What edible wild plants do you know of in your area?

B

bored2deth

Joined
Feb 27, 2011
Messages
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Hi all!

I'm ba-ack! LoL!..

Wild edibles, this is a dangerous topic for the inexperienced, & one I encourage people to give a great deal of respect to. I've practiced & studied my training for years, & still I won't
admit that I feel comfortable with it.

(Warning:Many wild plants have evil look-alikes, make sure you know exactly what you are doing--all it takes is one mistake. By messing with wild plants or plants in general, you can & may be taking your life into your own hands & at your own choice.)

In my area:

Dandelion
Wood Sorrel
Plantain (Narrow/Broad)
Watercress (Don't get it confused with water-hemlock)
Wild Artichoke
Landcress
Wild grapes
Possum grapes (tastes alot like..um..peas)
Green Briar
Purslane
Honeysuckle
Polk (Better know it before you mess with it) (Notice the purple coloration--a common toxic indicator)(It IS toxic, the toxin must be leeched out)
Wild Onions (Better smell like an onion)
Wild Garlic (Better smell like garlic)
Ramps (Better smell like both onions & garlic)
Cattail
Clover (know it before you mess with it)
Wild Potatos
Indian Cucumber
Violets
Wild Roses
Wild Walnuts
Acorns
Pine (Nuts, cambium, young roots, needles, tops, etc)
Birch
Hickory
Wild Cherry (better know this one before you mess with it)
Elderberry (know it well before you mess with it)
Mulberry
Blackberry (Wild)
Raspberry (Wild)
Strawberry (Wild)
Blueberries (Wild)
There are about 2-3 dozen more..

Plants removed from my training due to their uncanny look-alikes:

Fern (Hemlock)
Wild Asparagus (Hemlock)
Wild Carrot (Hemlock)
Arrowhead
Burdock
(There are about 2 dozen more)


I know many more in my area--this is only a sample :D

Thanks for reading. Please share your knowledge of your area's wild edible plants!
 
Last edited:
Good thread and list,

fiddleheads (Ostrich fern) shoots - look for the grove in the center of a stalk (like celery) and avoid overly wooly ones
wild leaks or ramps (they smell like garlic)
staghorn sumac (red berries for sumac-aide and you can peel the leaves and bark on new shoots to eat)
bullthistle - (eat the mid-rib of leaves after clearing pickers, or on the 2nd year stock peel and eat it before it flowers - like celery)
basswood - (eat the new leaf shoots as they unfurl from the buds, coming soon!)
 
Never heard of Basswood before. I see Sumac (red) all the time, it makes for a good seasoning too. I've heard you have to get the fiddleheads really young or they'll make you sick.

Thanks for the reply!

B2D..

Dark Whispers..

SOG DOG 1..
 
Here in central TX, to name a few, we have -

Hackberries
Hawes
Pecans
Mexican plums
Prickly pear pads
Prickly pear fruit
Possum grapes
Acorns
Mesquite beans
Devil's claw
Cattails
Horehound
Beebalm
Yucca root
Wild carrot
Wild onion
Shepherd's Purse
 
Can you tell the difference between the wild carrot & hemlock?, Andrew?

B2D

Darkwhispers..

SOG DOG 1..
 
Your comment on knowing clover before you mess with it... is there something that looks similar to clover that is not edible?
 
Yes there are some toxic varieties of clover. They are difficult to name, as each region tends to have particular names & nick-names for plants. I'll see if I can pull up some specific info for you--Alsike Clover, for one is toxic--it exhibits white/pink flowers. I've been told it can cause liver problems, much the same as wood sorrel can cause kidney shut down if eaten in large quantities.

B2D

Darkwhispers..

DOG DOG 1
 
Very interesting.

Looks like the best way to tell that one apart from regular white clover is that it has no crescents on the leaves.
 
bored2deth said:
Can you tell the difference between the wild carrot & hemlock?, Andrew?

B2D

Darkwhispers..

SOG DOG 1..
Click to expand...

Wild carrots are Queen Anne's Lace. They look pretty different to me...and they smell like carrots when you scrape them and they taste like carrots. Hemlock does not.
 
I've heard they smell-like, look-like, & even taste-like carrots.. I'm not chancing it,though :)

B2D..

Darkwhispers..

SOG DOG 1
 
Good post!

We have plenty of blackberries, blueberries and plums...not sure if they're native (Georgia?), but they're growing wild at the end of my small lake. I have a lot of Arrowhead (water plantain) that I've confirmed; plenty of pine nuts if you want to fight the squirrels for them. Of course many of the weed families...such as dandelion are quite prevalent. Another funny surprise is the amount of wild garlic and onions growing all over my property! I actually was mowing a large patch of grass and the smell was overpowering. I'm going dig a few up and plan them in a pot to see how big the bulbs get this fall; within a small area I was able to dig up a 100+ small bulbs...great for cooking and snacking:D

One thing I'm curious about though...when I first enlisted in the Army, we did a lot of patrolling exercises back in my home state of WA (Fort Lewis area). Someone made the recommendation to consume plenty of garlic before hitting the wood-line. The garlic would keep the mosquitos at bay. We did and I don't remember any adverse attacks of mosquitos, but we did smell like an Italian restaurant :D I was wondering if all this wild garlic had the same affect. Our 12 acre pond is about 50 feet from our front door and we have never had any bad mosquito problems...just made me a little curious if maybe the garlic was the played a role???:confused:

ROCK6
 
Wild plants are an area of study for me, though I don't have near as much time to devote to the study as I would like.

Of the edible ones I know for sure here, and have eaten, are:

Persimmon
June berry
Cherry
Autumn Olive
Onions
Black Berries
Plantain
Clover
Rampsoms
Queen Anne's Lace (wild carrots)
Muscadines
Wild grapes
Ocoee (Passion Fruit)
Cattail
Polk weed
Black Walnut
Hickory Nuts
various acorns

Due to the spread of seeds by animals, birds, and man I even find the occasional peach, pear, and apple tree in the woods here.

I know there are many more, still studying. As in other areas there are also several things that grow wild here that you do not want to eat.
 
bored2deth said:
Can you tell the difference between the wild carrot & hemlock?, Andrew?

B2D

Darkwhispers..

SOG DOG 1..
Click to expand...

As others have said, if it smells like a carrot, it's a carrot. Also, wild carrot has a hairy root (tendrils growing off of it), hemlock does not.

Andy
 
Good stuff. Any recommendations for good places/books to learn this stuff? This is an area that I know very little about.

EDIT: Can anyone recommend a field guide worthy of carrying in a pack in the Northwest?
 
My strongest recommendation is to stay away from mushrooms in the woods unless they are Morrels. Knowing your mushrooms is tricky.

I didn't see water cress on anyone's list. Good stuff and an indicator of pretty clean water.

Jack in the Pulpit is very edible if boiled.

I have a number of books on the subject. The easiest one is probably the Peterson Field Guide "Edible Wild Plants" by Lee Allen Peterson. The book titled "Edible Wild Plants" a North American Nature Guide is okay too. The pictures are in color.
 
22-rimfire said:
My strongest recommendation is to stay away from mushrooms in the woods unless they are Morrels. Knowing your mushrooms is tricky.

I didn't see water cress on anyone's list. Good stuff and an indicator of pretty clean water.

Jack in the Pulpit is very edible if boiled.

I have a number of books on the subject. The easiest one is probably the Peterson Field Guide "Edible Wild Plants" by Lee Allen Peterson. The book titled "Edible Wild Plants" a North American Nature Guide is okay too. The pictures are in color.
Click to expand...

I thought that watercress may grow in polluted water AND that is does not filter water well. So, if you eat watercress from polluted water, you may get the pollutants. Is that incorrect?
 
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