high on. E.g. Phalaris, white mulberry, mugwort, non-native sweet flag, parsnips, etc.
Most (but not all) things growing in your lawn you can eat though, if the area is free from toxins. The reason we have invasive species is because they came from somewhere else, and usually the reason they came from somewhere else is because they were what people ate before we discovered/invented better crops. Or at least this is true in New England and the mid-Atlantic regions, I can't speak for everywhere else.
The juniper tree in the back yard is currently producing these very small blue berries, that, when infused with vodka produce a very delightful beverage that tastes quite similar to gin!
I used to own a book on ayahuasca combinations (DMT plus an MAO inhibitor) using temperate-zone plants. I don't recall the name, and am not finding anything. Anyone know?
Phalaris is very high in DMT, but it also has a lot of toxic chemicals in it. I'm guessing you'd die if you actually tried to smoke an extraction of it, but as far as I know no one has ever actually done it. That's where the theoretically part comes in.
Not an answer to parent comments, just wanted to emphasize that coming from "somewhere else" <=/=> invasive. Not an expert so there are likely edge cases but one example would be a meadow where many different plants grow, flowering from early spring to late autumn. Introducing a new plant could mean it finds its own niche in this system or could mean that it completely takes over the whole system, reducing the overall flowering period to a limited time and thus causing problems for pollinators. If the latter is the typical result, the plant would likely become classed as invasive.
Typically when species migrated before humans invented quick transportation, their predators migrated with them. It didn't happen very often that a species becomes invasive without humans having something to do with it.
Curious, why "super healthy"? Not that I doubt the statement, but I think it's interesting that something that I view as nutritionally insignificant is viewed that way by someone else. Then again I'm not a nutritionist or even a particularly healthy eater, more just a nutritionally curious person.
The vast majority of people who might have access to—or want to eat—dandelion are not malnourished and do not have vitamin deficiencies, and so adding dandelion to their diet will have zero net effect on their health. Swapping some vegetable out for dandelion will have zero net effect on their health. Replacing one doughnut with one portion of dandelion will have zero net effect on their health when compared to swapping out that doughnut for any other reasonable vegetable.
Individual foods are, generally speaking, neither healthy nor unhealthy. Diets are healthy or unhealthy.
But, if you eat healthy food, you don't have to eat as much to get your nutrients! And people are always trying to optimise it so that they don't have to eat as much food ;-)
It is funny the ideas that become popular, isn't it.
What's also good is sow thistle, which most people mistake for dandelion, but is a bit uglier looking. If eaten when they're young and tender, they're quite tasty and not bitter like dandelion. Whenever I spot a sow thistle in my yard, I just let it grow like any other vegetable.
They're not very bitter, but I still prefer the taste of sow thistle. I still love dandelions, though. :) They're definitely an under-appreciated and misunderstood plant.
From what I've read, they're actually beneficial for lawns as their long roots draw up nutrients from deep in the soil. Yet we pull them out and spray herbicides to kill them! I don't remember ever seeing brown patches caused by dandelions.
I used to mix dandelion shoots in with my green smoothie in the morning, when they were available. It gave the smoothie kind of a creamy effect, with a microfoam on top. It was delicious.
Most (but not all) things growing in your lawn you can eat though, if the area is free from toxins. The reason we have invasive species is because they came from somewhere else, and usually the reason they came from somewhere else is because they were what people ate before we discovered/invented better crops. Or at least this is true in New England and the mid-Atlantic regions, I can't speak for everywhere else.