Wild Edibles

[DavidR]

I'm still stumped by some of the plants I encountered on my hike around Eagle/Wolfpen Creek. With many of the flower blooms being gone this time of the year it makes identification that much harder. I'm curious as to who is knowledgable about this subject here and if you'd have any resources to share. Here are some sites I use in combination with books I have:

http://foragingpictures.com/

http://www.shawnature.org...tiveland/WildEdibles.aspx

http://hubpages.com/hub/C...ible-Wild-Plants---Part-I

http://hubpages.com/hub/C...ble-Wild-Plants---Part-II

http://hubpages.com/hub/E...-Ferns--Nuts--and-Grasses

Mushrooms would be my last choice for a meal in the forest, but anyhow:

http://www.angelfire.com/...vatedEdibleFungi_blue.htm

http://hubpages.com/hub/T...Power-of-Edible-Mushrooms

[SmokeDiver]

If you're not sure a plant is edible and you're in a situation that requires you to eat it most survival guides tell you to smell it, then put it in your mouth, spit it out, wait and see if you have a reaction, then eat a small piece, wait several minutes for a reaction, then try some more. I'm not sure I ever want to test that method 

I've been looking for some good field guides for plants myself, which ones have you been using?

[DavidR]

"Edible Wild Plants," by Lee Allen Peterson

A book from my Botany Course "Plant Biology," Kingsley R Stern.

[Joshua Szulecki]

That Peterson guide is what is usually recommended to me, so it must be halfway decent. I haven't checked it out yet.

Do you have any photos of the plants you could not identify? I put up a thread for plant ID a few months ago that you could post them in if you did, although without flowers it can be pretty hard. I managed to ID two separate Cypripedium species by the leaves and seedpods in the past few months, but only because I've memorized the foliage patterns really well over the past year and a half.

[jaybird]

If you're not sure a plant is edible and you're in a situation that requires you to eat it

I think that's something to think about here.  ONLY if you're if a situation that requires you to eat it.  Leave No Trace states:  "Picking a few flowers does not seem like it would have any great impact and, if only a few flowers were picked, it wouldn't. But, if every visitor thought "I'll just take a few", a much more significant impact might result. Take a picture or sketch the flower instead of picking it. Experienced campers may enjoy an occasional edible plant, but they are careful not to deplete the surviving vegetation or disturb plants that are rare or are slow to reproduce."

I take 100's of pictures of plants every year, and it's a major paradigm shift for me to think of eating the plants I encounter.  Of course I'd do it if I was starving.  When I looked at the 1000 or so books on my shelves (plant biology related), this line of thinking is confirmed by not one of them having to do with edible wild plants.

[DavidR]

(Not another LNT lesson...lol)

Pictures only here friendo.

[jaybird]

Yes, another LNT lesson....LOL 

[SmokeDiver]

Haha, Jaybird I'm not suggesting we start eating Sipsey. As a bit of a survival nut I do like to know what can be utilized in an emergency.

I work with a fella at my part time job who seems to know almost every edible and medicinal plant in the south. Very interesting man, he was a Green Beret for quite some years. He always has some plant, root or berry he's brought back from the swamp to show off. Very interesting stuff. He said the Kudzu that grows like crazy in these parts is edible like a salad, anybody heard anything like this?

[DavidR]

Sure. Pueraria lobata; It's found in thickets & borders of woods. It flowers in July-Sept. I've read that it can be used for flour by stripping the tough outer covering and chopping the fleshy inner cores of the large root-branches into peices. Then crushing them in cold water and allowing the starch to settle. It can be further refined by repeated cold washings and then dried into a fine white flour. As for just eating the leaves, I'm not sure.

[DavidR]

That Peterson guide is what is usually recommended to me, so it must be halfway decent. I haven't checked it out yet.

Do you have any photos of the plants you could not identify? I put up a thread for plant ID a few months ago that you could post them in if you did, although without flowers it can be pretty hard. I managed to ID two separate Cypripedium species by the leaves and seedpods in the past few months, but only because I've memorized the foliage patterns really well over the past year and a half.

Sorry. I had already deleted the shots. The main plant in question was about 9" tall. It was located in a moist forest area beside mountain cranberries, American Beech, and some type of Holly. It had a single tier of whorled leaves and a single central stem that terminated in a single dark purple or black berry about 1/2" diameter. I can't remember if the leaves were smooth or toothed. I've been unable to find any pictures of a plant resembling this.

[jaybird]

Don't know for sure, but it sounds to me like Indian Cucumber Root (Medeola virginiana).  It's all over Sipsey.

http://www.easttennesseew...umber_root_fruits0001.jpg

http://images.google.com/...t&spell=1&start=0

[DavidR]

Wow! Good on you mate! That's it. Thanks. I'll be sure to post unknowns from now on.

[DavidR]

Here's a shot I found on my camera:

Wild Edibles

I found it in my Peterson guide once you suggested the name. It's a bit disappointing as to the organization of the guide imo. It is designed to identify plants by visual characteristics (flowering color, woody plants, misc) or habitats. This was located in the Yellow: 6 petal Lilly Family section. That would have never occurred to me.

I've also added an Unidentified album if anyone wants to take a crack at it:

http://www.alatrails.com/.../thumbnails.php?album=106

Anyone know how to move a picture from one album to another?

[WolfVanZandt]

Well, I'm not sure if my vision is good enough to identify from a photograph, but if the berries are growing on the bramble, they look like blueberries, which are surprisingly (to me at least) common in Alabama.

[DavidR]

Thanks WolfVanZandt. I've seen many cultivated blueberries, but I'm still unsure.

Thought I'd share this cool interactive Tree Dichotomous chart I found: http://www2.volstate.edu/JSchibig/tree%20key.htm

[WolfVanZandt]

Cool key.

My favorite wild edibles are blueberries (they call them huckleberries around here), Maypops, and redbud. Also, if all you've ever eaten is cultivated mustard greens, you've never had mustard greens. We discovered a big patch of young mustard while camping at Cheaha one year and we thinned it out and the cook fixed it with sausage and onions and it was to die for.

I also like young smilax (Briar) shoots and sorrel in salads.

Wintergreen is all over Sipsey (and pretty much the rest of Alabama) and it's amazing all the fruits that are native and introduced to Alabama that very few Alabamians know about - haws, quinces. Blackberry is the state fruit so most people know about that. Native grapes are good when they're in fruit.

I would include sassafras but the FDA has put a nix on that (not that it's stopped me). There's all kinds of weeds for making tea including wintergreen, blackberry leaves, birch, hawthorn, rose hips, strawberry leaf, and sumac (not the poison kind - the red kind).