The chia tends to self sow each year now and I never get myself organised enough to harvest enough seed to dry and eat, but the leaves can be eaten in salads or made into a tea. The bees and butterflies love the flowers and they are rather pretty, even in autumn.
Adding this for the MFPIAC challenge. Thank you for the awesome comments and questions on my photos.
A delightful collage , I shall have to look up chia as it looks very much like a self-seeding plant of another name n my garden ( can't be the same one as I have not heard of the seeds been edible ! )
beautifully presented collage - I knew that the seeds are edible, I have to watch for their inclusion in food as my daughter can't eat them, and they are used in lots of foods here.
@koalagardens I had heard of chia seeds - but never new they came from this flowering plant , on looking up I find its botanical name is Salvia hispanica , and is from the same family as the Salvia I have in the garden - In fact I have quite a few different salvias and sage is from the same family - Interesting when you look into these things !!
@beryl Thanks for the added information. I have two kinds of salvia in my yard and never knew that. The chia info was interesting as well. Also nice how the collage includes the bees and a butterfly.
@beryl@shutterbug49 that's funny I didn't realise it is in the salvia family - I love salvias and always at least have the red one that self sows everywhere in my front garden area. So great how much we learn here - thanks for the questions and for everyone piping in answers! And of course salvia is in the mint family, so that makes sense why the leaves are great in tea (they do not tasted minty, not a lot of taste at all just nice in a mix of garden herbs tea) @merrelyn It would look lovely en masse! I've only every grown in amongst everything else here. @phplananh yes I love the seeds, and one day was wandering in a garden centre and found them for sale and thought oh I'll try that, and the rest is history as they say :)
@merrelyn It would look lovely en masse! I've only every grown in amongst everything else here.
@phplananh yes I love the seeds, and one day was wandering in a garden centre and found them for sale and thought oh I'll try that, and the rest is history as they say :)