What are the best sources for learning about plants???

P

Plainsman

Joined
Apr 5, 1999
Messages
1,168
As I have said before in other posts, plant use, especially edible types are a major weak point for me. I grew up in ND, currently live in TX and plan on moving to MT or ID or WY or SD next summer. (MT and ID are the top of the list!!) What would you recommend I use to learn more about the plant life in these areas?

Any input greatly appreciated!
smile.gif



------------------
Plainsman :)
primitiveguy@hotmail.com


 
I once took a great course taught by a botanist for the LA County Arboretum who also lectured at UCLA. I took the course through the Arboretum rather than through the university. Colleges and Universities in the western states are often big on Botany. You might start there. Here is a link to a bunch of herbalists who have some parallel interests.

http://www.herbnet.com/university_p2.htm
 
Plainsman,

there are alot of good books out there and a lot of bad ones too. for the NW, I (just my openion) would START with a book called Nature Bound (Falcon Press)...it has colored pictures and displays plants as either edible or poisonous.


Darn you Bill Frye (one of my staff) - Bring back all my plant books :>)

------------------
Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
I strongly recommend using a book with a dichotomous key (a key with two (or sometimes more) choices, you pick one and go to the next couplet) (or some kind of key). These are usually much better than trying to match up pictures. I like to use a regular plant book with a good key in conjunction with an edible plants book.

I'm not sure about you location. There use to be a book called Wild Edible Plants of the Western United State by Donald Kirk. Don't know if it is still in print and it has no key.

A nice picture book is Field Guide to North American Edible Wild Plants by Thaomas Elias and Peter Dykeman. No real key, though.

One of my favorites is the Perteson one. A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants. This includes central NA and may have some plants found in your area. This is a great book and it does have a type of key.

Also, I would check out state and local parks and nature centers. These places often conduct edible plant hikes. The person conducting the hike may be able to tell you a good book for your area.


------------------
Hoodoo

When you arrive at the fork in the road, take it.
Yogi Berra
 
I think it's a very good question, and I am certainly looking for other's input too.
I only have the Peterson Field Guide (Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America, ISBN 0-395-31870-X) that is solely about plants. Good illustrations (drawings and photos), well organized with good instructions (how to collect and prepare) and has an identification system ('key') that is based on the appearance of the plant. The poisonous plants are shown next to their similr looking edible counterparts. So you see the potential danger.

I agree with Hoodoo that the best is field-study and hands-on experience with possibly more books. Maybe taking a full plant home or a photo of it, and digging out those tubers really helps learning them forever (just make sure nobody minds).

The book warns: eat only if positively identified. I am scarred off mushrooms, umbrellalike flowers and most round berries becuse they have some really poisonous ones among.

Sorry but have to stop to call!

Stay tuned

HM

 
Books are good for reference but IMHO the best way to learn is to take any of the dozens of day hikes given in any area. Most colleges host instructors who run them as do various hiking clubs and backpacking/wilderness shops. The advantage is that you employ all the learning modes, you see, hear and touch the plants. You can also use your sense of smell and gain a size,color, locale perspective.

When you become proficient with the plants you will begin to realize that the wilderness is organized a lot like shelving in markets.... you know where to look to find what you want.

Ron

------------------
Learn Life Extension at:

http://www.survival.com ]
 
Back on-line...

Also, with the poekweed some parts are poisonous some are edible for ex. Some needs to be cooked (bracken ex.).

All-in-all, positive identification and know how to prepare some -in my opinion- is better than some hazy knowleddge about all (similarly to knots). So I started looking around in the area and also reading the book before falling asleep (happens soon with such a good book) to identify few but reliable, easily recognizable plants that I feel comfortable with and can distinguish from the toxic look-alike (better if there is none). And let's forget about the rest! Even with the speed of learning one plant a week I could master myself soon (I haven't).

After saying all this I would ideally have a table in my mind with 4-5 plants per season per geographic region and inhabitat (mountain, forest, fields, by water). Again, the more ubiquotus the plant is, the more the categories overlap the better.

As quick check, I look into the book and see few I found easier:
lichens and mosses- Need soaking (cathartic)
puffball- I would skip the other mushrooms
cattail- winner
reed, phragmite, wild rice, grasslikes- seeds fine, be aware of discolored seedlike fungi (lethal)
crabapples, blueberries, cranberries, wax-berry, strawberries- some look-alikes can be toxic
sycamore, mulberries, oaks, beech,birch, elm, hazelnuts, basswood, hickories, walnuts, locust, maples- easy to recognize food
palmetto, yuccas, spanish bayonet- palm and yuccas
juniper, spruces, firs- cool except yew, BTW pinon seeds are delicious!
nettles, chicory, mints, burdocks, thistles, onions (only bulbs I trust), milweed, roses, sunflower, jerusalem artichoke, dandelions, sweetflag, clovers, plantain
prickly pear, pond-lilies

In general I stay from mushrooms, lilies, bulbs, umbrellalike flowers and any questionable berry.

Hope it made sense and look forward to hear from the experts.

Best,

HM

PS: When driving on Route 1 from LA to Frisco I ate a lot of caraway seeds grown along the road. Smell was typical but still, poison hemlock is one of the deadliest ones (all right, you might escape with paralysis). Brave me consumed a handful..and no 'edibility test'. I would not do it again.
BTW, edibility test is good to know.
 
I'll have to get a book, need pictures definately regarding this matter, and this is something a lot of people aren't good at (judging by the posts in the weak point/strong point thread)
 
The best advice I can give is to contact a bookstore in the town nearest to your area of interest and ask for local field guides to edible plants. It is much easier to locate area-specific books if there's a college or university nearby, especially a land grant college. It no luck, call the college: ask for the herbarium, arboretum, botany department, etc. Whoever answers may be able to point you in a productve direction.

Remember that the books don't have to be recent. Older books from the 'age of self suficiency' may be really good with practical advice on local flora.

db
 
a note about plants:
Has anyone read the book: Into the Wilderness? It is not exactly about survival. It is the life story of this guy who decided he was going to live off the land and live life with minimal material belongings, etc. The book describes his last quest into the Alaskan wilderness and his probable cumulative mistakes that ultimately caused his death.
Anyway, the author points out that even with the mistakes he made he quite possibly could have been able to live if it were not for the particular plant he used as his primary source of food. Please forgive me for not remembering the exact name of the plant, it was something like "potato plant" or "potato"... something. Apparently this plant eaten in moderation is ok but when eaten too much somehow causes reactions in the body that make it think it is starving anyway. This guy actually starved to death. It was a pretty interesting view on edible plants. It is not all in the identification - so beware!

I am certainly not an expert on plants and really can't remember the exact name or biological cause for his death. Just passing on what I remember from the book.
GL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top