Good book about plants/trees/wild edibles?

Liam Ryan

Liam Ryan

Joined
Sep 26, 2005
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I was just flipping through an old copy of Kephart's "Camping and woodcraft", excellent reading. He is talking about good trees for firewood, and I realized I can hardly picture what a lot of them look like, besides the ones common in my region, like maples and birches, but even those have sub species I can't really distinguish with any real certainty, it's a real weak point in my wilderness knowledge.

I'd like a nice book with good colour photos, hopefully not too bulky so it can go in a pack easily. I purchased "feasting free on wild edibles" by Angier on a recommendation I got many years back here, but though it's informative, it has sketches rather than pictures.
Any help would be appreciated.
 
'US Armed Forces Survival Guide' is good for a general reference. There are illustrations of edible plants from multiple types of environments and how to differentiate these plants from poison ones that look similiar. Doesn't sound as detailed as you'd like though. My copy is a blue hardback from the mid 80's, they may have improved them since then.

Are there any state parks or outdoor tourist type things in your area? The welcome stations usually have all kinds of books on area birds and plants, might have some luck there.
 
I heard of the stalking wild asparagus one, just heading to Chapters in 10 minutes with the gf, going to look for it there.
I found an excellent book in a second hand shop yesterday, but it was for trees of the West coast, and it was still pretty pricey for a second hand book.
 
Liam Ryan said:
I was just flipping through an old copy of Kephart's "Camping and woodcraft", excellent reading. He is talking about good trees for firewood, and I realized I can hardly picture what a lot of them look like, besides the ones common in my region, like maples and birches, but even those have sub species I can't really distinguish with any real certainty, it's a real weak point in my wilderness knowledge.

I'd like a nice book with good colour photos, hopefully not too bulky so it can go in a pack easily. I purchased "feasting free on wild edibles" by Angier on a recommendation I got many years back here, but though it's informative, it has sketches rather than pictures.
Any help would be appreciated.
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Hey Liam, I'm not aware of any one book that will fulfill your requirements. A great tree book is Trees in Canada but it's hard cover and not easily carried in a day pack.

Another really good ID book is Identifying Trees by Michael D. Williams and it is soft cover.

As far as plant identification books, especially with regards to wild edibles, you need several, and cross reference the hell out of them - you can't hike if you're dead.

Some good plant ID books are: Peterson Field Guide to Wildflowers, Newcomb's Guide to Wildflower's, and the National Audubon's wildflower book.

Some excellent wild food books are: The Forager's Harvest, Nature's Garden, and Edible Wild Plants

Also some books on wild poisonous plants is a good idea.

Hope this helps,

Doc
 
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The trouble with a lot of edible plant books is that they try to get too comprehensive in coverage - partly to appeal to a wider audience. However, they often give really skimpy advice on how you go about eating the plant, what parts to harvest, when and best ways to prepare them. I find Sam Thayer's books to be really quite good in this regard, but he focuses on about 20 plants per book. Thayer's books are not exactly field books, but they pair up nicely with a plant I.d. guide. His books are more applicable to the Great Lakes region but I suspect they would work for Nova Scotia.
 
kgd said:
The trouble with a lot of edible plant books is that they try to get too comprehensive in coverage - partly to appeal to a wider audience. However, they often give really skimpy advice on how you go about eating the plant, what parts to harvest, when and best ways to prepare them. I find Sam Thayer's books to be really quite good in this regard, but he focuses on about 20 plants per book. Thayer's books are not exactly field books, but they pair up nicely with a plant I.d. guide. His books are more applicable to the Great Lakes region but I suspect they would work for Nova Scotia.
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While it's true he doesn't cover a lot of different plants in each book, it's better to learn 20, well, than a hundred but only marginally. You can also try the Peterson's guides, both wild edibles and poisonous plants, also Steve Brill's books. Another good poisonous plant book is Common Poisonous Plants and Mushrooms of North America by Nancy Turner (hmmm, looks like it's out of print????)

Doc
 
I try to get books covering indigenous plants of my region. But I do have wider ranging books on trees and mushrooms.
 
"Edible Wild Plants-A North American Field Guide"--An Outdoor Life book by Elias and Dykeman--Sterling Publishing---Best one I've found so far. Broken down geographically and by season with color picture, cooking recommendations and poisonous look-a-likes. Steven Brill,s stuff is good but the ones I've seen had only line drawings.--KV
 
kvaughn said:
"Edible Wild Plants-A North American Field Guide"--An Outdoor Life book by Elias and Dykeman--Sterling Publishing---Best one I've found so far. Broken down geographically and by season with color picture, cooking recommendations and poisonous look-a-likes. Steven Brill,s stuff is good but the ones I've seen had only line drawings.--KV
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I agree - Elias & Dykeman is a very good book - don't know how I overlooked it - maybe because mine fell apart from overuse :D. It has much wider coverage than Thayer's or Kallas' books.

As far as Brill's being only line drawings, once again, you need separate ID books because no one book does it all.

Doc
 
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when leaning about wild edibles and identifying other plants species your should always have a few different references at home, the best books i know of to carry into the fields with are the Peterson's Field guides, they are compact and durable and have a vast selection of topics birds,fish,trees,weather etc etc.
 
Some time ago I was a student at Springfield College (MA.) where I took an Environmental Biology course from Dr. Charles B. Redington. As one of the texts used in his course, he used his own "Redington Field Guides to Biological Interactions- Plants in Wetlands."
I became facinated with this book as a reference guide. He not only provides well done line drawings and in-depth descriptions of the plants, but he also provides an analysis of the plant's interactions with the greater plant and animal kingdoms, as well as uses to mankind.

This book does not have the bredth of a Peterson's Filed Guide, but what it does include is VERY well done.


http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/red...l-interactions-charles-b-redington/1005140832
 
Here's my standard reference library. Sam Thayer is my favorite (I now own both of his books), followed by Elias & Dykeman. I borrow anything I can on wild edibles from my local library. Cross-reference your sources and confirm with others, such as those experts found here on this forum.

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Also, pester Doc Canada for advice. That's how I got started! :D
 
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