Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Edible Wild Plants

Introduction
There are at least three approaches to finding edible wild plants in your area. The first is to look through a list of edible wild plants that should be available in your area, and then go out and try to find some of them. The second approach is to go out and identify what plants are around you, determine their identity, and then find out if they are edible by looking them up in a good field guide (not by tasting them!). The third approach is to take a class, with field trips, on the subject. Having friends interested in it is helpful too. You tend to build on what each one finds out.

Because a surprising number of plants are edible, the second approach is far more likely to yield successful results. I cannot tell you how long I struggled with the first approach, searching for the likes of Jerusalem Artichokes or Groundnuts without success, all the while overlooking Hazels, Sarsaparilla, and Bunchberry. All my field guides indicated that Jerusalem Artichokes and Groundnuts should both grow in my area, but it was years before I ever saw either. I did manage to find more than 15 edible plants using the first technique, but it was indeed a struggle. Sometime later I began trying to identify every plant I saw - only a few at a time of course. I found myself entering information into this online key - and when I got a hit, I would recognize that plant as one that I had seen in an edible wild plant field guide, but had not been looking for. I soon learned that many - perhaps half - of the plants in my yard are edible. Of course I also found many that are not edible, and several that are poisonous (just so you don't go around thinking that since many plants are edible, it's harmless to eat something you have not identified - it is not.)

By attempting to identify the plants I had found rather than trying to find the plants I had identified, I found many, many more edible plants in a much shorter time (and several inedible and poisonous plants as well). It has made me a better Pathfinder.

If you opt to use the second approach, I urge you to review the requirements for the Flowers, Flowers - Advanced, Seeds, and Seeds - Advanced honors as well. You can meet many requirements of all these honors at the same time.

Also in some plants one part is edible and another part is poisonous. A grocery store example of this is cherries. The fruit is very good, but the seeds contain cyanide which is deadly if you eat enough. The leaves are likewise poisonous and have been known to kill cattle. Just because one part of a plant is edible does not mean that the whole plant is good to eat, and just because a plant is listed as edible does not mean that it is not poisonous.

Some plants are edible only in certain stages of growth. Some examples are: Bracken fern is not edible after the fiddle head stage. Nettles can cause kidney problems in some people if they are mature (seed growing on the stalk). Yucca stalk (Hesperoyucca whipplei ) gets too many bitter saponins to be palatable as it matures into a flower head. Be careful.

1. Photograph, collect pictures of or sketch fifteen edible wild plants. Identify each plant in the wild.
Several wild edible plants are presented here. I have included the plants with which I am most familiar, meaning that most of them are available in the Eastern United States, though we are in the process of adding more plants from the Western U.S. To make this section more universal, please add plants from your own area. This should be done by creating a separate page for the plant and including it thusly:

Save the page, and then click on the red link you just made to create the new page (or let someone else do that - just knowing which plant to include is a great help). If you choose to add content to the new page, please use the EWP template to maintain uniformity. See the discussion page of the EWP template for its usage, or look at an existing page that uses it (which would be all of the ones below).

2. Identify in the wild five trees and five shrubs which are edible.
Trees typically have a single trunk and grow taller than shrubs (which often have multiple trunks). Some species can be classified as either depending on growing conditions.

Fruits and Berries
See above on Apple cactus, Barberry, Barrel cactus, Blackberry, Bunch berry, Cascara, Cherry, Chokecherry, Cholla, Coffeeberry, Crab apple, Cranberry, Currant, Date palm, Desert apricot, Elderberry, Fan palm, Fire thorn, Gooseberry, Grape, Ground cherry, Hackberry, Hawthorne, Holly leaf Cherry, Indian plum, Lemonade berry, Manzanita, Mulberry, Oregon Grape, Organ pipe, Partridgeberry, Passion fruit, Pawpaw, Persimmon, Pin Cherry, Prickly pear, Raspberry, Rose hips, Saguaro cactus, Salal, Serviceberry, Sour Cherry, Squawbush, Strawberry, Sugarbush, Thimbleberry, Toyon, and Wintergreen.

Beverages
See above on Chicory, Dandelion, Goldenrod, Lemon aid berry, Mint, Nettle, Pine needle, Pineapple weed, Sassafras, Sheep Sorrel, Sumac, Wintergreen, and Wood Sorrel

Salad Plants
See above on Chickweed, Dandelion, Greenbriar, Lambs' quarters, Miner's lettuce, Plantain, Purslane, Sheep Sorrel, Violet, Wood Sorrel

Greens
See above on Amaranth, Dandelion, Dock, Filaree, Fireweed, Lambsquarters, Mallow, Milkweed, Plantain, Russian thistle, Stinging Nettle, Wood Nettle,

Tubers or Roots
See above on Brodiaea, Burdock, Camas, Carrot, Cattail, Dandelion, Evening Primrose, Garlic, Jerusalem Artichoke, Lomatium, Onion, Sassafras, Salsify, and Yampah

a. Boiling
Any of the greens and tubers may be prepared by boiling.

Cattail Pollen Pancakes
Collect cattail pollen and mix with flour for pancakes. The best results are with replacing 1/4 and 1/2 of the flour with cattail pollen. This will add nutrition and a bright yellow color to your pancakes.

Cattails are in the pollen stage for about 2 weeks to a month. The season starts the end of April in the southern areas of the USA and ends in July in Canada or in high elevations.

A good cattail pollen harvester can be made with an empty 3 liter pop bottle by making a 1.5 - 2 inch hole just below the curved part of the bottle on the cap end of the bottle. Put the cap on and insert the pollen laden cattail flower head through the hole you made. Tap the cattail stem to release the pollen into the pop bottle. More pollen will be ready to harvest in a day or two. 2 liter pop bottles work too, but the pollen tends to get stuck in the neck of the bottle when emptying it. After emptying the pollen, sift the fiber and bugs out.

Clover Pancakes
Collect about one gallon of clover flowers and let them dry for two weeks (or dry them in the oven at 250 °F for 30 minutes and then let them sit overnight). Once they are dry, grind them to powder using a mortar and pestle to make a fine flour. This will produce about a cup of flour. Mix this half-and-half with wheat flour and make pancakes.

Fritters

 * Dandelion flower heads can be dipped in batter and fried to make fritters.
 * Elderberry flower heads can be dipped in batter and fried to make fritters. Caution: Plant stems and leaves contain cyanide.
 * Milkweed flowers can also be battered and fried, but they must be dipped in boiling water for one minute first.
 * Black Locust flowers also make excellent fritters.

c. Roasting
See above for Acorns, Agave, Chicory, Dandelion, Pickerel weed, Pine nuts, Soap root and Yucca.

Pie
Delicious pies can be made from blackberries or blueberries. Wild cherries are not really large enough for this, but if you find them in quantity, you might make a go of it.

Bread
Try baking bread by mixing wheat flour with any of the various "wild" flours made from clover, acorn, cattail pollen, or cattail roots.

5. Demonstrate how to prepare four parts of the common milkweed or day lily for food.
This is a highly regional requirement valid only where common milkweed or day lily grow wild abundantly. Rather than outright waiving the requirement if you live in a region where these plants do not grow, consider replacing the requirement with something roughly equivalent (i.e., do you know of a plant that grows in your area having four edible parts? Cattail - Shoots, Pollen, Stalks, leaves roots. Dandelion - Shoots, Leaves flower and roots)

Milkweed
The parts of a milkweed plant that are edible are the leaves, stems, shoots, flowers, and pods. The pods must be collected while they are young, and the flowers are not in season for very long. All are prepared essentially the same way, which is by boiling them in several changes of water. Boiling eliminates the bitter, milky sap from which the milkweed derives its name.

Prepare the milkweed by filling a large pot with water and bringing it to a boil. When the water is close to boiling, fill a small pot with water and bring it to a boil as well. When both pots are boiling, place the milkweed in the smaller of the two and let it boil for about a minute. Pour the water off and then refill the small pot from the large pot. You may wish to use a ladle to dip the boiling water from the large pot into the smaller one. You do not want to cover the milkweed with cold water as this will set the bitterness which is mildly poisonous. Boil the second batch of water for a minute also, drain it off, and refill. Subsequent changes of water should remain in the pot for a few minutes. After no fewer than six changes of water, the milkweed should be ready to eat. Add a little butter if desired and prepare to treat your taste buds.

Day Lily
See requirement #1 for information on preparing the shoots, buds, flowers, and tubers.

6. Explain how to identify three "odd-shaped" edible fungi and how to identify the deadly mushroom amanitas.
I (John Goude) as a teacher about wild edible plants strongly object to this requirement!

Is it ethical to teach Pathfinders to eat wild mushrooms being that even experts in mycology have died from eating mushrooms they collected? Where ever I go teaching about wild edible plants I hear heart wrenching stories of whole families that have been wiped out by eating wild mushrooms. Do you want to lead your Pathfinders to be part of one of these stories?

The introduction to Poisons Plants of California says "Of all poisonous plants in California, toxic mushrooms cause the most serious illnesses and nearly all the fatalities to humans."

Following is a quote from Dr. Peter Gail Ph.D. one of Euell Gibbons literary assistants.


 * "I have spent 55 years as a forager and at least 43 of them teaching others to forage, and I don't do mushrooms other than puffballs. Reason? When I was a wet behind the ears Masters degree student in Plant Systematics at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont California, my mycology professor, the very prominent Dr. Richard Benjamin, went out one weekend on a mushroom hunting expedition with one of his buddies, an equally prominent mycologist who was a specialist in mushrooms. On Monday, he was badly shaken, and reported to us at morning coffee break that there had been a mishap--his buddy had eaten a poisonous mushroom and had died from it.


 * "You can imagine the impact THAT had on me. Even the best, most knowledgeable botanists make mistakes. So, with mushrooms, it evidently doesn't matter how much you know. I don't use anything but the Agarics I get at the store and puffballs. There are others which are not mistakable for anything poisonous. Morels vs. false morels are a good example of the problem you can have. I leave mushrooms to other, more adventurous types than myself.

"Peter A. Gail, Ph.D. Director Goosefoot Acres Center for Resourceful Living Cleveland OH www.edibleweeds.com"

There are highly poisonous mushrooms outside of the Amanitas contrary to what this requirement suggests.
 * Some examples:


 * Boletus satanas, is reported not to kill you but will make you so sick that you think you will die.
 * False morels, (Gyromitra caroliniana, G. esculenta, Helvella spp., Verpa bohemica, Disciotis spp., etc.), can be fatal.

For mushroom poisoning reports
 * http://www.namyco.org/toxicology/index.html
 * http://www.namyco.org/toxicology/tox_report_2007.html
 * http://www.namyco.org/images/pdf_files/2010_NAMA_Toxicology_Report.pdf
 * http://www.bayareamushrooms.org/poisonings/lifeordeathsituation.html

NAMA (North American Mycological Association) poster.
 * http://namyco.org/images/pictures/warning_poster.jpg
 * http://www.namyco.org/toxicology/tox_report_2007.html

Further, mushrooms are no longer classified as plants. Mushrooms are heterotrophic (get their nutrition by digesting or decomposing other organisms). Plants are autotrophic (do not digest or decompose other organisms). Most commercial mushrooms (Agaricus bisporous ) in the USA are grown in manure and straw. The less popular commercial mushrooms (oyster mushrooms, winter mushrooms aka enoki and shiitake) are grown on dead wood.

7. What root plant can be dried and ground into meal?

 * Cattail
 * Greenbriars
 * Kudzu
 * Jack-in-the-pulpit

8. Know at least 8 families embracing the poisonous or doubtful plants.
Many plants with edible parts also have poisonous parts. The list below, though not exhaustive, features plants with poisonous parts (even though some may also feature edible parts).
 * Buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae) - buckthorns
 * Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) - buttercups, larkspur, baneberry, monkshood
 * Carrot/parsley family (Apiaceae) - Water hemlock, Poison hemlock or fool's parsley
 * Daisy family (Asteraceae/Compositae) (other than: Asters, Balsam root, Burdock, Chamomile, Chicory, Dandelion, Golden rod, Jerusalem artichoke, Oxeye daisy, Pineappleweed, Prickly lettuce, Salsify, Sow thistle, Thistle, Wild lettuce, Wild sun flower, etc.) - white snake root
 * Dogbane/milkweed family (Apocynaceae) - dogbane, butterfly weed
 * Legume family (Fabaceae) - Goat's rue, indigo, locust (seed pods), Lupine, Rattlebox
 * Horsechestnut family (Hippocastanaceae) - horse chestnut
 * Iris family (Iridaceae) - all are poisonous
 * Lily family (Liliaceae)(other than: Avalanche lily, Camas, Day lily, Desert lily, Dogtooth violet, Indian cucumber, Leek, Tiger lily, Wild garlic, Wild onion, Yellow bells, etc.) - False Hellebore, Fly Poison, Star of Bethlehem, Deathcamas
 * Mushrooms - many (not in the plant kingdom)
 * Nightshade family (Solanaceae) - nightshade, tomato (leaves), potato (leaves)
 * Poison Sumac/Oak/Ivy family (Rhus/Toxicodendron/Anacardiaceae) - poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac
 * Rose family (Rosaceae) (other than: Apples, Pears, Hawthorn, Blackberry, Raspberry, Rose hips, etc. fruits) - cherry (leaves, seeds, bark)
 * Soapwort family (Caryophyllaceae) - soapwort
 * Grape family (Vitaceae) - Virginia creeper
 * Yew family (Taxaceae) - yew

9. What is the cardinal edibility rule?
Never eat any wild plant unless you have positively identified it and know that it is edible. Actually, it's not enough to know that a plant is edible - you also must know what part of the plant is edible, and at what stage of its growth it is edible. For example, pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) leaves are edible when they are young and cooked in 2 or more changes of water, but the older leaves, stems, and seeds in the berries are all toxic. Also Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) are toxic until they are ripe.