Search: Stachys Floridana

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Early season edible roots of the Stachys floridana

Stachys Floridana, Culinary Pretender

I have read from a good source that all Stachys are edible. I politely doubt that for three reasons. First there are 300 to 450 of them depending on who’s counting. It’s doubtful all of them would be edible. The roots of one defintely are not edible. Next, many were used for medicinal purposes which also suggest some are not edible, and even if they were medicine often tastes bad. Lastly, and perhaps the most compelling reason, is that who’s in the family and who’s out is in flux. Botanists are a fickle lot. It could make things more iffy particularly if a non-Stachys non-edible was included as a Stachys.  But, what I do know is our local Stachys is edible and bears an underground resemblance to a relative that commands high prices.

Leaves can be dried and used for tea

Stachys floridana, (STAY-kis flo-ri-DAN-ah) the Florida Betony, is one of the most common urban plants found in Florida. Sun and a moist lawn are magnets for the versatile weed. The above ground parts — read young plants and leaves — can be cooked like greens. They are, however, musty in flavor. Think of them as a famine food. Tea can be made from the dried leaves and the seeds are edible. But, the crowning glory of the Florida Betony, so to speak, is its root, actually a tuber. These cunchy, tasty treats look like big, fat, white grubs. Others think they look like the noisy  end of a rattle snake hence the other common name, Rattle Snake Weed. Pictured above are some small, early season roots. The Florida Betony puts on a tuber in spring and then kind of takes the hot summer off to return in the fall. In late spring the tubers are often stark white. In the fall they can be tan and in time get soft and not palatable.

Young plants and leaves can be boiled as a potherb

These humble tubers infest many a southern lawn and literally millions of dollars are spent every year to get rid of them: Read a lot of herbicide use. Another family member, Stachy affinis, aka Crosnes, does not have that problem. They sell for about $150 a pound. Actually, I’ve never seen a crosnes growing in Florida. It was originally from China, went to France in the town of Crosnes, and from there to the fancy Paris restaurants. That brought it to cultivation in and around New York City.

Tubers of the Stachys affinis

In restaurants of stars, Stachys affinis, also called Chinese Artichokes, are hard-to-get gourmet delicacies. It makes one wish Florida Betony could be substituted. I’d like the idea of having a few thousand dollars of these in my lawn. Maybe it’s a totally untapped market.  Someone should let the chefs know there is a possible alternative. No doubt a good price break could be worked out, say… $100 a pound.

The Florida Betony is a good example of attitude and knowledge. First is a willingness to eat the weeds, a theme dear to the author’s heart. The other is benefiting from that knowledge. The Florida Betony is the poor root of the pair, not able to command $150 a pound. It even has a different number of chromosomes than the S. affinis (this genus is in flux.) But, the Betony is good eats. I don’t have to pay $150 a pound for the S. affinis when I can get the S. floridana for free. Pass the salt and pepper please.

Stachylos

There is also one other known use for the Florida Betony.  It is a source of a sugar called Stachyose, according to its manufacturer, Schuttl et Benth. It is less sweet than sugar and is used as a bulk sweetener. It is also not completely digestible.  Stachyose promotes friendly bacteria in the gut and — according to research — can inhibit the growth of bacteria that can cause some pneumonia and vaginal infections. Tasty and healthy. That’s a win win.

Vettones’ Region

Stachys is from Greek meaning  “stake” or in this case a flower spike. Floridana means of Florida. “Betony” has a long linguistic history. And for this it helps to remember that in olden days letters were not pronounced the same way as they are now. Even today in Greek the B has a V sound.  The original name for Betony was Vettonica. It was named after an Iberian tribe, the Vettones (living in now what is northwest Spain.) The Vettones, however, were Celtic — read proto-Irish — and lent their name to Breton, Brittany, Britain and even the encyclopedia no one buys anymore. The Vettones were thought by the Romans to posses special medicinal magic that drove away bad spirits. A common Roman proverb for someone troubled was, “sell your coat and buy betony.”  Most of the plants in the mint family that were named Betonica are now called Stachys.  Affinis (ahf-EYE-niss) is Latin for “similar to.”

No one does nutritional research on the Florida Betony. However, nutrition for the S. affinis per 100 grams is:  Calories 75, total fat  0, dietary fiber 2 grams, protein 2.6 grams, carbohydrate 17 grams, cholesterol (mg) 0, sodium (mg) 4, sugars (g) o.

Stachys palustris of northeast North America

Incidentally, if you live in a northern clime two other Stachys with edible tubers are available. The first is  Stachys palustris, the Marsh Woundwort.  It can be found in the northeast quadrant of North America, basically the Mason Dixon Line north and as far west as Illinois and Manitoba. The tubers can be cooked in a variety of ways, or dried and made into bread, and the young

Stachys hyssopifolia

shoots are cooked and eaten like asparagus. The second, according to Dr. Francois Couplain, is the Stachys hyssopifolia, the Hyssopleaf Hedgenettle (say that 10 times fast.) It’s found in states that border the Atlantic as well as Kentucky, Indiana, illinois, Iowa and Michigan. Seeds of the Stachys scopulorum were eaten by natives in the desert southwest of North America and Stachys sylvatica is consumed in Europe, and about New York City.

The roots of Stachys officinalis are not edible. They are bitter and can make you throw up.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Florida Betony is square-stemmed, erect, hairy; tubers are segmented and resemble a rattlesnake’s rattle, usually little finger long; The stems up to 18 inches tall. Simple leaves opposite on the stem.  The flowers occur in clusters of 3-6,  sepals fused, forming a tube which is hairy, with 5 lanceolate lobes. The petals are fused, 2-lipped. The upper lip is somewhat erect. The lower lip is 3-lobed.

TIME OF YEAR:  The best roots are fat and ready to eat before Florida’s hot summer begins.  Roots near surface usually many found together. During the hot months the plant can disappear to reemerge in fall. In northern climates the roots are harvest in the cool of fall.

ENVIRONMENT: Moist yet well-drained areas, such as lawns.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Roots raw or cooked, crispy in salads, great in stir fries. Leaves and shoots of the plant can also be eaten raw or cooked. They are, however, rather musty tasting and best mixed with other greens.  The Indians reportedly ate the seeds as a famine food. Some say the flavor of the tubers are like cauliflower where as I lean toward jicama. The texture, however, is like a radish. Lastly, the leaves of some Stachys species were smoked like tobacco. The roots of the Florida Betony also have chemicals which have “antioxidant activity. “

The Seminole-Wekiva Trail in 2018 (as seen from a bicycle GPS.)

Seven-Mile Appetizer

Editor’s note: Since the article was written the trail is now twice as long.

The squirrels are in hog heaven, if you’ll pardon the menagerie metaphor.

Beautyberry

It’s Thanksgiving, 2007 in central Florida and I am starting a bike trip along a reclaimed railroad bed. The Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) has gone from a summer wallflower to a fall blooming idiot. Also known as the French Mulberry, it is in full fruit hoping to ensure another generation of Beautyberries.  The shrub, with fruit clustered along the stem, is extremely popular with squirrels, who will ignore people to get to the berries. Read more about the Beauty Berry and the great jelly it makes by clicking here.

Amaranth

I’m traveling from Altamonte Springs to Lake Mary, and back, a little over 15 miles. At a road crossing where I have to stop for a traffic light — an underground passage was to be finished in 2005 —  I see a few scraggly Amaranth (Amaranthus hybridus.) Like its close cousin, the Spiny Amaranth, it’s a very local opportunist, rarely more than a plant or two here and there. In decades of collecting wild edibles in Florida I’ve never seen enough amaranth in one place to make a good meal (except in my garden.)  Even more rare is its distant and tasty cousin, Lamb’s Quarters or Pig Weed (Chenopodium album.) It’s hard to find here in central Florida except for isolated populations usually in poorly attended orange groves.

My first introduction to “Pig Weed” as an edible came in 1960. My parents had built a house the year before and as was common the next spring they threw hay chaff on the ground to start a lawn. That summer only two kinds of plants grew on the lawn: Wild mustard — see a later article on that — and Pig Weed.  A neighbor, Bill Gowen, who was also quite an amazing vegetable gardener, was visiting one day and saw the six-foot high Pig Weed and asked if he could have some. Getting a yes, he pulled out a half a dozen plants taller than himself and carried them home for supper.  He was absolutely full of joy

Pokeweed

over what he was about to eat, and with good reason. Only the Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) comes close to Lamb’s Quarters in flavor. For many years I was fortunate in that a field near me in Maitland, Fl., grew Lamb’s Quarters profusely, though smaller than in temperate climes. But, that field is now a housing development and not one Lamb’s Quarters seed, save for my garden, seems to have survived. That cannot be said of its more malodorous cousin, Mexican Tea (Chenopodium ambrosioides, sometimes referred to as Chenopodium anthelminticum though now is has been changed by some to Teloxys ambrosiodes.  In this case, the word “tea” is used to mean an infusion, not a pleasant drink. Chenopodium ambrodsiodes, by the way, means ‘Goose Foot Food of the Gods.’ That should give you some idea.

Epazote

Unmistakably smelling of varnish, the cultivated version is a common spice in Mexican cooking called Epazote, which in Nahuatl, the Aztec language, means skunk sweat or skunk dirt. It is well-named. One does not need to cultivate Epazote in Florida. It grows quite happily everywhere and all along the trail I am biking, especially near Lake Mary. It is one plant I don’t stop to look at, or rub unless I want to smell like a cleaned paint brush. I might have a different view of Epazote if I had tried it cooked sometime. But, I also don’t have internal worms, another use for the “tea.” And I really don’t want to find out if the line between spice and worm killer is thin.

Turks Cap

On my over-sized road bike I puff past many plants that are not high on the food chain for humans but edible in one fashion or another: Huge Camphor trees, relatives of the cinnamon; Pines, their needles make a Vitamin C rich tea and the inner bark edible; the aforementioned Pokeweed, red and rank this time of year but delicious in the spring when prepared correctly, deadly when not; Reindeer Moss, a true survival food; escaped Honeysuckle and Turks Caps; various cactus with edible pads and flower buds;  Bull Brier, a Smilax with berries that can be chewed like gum when green. The root of its cousin made the original Sarsaparilla. Ubiquitous on the trail  and very weedy, is Bidens alba.

Begger’s Ticks, Spanish Needles

Known as Beggars’ Ticks and  “Spanish Needles” for its two-tooth seeds, Bidens is the third largest source of honey nectar in Florida. All honey from Florida is part Bidens Alba.  The flowers and cooked young leaves and plants are edible. It has all kinds of medicinal applications from gout to urinary infections. Near the Bidens are some sandspurs though the correct term is sandburs, (Cenchrus echinatus.)  I burn off their spines and parch them at the same time. Tasty.

Florida Betony

About half way between Altamonte Springs and Lake Mary I pass a lawn that is too close to the trail and spy a bed of plants that would make Florida gourmets grab a shovel if they knew what was there: Florida Betony (Stachys Floridana). Its cousin, Stachys Affinis, is called Crosnes or Chinese Artichokes and a few other names. They are described as very expensive and called hard-to-find. Betony is the bane of most Florida lawns.

Purslane

Also in nearby lawns as I pedal by I see two other edibles, one very esteemed and the other rarely known on this side of the world. First is purslane (Portulaca oleracea). In fact, its very name, oleracea, means cultivated and it has been for thousands of years. Invading the lawns along with the purslane is Pennywort, sometimes the native Hydocotyle bonariensis and sometimes its imported cousin, Centella asiatica, both quite edible. The Pennywort likes its feet wet and one usually finds it around lawn sprinklers or where water puddles on lawns.

This year Thanksgiving in Florida is a warm, pleasant day and I brake to read the historic markers.  The trail I’m on, The Seminole Wekiva Trail, built on the former Orange Belt Railway, was at one time the longest railroad in the United States. It was started in 1885, about the same time both my grandfathers were born. In 1893 — the decade of my grandmothers —

Bitter Gourd

it became the Sanford – St. Petersburg railroad then became part of the Atlantic Coast Railroad line and finally merged in 1967 into the current Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. It cut across the state higher up than the current east-west interstate then went down Florida’s west coast, with one of the stops in the Greek community of Tarpon Springs, where I got my Purslane. Many important communities along the railroad a century ago and worthy of a station are gone, only noted by the cast iron tombstones: An inn stood over there; winter visitors went to a spring-fed spar across the road; a freeze ended a citrus community here the night of 29 Dec 1894. Occasionally an area is fenced off, and on many of those fences are ripening Balsam Pears (.) They are edible when young and are one of the few wild edibles I see people picking. 

Wild Grapes

As I pedal through Longwood — President Calvin Coolidge stopped here in 1929 to visit the “Senator” the largest Cypress tree in the country, now burned down —   I notice the grapes are way past season save for some stragglers. The grapes were not prolific this year, but in 2006 they were abundant. There are at least three or four  kinds of ‘wild’ grapes in Florida, two native and two or so escaped and semi-naturalized cultivars. It is easy to tell their ancestry: If the vine’s tendril has one tip, it is native; if the tendril is forked  it’s an escape artist (although future botanists might those designations.) Along here most of the grapes are Vitis shuttleworthii and Vitis munsoniana.  However, at one point overhanging the trail there are some abandoned 1930-era red and white hybrids. Larger and sweeter, they make the trip pleasant. I can just reach a last few from my bike as I go by.

Florida  — as of this writing and perhaps for sometime to come   — cannot grow wines like California or France because of Pierce’s Disease. The disease kills non-native grapes within a decade of planting by essentially clogging their veins and making them wither. So far its been lethal to over 300 varieties of grape. Only common varieties that have been crossed with native grapes can survive, which the state did in the early 1900s. Since the native grapes are very fruity, hybrid Florida wine, like New York State wine, is a differentiated product, a fancy way of saying it has its own muscadine flavor. If Pierce’s Disease can be conquered — they’re working on it — the South could become a major grape-growing region of well-known varietals.

3,500 year old tree destroyed by a match.

As I enjoy my grapes and pedal along I think about the “Senator.” A core ring count said it was some 3,000 years old. When it was 600 years old Socrates was arguing against democracy — why he was later executed — and Plato was a bright kid with a large derriere (didn’t you ever wonder what “Plato” means in the original Greek?)  By the time the Senator celebrated its 1,500th birthday, King Arthur was becoming a legend in his own mind. I wonder how many hurricanes has that king of cypresses endured in 3,500 years, and which one blew its top off with the help of lightning now and then. (Editor’s note: An addict climbed over the security fence January 16, 2012, then lit a fire inside the trunk so she could see what drugs she wanted to use. The resulting fire burned down the tree. A clone has replaced it.)

Monarda punctata, Bee balm

Not far from the grapes, before a long grade that challenges my low-carb knees, grows Spotted Horsemint, also known as Spotted Beebalm (Monarda punctata.) Frankly, given its name and appearance I think they missed a linguistic opportunity. They should have called it Pinto Mint.  It can be found near the trail for about two miles. It’s a plant one doesn’t notice until fall when it gets pink and white showy. Last year on private property near the old line, I dug up one small bush of it and successfully transplanted it into my small yard. It’s pretty and makes a nice tea. The bees are happy, too.

Common along the trail are Live Oaks, (Quercus virginiana) which are according heavily, if one can conjure such a verb.  In the white oak family, Live Oaks have the least amount of tannin in their acorns. But, it also varies from tree to tree. One can often find a Live Oak with acorns that are edible without leeching, a convenient and time saving arrangement. Acorn meal  — free of tannins or otherwise leeched of them — has many uses in the kitchen not the least in making bread.

Wild Persimmons

Less common along the bike path are native Persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) which means Fruit of the Gods. They are usually small trees that like to grow on edges of fields and roads, and fortunately, old railroad beds. I counted no less than eight Persimmon trees, several with fruit. There is very little to not like about the Persimmon, which is actually a North American ebony. The fruit is edible and can be used in any way banana is used, one for one. The fruit skin can be used to make a fruit “leather.” The seeds can be roasted, ground, and used to stretch coffee. The leaves make a tea rich in vitamin C, though the taste is bland if not “green.” And the wood can be worked.

On the shy side, the native Persimmon can be small and very astringent. There are many rules of thumb about how and when they can be picked for ripeness and non-astringency. In my experience, the best persimmons are the ones you have to fight the ants for.

Sassafras

On my return leg I stop half way and watch a place that has, of all things for suburbia, a few milking goats (If you must know, Capra hircus.)  Of Greek heritage and a farm boy,  I like goats and have often fed them some grass that’s just out of reach through the fence. In fact, while feeding them one day I saw a Sassafras rootling (Sassafras albidum) looking for a new home. The transplant was successful and I am probably the only homeowner in Florida with an intentional Sassafras tree in my front yard. It makes me feel special. I also have a  Zanthoxylum clava-herculis rescued more than a decade ago from a bull dozer in Daytona Beach. Should I have a tooth ache it will come in handy because its leaves have a natural novacaine.  Between the Sassafras and the Hercules Club my yard has to be a rarity.

As I near where I started I cross a small brook that eventually ends up in the Atlantic at Jacksonville. A plant growing in it reminds me books can be very wrong on edibility. I know that from personal experience. Some 20 years ago I thoroughly research a particular aquatic plant here in central Florida and found several authoritative references to it being edible. While preparing it for cooking my hands began to burn severely. Only washing with Naphtha Soap stopped the burning (every forager should carry Naphtha Soap with him.) 

Since this is my inaugural article* following entries will be shorter, I promise. Oh, and for Thanksgiving, I cooked a duck and had homemade elderberry wine. 

* This first newsletter  was written on Thanksgiving Day 2007. As of this editing — November 2018 — there have been some 1000 articles and 331  newsletters, first monthly then weekly.

The link to the university’s site to buy the book — I do not get a cut — is here.

The list of known edibles in the book is below. Many of them are covered in separate articles on site.  Click on the common name.

Page 10:   Commelina diffusa, young tips boiled in ample water, blossoms raw. Dayflowers.
Page 11:   Murdannia nudiflora, same as above.  Doveweed.
Page 14:   Cyperus esculentus, tubers, raw, boiled, roasted or candied, oil from tubers, seeds roasted as a coffee substitute. Chufa
Page 19:   Cyperus rotundus, edible after drying, fresh are an insect repellant. See above.
Page 26:   Anthoxanthum odoratum, dry leaves as tea, grain, caution as it is a blood thinner.
Page 31:   Cenchrus echinatus, use as grain after burning off spines, or winnowing between leather pads. Sandspurs.
Page 32:   Cenchrus incertus, same as above.
Page 34:   Dactyloctenium aegyptium, dry seeds to make a flour, or mush, beer et cetera. Crowfoot Grass.
Page 65:   Allium vineale, wild garlic, use like said. Wild Onion, Wild Garlic.
Page 67:   Mollugo verticillata,  leaves as potherb.
Page 71:    Amaranthus blitum, Livid Amaranth, use cooked like spinach.
Page 72:   Amaranthus hybridus, Smooth Pigweed, use cooked like spinach.
Page 73:   Amaranthus verdis, Slender Amaranth, use cooked like spinach.
Page 88:   Cirsium horridulum, all true thistles are edible, first year root raw or cooked, second year stalk peeled raw or cooked, leaves anytime peeled of spines, raw or cooked. Bull Thistle
Page 89:   Conyza canadensis, barely edible as a spice, significant medicinal. Horseweed.
Page 90:   Eclipta prostrata, young leaves and shoots cooked.
Page 91:    Emilia fosbergii, from non-flowering plant, young leaves raw, or cooked, occasional use, long-term use can cause liver tumors.
Page 92:    Erechtites hieraciifolia, raw or cooked, an acquired taste. Fireweed.
Page 103:  Hypochoeris radicata, young leaves cooked (usually boiled.) False Dandelions
Page 105:  Lactuca canadensis, young leaves cooked (usually boiled.) Lettuce Labyrinth
Page 107:  Pyrrhopappus carolinianus, young leaves cooked (usually boiled.) False dandelions.
Page 109:  Sonchus asper, young leaves cooked (usually boiled.) Sow Thistle.
Page 110:  Taraxacum officinale, young leaves cooked, blossoms as tea or to flavor wine, panckakes, roasted roots. Dandelions.
Page 113:  Youngia japonica, young leaves raw or cooked. False Hawksbeard.
Page 115:  Capsella bursa-pastoris, young leaves for seasoning or greens after boiling, seeds as pepper, grind root add to salt and vinegar for horseradish substitute. Peppergrass.
Page 116:  Cardamine hirsuta, leaves and seed pods for seasoning. The Little Mustards.
Page 117:  Coronopus didymus, leaves and seed pods for seasoning. The Little Mustards.
Page 118:  Descurainia pinnata, leaves and seed pods for seasoning. The Little Mustards.
Page 119:  Lepidium virginicum, same as Capsella bursa-pasatopris. Peppergrass.
Page 120:  Sibara virginica, young leaves and seed pods as seasoning. The Little Mustards.
Page 128:  Erodium circutarium, young leaves boiled. Stork’s Bill
Page 129:  Geranium carolinianum, young leaves boiled, very bitter, more a medicinal. Stork’s Bill
Page 130:  Glechoma hederacea, young leaves cooked, much written about this plant. Henbit
Page 131:  Lamium amplexicaule, young leaves raw or cooked. Henbit.
Page 132:  Lamium purpureum, young leaves raw or cooked. Henbit.
Page 133:  Prunella vulgaris, young leaves raw or cooked, tends to be bitter raw.
Page 134:  Stachys floridana, root edible raw or cooked, leaves dried for tea, leaves boiled as famine food, musty flavored. Florida Betony
Page 137:  Desmodium triflorum, threeflower ticktrefoil, in India traditionally boiled then mixed with dry fish. Yum. Tick Clover
Page 141:  Medicago lupulina, seeds edible, leaves edible cooked but implicated in auto-immune diseases. Iffy. Black Medic
Page 146:  Trifolium compestre, leave edible raw or cooked, blossoms, too. Family does not digest well.
Page 147:  Trifolium dubium, leaves edible raw or cooked, blossoms too. See above.
Page 148:  Trifolium repens, leaves edible raw or cooked, blossoms too. Clover.
Page 150:  Vicia sativa, seeds cooked, leaves cooked, but some reports of toxicity in the lab, not in the field.
Page 152:  Modiola caroliniana, leaves used to make a drink. Carolina Bristle Mallow
Page 154:  Boerhavia diffusa, tender young leaves and shoots – cooked and used as a vegetable, root – baked, rich in carbohydrate and protein, though the flavor is bland and the texture sometimes woody. Seeds – cooked. It can be ground into a powder and added to cereals when making bread, cakes et cetera. If the root chemically burns mouth after cooking do not eat. Red Spiderling.
Page 157:  Oxalis intermedia, leaves raw or cooked, entire plant edible. Sorrels
Page 158:  Oxalis stricta, leaves raw or cooked. See above.
Page 159:  Plantago aristata, young leaves raw or cooked, young seed spike raw or cooked, seeds raw or cooked. Plantains
Page 160:  Plantago lanceolata, same as above
Page 161:  Plantago major, same as above
Page 162:  Plantago virginica, same as above
Page 163:  Polygonum aviculare, young leaves, seeds, and blossoms, raw or cooked (probably P. caespitosum, too.) Blossom the hottest but also bitter. Large raw amounts can raise blood pressure..
Page 165:  Rumex acetosella, young leaves raw or cooked (makes a nice tartlet with sour cream.) Root – cooked. It can be dried, ground into a powder and made into noodles. Seed – raw or cooked. Easy to harvest, but the seed is rather small. A drink similar to lemonade is made by boiling the leaves. Sheep Sorrel
Page 166:  Rumex crispus, young leaves and seeds, raw or cooked, similar to above.
Page 168:  Portulaca oleracea, entire plant above ground raw or cooked. Purslane.
Page 172:  Duchesnea indica, berries raw, leaves cooked. Reports of it being poisonous are simply wrong. Indian strawberry
Page 176:  Galium aparine, young shoots and leaves raw or cooked, seed roasted make an excellent coffee substitute. Old leaves toxic with silica.  When the plant is young it stimulates the immune system and is good for the lymph system. Goosegrass.
Page 190:  Centella asiatica, Gotu Kola, leaves edible raw or cooked, better cooked. Pennyworts.
Page 191:  Daucus carota, root cooked, thin and stringy, flower clusters can be french-fried to produce a carrot-flavoured gourmet’s delight, the aromatic seed is used as a flavouring in stews et cetera, the dried roasted roots are ground into a powder and are used for making coffee substitute. Wild Carrots.
Page 192:  Hydrocotyles, young leaves raw or cooked, better cooked, too many leaves raw will lower your blood pressure. Pennyworts.
Page 193:  Parietaria floridana, young leaves, stems, flowers raw or cooked, diuretic, can make some itch, try sparingly at first. (In more than 20 years I have not met anyone who gets the itch.) Pellitory.
Page 196:  Viola, above ground parts edible raw or cooked. Romans made blossoms into wine. Root is toxic.  Violet Virtues.
Page 197:  Viola arvensis, same as above
Page 198:  Viola rafinesquii, same as above

I did not list many of the grass seeds as edible, but probably they are as I do not know of any native toxic grasses in North America.

Chinese Tallow Tree with ripe fruit and fall colors.

During a class this weekend I noticed the Chinese Tallow trees are blossoming. The tree poses a challenge. It has an edible fat and a toxic oil. The question is how to easily separate the two. And if “easily” is the wrong descriptor then how can it be made worth a forager’s while?

The tree is an invasive species locally so finding a use for it would help the environment. Also as a source of fat it could literally be a life-saver in time of need because humans cannot survive without fat. In fact one can readily see the fat (also called wax.)  It just doesn’t render easily.

Each seed has a thick coating of highly saturated fat, one reason why the species is also called the popcorn tree because when in fruit it looks covered by popcorn. By all reports the outer coating is edible and has been used to make candles, hence calling it wax. In fact the tree was imported from Asia by Ben Franklin specifically to start a candle-making industry in the South. As a saturated fat the outside is very solid at room temperature. Inside the seed is a liquid oil called stillingia. It is toxic to humans.

The “wax” is supposed to melt at 104 F. I’ve tried frying the fruit. The outer coating of fat stays solid. I’ve tried boiling. No luck. My readers have tried broiling — the seeds exploded — and micowaving, they got softer but did not melt.  In China, reports Merriwether of Houston Edibles,  they are reportedly softened the fruit in boiling water than scraped over a fine grater with 0.03-0.5 centimeter holes (Merriwether is a scientist.) Sounds like a great way to grind down ones fingertips. A third reader has a daughter who used it for a science project. Here’s what they did.

First they bought a hand-operated oil expeller. They cost about $150 on the Internet. (I’ve been trying to get some of the companies to give me one to review but without success.) They put the entire fruit through the press which also heats the material. Out comes a liquid mass that upon cooling has the solid saturated fat on top and wax on top and the oil on bottom. The student went on to make candles out of the “wax” and used the oil in a lamp. She won three science fairs and two scholarships. Way to go!

The next question we ask is whether the “wax” and the oil will sufficiently separate so the wax can be used as food? Also is it just as stubborn to melt even after being processed this way? My last question would be how digestible is it? The invasive species certainly has a lot of potential. You can read more about the Chinese Tallow tree here.

Small Wing Yams are as edible as large root dug in the fall.

Fall is not the only time to harvest wild yams. We typically use obvious air bulbils in the fall to locate the vine often with large edible roots. But we can also locate smaller, edible roots this time of year as well. You look for the telltale square vines and pairs of opposite leaves. However, early in the season it can be a little tricky because young vines often haven’t developed pairs of leaves yet and will have singular leaves until older. However, the stem is square and the vine has what is called a Z-twist. That is at eye-level it twists from your lower left to your upper right, like the diagonal mark on the letter Z.

During class this past Saturday in Longwood it took only a few minutes to dig up several small yams, 20 ounces of roots in total that can be used like potato. They are perfectly stored and well-hidden from most eyes. In the fall one can find roots from five pounds shaped like a two-liter bottle to easily 30 pound or more. To read more about the Winged Yam go here.

Emily Ruff, director of the Florida School of Holistic Living

After Sunday’s foraging class I visited herbalist Emily Ruff et vir for a wander around their fertile back yard and machinate about plants. It’s amazing what can be grown in a suburban back yard if you apply some knowledge and thought to it. They invited me to lunch but usually after class I avoid eating to help burn off some of that extra avoirdupois age silently packs on. After walking for four hours my body starts to tap into that fuel tank around my waist (some guys are working on six-pack abs, I’m trying to reduce the keg…) But when they offered me pickled Stachys floridana roots I could not say no. Absolutely wonderful: Crunchy, delicious, and a feast for the eyes as well. I would have easily begged for the recipe had Emily not promised that it will be posted on her website soon. When she does that relished repast will be resurrected here. Pickling is a fantastic way to preserve these delightful roots which already have a radish-like texture.  Should they decide to go commercial with the product I even have a name for them: Staykles. To read more about Stachys floridana  click here.

Humans aren’t the only ones having a population explosion.

The fir tree called the Easter Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) has edible parts. Young needles are used to make a tea and the inner bark is edible as well. The tree is also quite threatened and down to 1% presence in some places compared to when Europeans first arrived. One reasons is many areas of the country are overpopulated by deer and their urine is threatening the tree’s future. Deer like to nibble on the Eastern Hemlock. They know a good thing when they taste it. Their urine, however,  is high in nitrogen and hemlocks like low nitrogen soil plus they are slow growing. Trees such as the sugar maple, however, like high-nitrogen soil so they are moving in and outgrowing hemlocks. (Don’t confuse the tree called the hemlock with a green herbaceous plant call the hemlock, which is deadly.) And while permaculture is a related speciality and not my area of competency it might be nice to have a cute deer or two in the back yard to recycle “garden waste” and make nitrogen…

Upcoming foraging classes: Saturday, June 22nd, Florida State College,  south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32246, 9 a.m. Sunday, June 23rd, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fl. 32706, 9 a.m. To see the full schedule go here.

Articles

•     Ackee

Delicious and deadly, that’s ackee

• Acorn Grubs: Bait, Trailside Nibble  (2)

  Yes, this is about eating grubs. Deal with it.

  Without the expertise of Charles E. Williams and the Michigan Entomological Society, Department of entomology,…

• Acorns, or Oak Nuts?  (1)

  It seem like a little thing that grew into a big problem, just like the edible I was writing about.

  I had several requests to do something about acorns.…

• Acorns: The Inside Story  (27)

  Acorn: More than a survival food
  The first time you eat an acorn it makes you wonder what the squirrels are going nuts about. As the bitterness twists…

• Agave, Century Plant

  Century Plant: Edible Agave Americana

  If you like tequila, thank a bat. If that’s not possible, thank a humming bird or a moth. Those three pollinate the…

• Alligator a la Carte  (5)
  I caught a small alligator once. I was fishing for bass in a golf course water trap behind an apartment complex in Titusville, Florida (that’s west across…
• Alligator Weed

  Alternanthera philoxeroides: Exotic Munch

  If you have alligators you have alligator weed. That’s a little odd because alligator weed is a native of…

• Alternate Pepper of Brazilian Pest?  Brazilian Pepper is a personal unknown
• Amapola, Sea Hibiscus, Rope Mangrove

  Hibiscus pernambucensis: Walking Lunch

  The Amapola is on the go, but unlike the “walking” mangrove, the Amapola crawls.

  There is something of a…

• Amaranth: Grain, Vegetable, Icon  (3)

  Amaranth, the forgotten food

  A book could be written about amaranth, and probably has, if not several.

  A grain, a green, a cultural icon, a religious…

• Amaranth Identification:

  Sorting out some amaranths

• A Matter of Attitude

  “Yuck.”

  That word has been in my mailbox lately, sprinkled through like spice on an entree. It reminds me of what a great language English is.

  English…

• American Lotus: Worth Getting Wet For  (1)

  More American than apple pie
  Nature fights back.

  Much of Florida is giving way to housing. For several years I passed a large abandoned pasture with a dry…

• American Nightshade: A Much Maligned Edible  (5)

  Solanum americanum: Food or Poison?

  Anyone who’s done some foraging has seen the “Black Nightshade” also called the “Common Nightshade” and (DRUM ROLLLLLLLL…

• Annona Quartet

  The Annonas Four: Sugar, Sour, Custard, Pond
  Many species and a few family of plants sit on the cusp of edible, non-edible, among them the Annonas, tropicals…

• Antikythera Mechanism
  The Antikythera Mechanism is unique, kind of like a monotypic genus plant. In fact, this short article was originally written as the introduction for the…

• A Pitch For Spruce Gum: Real spruce gum is not easy to chew. It is not soft or sweet. Hard and crumbly is more accurate along with pieces of bark and bits of insects.

• Apples, Wild Crabapples

  Malus sieversii, Hard-Core Apples
  Wild Apples are one of the most common over-looked foraging foods. People take one taste, spit it out, and go on their…

• Are Raw Vegetables Healthy for Humans?  (4)

  The quick answer by most would be yes, the presumption being man ate raw vegetables for a long time and is better suited to them, and them to him. But, whether…

• Are You A Cook Or A Baker?

  I am often asked about herbal medicine. My answer to the inquirer is often a question: Are you a cook or a baker? Their answer is instructive.

  While one…

• Armadillo: Possum on the Half Shell  (2)

  Armadillo Cuisine: Cooking a Hoover Hog
  Armadillos are an overlooked food animal, not protected by law, available throughout the year, and good tasting. And…

• Attitude Makes The Difference

  Facts don’t disappear in life, but in the end attitude is their equal. Water hyacinths can demonstrate that.

  If you know much about the state of Florida…

• Australian Pine  (1)

  Casuarina equisetifolia: Dreaded Edible
  It is truly fitting that the Australian Pine ends up on a site dedicated to edible plants because where it has been…

• What do you do when the description of a plant doesn’t fit? The answer depends on how far off the description is: You might have the wrong plant.

  If it is…

• Balloon Vine, Heart Vine, Heart Seed

  Cardiospermum halicacabum: Edible Leaves

  For a tropical plant, the Balloon Vine can take cold weather, growing from west Texas north to Montana, Florida…

• Bamboo Doesn’t Bamboozle You

  Bambusa
  Do not tell me you don’t live near bamboo. I grew up in 50-below zero Maine and we had bamboo in front of the house for decades. In fact, the…

• Bananas: More Than A Yellow Frou Frou Fruit  (5)

  Bananas Trees: Survival Food
  Yes, everyone knows bananas are edible, as are their starchy cousins, the plantains. One doesn’t think of banana or plantain…

• Barnyard Grass  (8)
  The first time I saw Barnyard Grass was decades ago in a real barnyard near a drain spout. I was with forager Dick Deuerling who identified it for me.…

• Basswood Tree, Linden, Lime Tree

  Tilia americana: Forest Fast Food
  My first recollection of basswood was not on the supper table but rather helping my father make pipes.

  First we’d…

• Bauhinia: Pretty Eats

  Bauhinias’ Beauty

  It’s called the Camel Foot Tree, the Cow Foot Tree, the Mountain Ebony Tree, the Orchid Tree, and the Hong Kong Orchid Tree. I ignored it…

• Birches: One could easily write a book about Birches because they are so valuable to foragers.

• Beach Bean, Bay Bean  (2)

  Canavalia maritima, Rosea, Beach Bean
  It’s the tank of beans: Three inches long, an inch wide and very thick. And with good reason, it lives near the…

• Beach Orach, Crested Salt Bush

  Atriplex cristata: Pigweed by the Sea

  Anyone familiar with the Goosefoot family will see the Beach Orach and presume it is probably edible, and it is.

  A…

• Beautyberry: Jelly on a Roll  (23)

  Beautyberry: Callicarpa Americana
  The Beautyberry is squirrel’s version of take out.

  Squirrels will often break off a branch a foot or two long and…

• Beech, American

  Fagus grandifolia: The All-American Beech

  Tree trivia: Beechnut chewing gum had nothing to do with the Beech tree or the seeds it produces. It was, however,…

• Bees In Litigation

  The last time I visited relatives in Greece, September 2006, I had “tea” with one of two then-living first cousins of my grandmother, both in their 90s,…

• Before There Were Baked Beans

  Baked beans is about as traditional a New England meal as one can get… That and boiled dinners. Every Sunday for decades we had boiled dinner. Potatoes,…

• Begonia Bonanza

  Waxing about Edible Begonias
  It was on Rock Springs Run, some 20 years ago here in Florida, when I first saw them, just above the variable water line. I…

• Betony: Rich Root, Poor Root  (5)

  Stachys Floridana, Culinary Pretender
  I have read from a good source that all Stachys are edible. I politely doubt that for three reasons. First there are 300…

• Big Caltrop: If you’re an adult with aging eyesight Kallstroemia maxima when first spied can look like purslane. A closer examination shows it is not.
• Binomial Nomenclature

  Most of us go by two names. So do plants. That’s Binomial Nomenclature. That is both good and bad. It’s good in that two people on different sides of the…

• Birches: One could easily write a book about Birches because they are so valuable to foragers.

• Bird Peppers

  Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum: Hot Eats

  Did y0u know hot peppers grow in the wild? From Central American north to Arizona east to Florida then up the…

•  Bitter Melon (6)

  Bitter Melon, Bitter Gourd, Balsam Pear: Momordica Charantia
  If the Balsam Pear did not exist a pharmaceutical company would invent it. In fact, there…

• Bitter Lettuce

  Launea intybacea: Edible Bitter Lettuce

  The plant came first, and it’s anybody’s guess to what its scientific name is.

  Every botanical wonderkin thinks…

• Bittercress and Kissing Crucifer Cousins

  Cardamine pensylvanica: Petite Pot Herb
  The first time I saw Bittercress I knew it had to be an edible. I just didn’t know which one.

  How did I know? Plants…

• Black Calabash: It started with spotting a blossom while teaching a foraging class. 
• Black Cherry: Chokecherry’s Better Cousin  (3)

  Prunus serotina: Better Late than Never Cherry

  Think of the Black Cherry as a chokecherry with some of the choke removed.

  Not a 100 feet from the…

• Black Ironwood, Leadwood
  Krugiodendron ferreum: Ironwood M&MsGreen twigs of Black Ironwood will sink in salt water. It’s that dense.The Black Ironwood was…

• Black Medic  (2)

  Medicago Lupulina: Grain and Potherb
  I debated a long time whether to include Black Medic as an edible. There are several plants in that category and over…

• Black Walnuts and Butternut

  Juglans nigra and butternut, too!

  I didn’t see my first Black Walnut tree until about 16 years ago. It so happened that the two places I lived the longest,…

• Blackberries, A Forager’s Companion  (1)

  Blackberries: Robust Rubus, Food & Weed
  Anyone who forages will eventually collect a few blackberries, and thorns. Blackberries are among the best known…

• Bladderwrack

  Fucus vesiculosus: Edible Bladderwrack
  Bladderwrack can wrack your brain.

  Why? Because in some places it has bladders and is textbook perfect. And in others…

• Blolly, Beeftree

  Guapira discolor: A Blolly by Golly
  The Blolly confounded me when I first saw the tree for it was growing by itself in a park. The fruit is quite distinct, a…

• Blue Porterweed, Bottom Up!

  Stachytarpheta jamaicensis: Near Beer
  Should the civilized world come to an end and you have a hankering for a stout beer you’re in luck: You can make one…

• Blueberries, or Huckleberry’s Kin

  Vacciniums: Am I Blue?

  Blueberrying was a family tradition. The only debate was did you pick them clean, or did you pick leaves, bugs and all then clean…

• Botanical Bachelor

  As a seasoned life-long bachelor I had my pickup line all crafted and rehearsed, so I could say it naturally at the right moment when my Dream Lady came near.…

• Bottlebrush Tree:
• Bougainvilleas:     Bougainvilleas are often referred to as a toxic plant. 

I’m often asked during my classes why I mention many plants that can be used to make tea. There are two answers:

• Brookweed: Brookweed is an edible plant few know a lot about these days. Even Professor Daniel Austin, who managed to write 909 pages about ethnobotany, could only scrape up one paragraph.

• Brown Anoles  (3)

  “Did you clean them” I asked a friend who might want to remain anonymous.

  “No” he said.

  “You cooked them whole?”

  “Yes.”

  “You ate them head, tail and…

• Browne’s Savory: Clinopodium Browneii

  The Mighty Minty Micromeria Browneii

  Sometimes in central Florida you will drive past a car accident on the interstate, or another road, and smell…

• Budget Cut Benefits

  Two effects of the economic times are influencing foraging. First is an increase in the number of people who are putting food on the table by foraging. The…

• Bug-a-Boo’s or Grubs Up  (5)
  On this site are several articles about edible insects (among other creatures.) Below is an expanding collection of more than 50 edible insects. I plan to…

• Bulrush Bonanza  (3)

  Cattail’s Maligned Companion: The bulrush has a public relations problem. It found in the same environment as the cattail, can be used the same way, and tastes…

• Bunchberry Brunch

  Munching Cornus canadensis/unalaschkensis
  Discussing things little ears shouldn’t hear, they barely interrupt their conversations to pick a low Bunchberry from…

• Bunya Pine: The Australian Aboriginals knew a good thing when they tasted it. So did the immigrants. It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t like the taste of Bunya Pine nuts. But you will find people who don’t like to clean up after it because the ancient species sheds sharp leaves and heavy cones.
• Burdock Banquet

  Arctium minus: Burdock’s Plus Side
  I have a confession to make: When I was a kid I had a miniature corn cob pipe. And in it I smoked dried burdock leaf… I…

• Buttercups:  Buttercups are usually considered not edible.

• Cabbage Palm, Sabal Palmetto  (4)

  Heart of Palm and Controversy
  The state tree of Florida isn’t a tree, but it is a weed of many edible parts.

  The Sabal palmetto, actually an overgrown…

• Cactus: Don’t Be Spineless  (3)

  Nopalea Cochenillifera: Cactus Cuisine
  Be brave when you collect cactus.

  Of course, good gloves and tongs help. With those tools you can have a very…

• Caesar Weed Sampler  (5)

  Urena Lobata: Cash crop to noxious weed
  Once it was an invited money-maker, now it is a hunted money spender: Caesar weed, cash crop to noxious weed.

  We have…

• Camphor Tree: Cinnamon’s Smelly Cousin

  Campy Camphor: Not Just For Grandma

  One would never guess Camphor trees are not native to Florida, or the South. One also probably wouldn’t guess they…

• Candlestick Tree: If you are meandering through a botanical garden in a warm climate and you see a tree growing four-foot-long candles it might be Parmentiera cereifera.
• Candyroot
  I will be the first to admit my experience with Candyroot is very limited. In a flower book I carried with me on field trips some 20 years ago with Florida…

• Canna Confusion  (1)
  How many species of Canna are there? Used to be perhaps 100 but now there are 20 or so, plus one Scottish island with a …ah.. population problem. And…

• Cannibalism
  There is no way to approach the topic of cannibalism without offending someone. Apologies offered. Cannibalism, the last great social taboo, is committed…

• Canoeing Rock Spring’s Run & The Wekiva
  Canoes are the best way for you to sneak up on deer, unless of course you’re the kind of canoeist who uses the paddle and canoe like a drum set.On a…

• Can We Eat Grass?  That simple question has a complex answer: Yes, no, and maybe.  It’s a topic I explored in a recent Green Deane Newsletter and the basis for this article.

• Carolina Bristle Mallow  (1)

  Modiola caroliniana: A Bristly Drink
  No one knows how many species of edible plants there are in the world, or in North America. In the former the guess is…

• Carpetweed  (3)
  When it comes to Carpetweed you need to know only two things: It grows nearly everywhere, or will. And the plant above ground is edible. To quote Cornucopia…

• Cassia Clan aka Senna

  Cassia occidentalis: Faux Coffee & Greens
  You either cook the Cassia Clan right or they make you sick. Any questions?

  Now that I have your attention,…

• Cast Iron Cookery, Buying and Restoring  (3)

  Cast Iron Pans: Yesterday is tomorrow
  Many books have been written about cast iron cookware. I will try to say a few things here perhaps not said elsewhere.

  B…

• Cast Net Junkie

  I will admit to being a cast net junkie.

  Some people collect coins or stamps. I collect cast nets. I started throwing nets some 30 years ago and have been…

• Cast Nets: Throwing Your Weights Around

  Throwing Your Trouble Away
  I love cast netting. I own five of them and rarely come home empty handed. I also never throw for bait: I go for the…

• Cattails – A Survival Dinner  (3)

  Cattails: Swamp Supermarket
  The United States almost won WWII with cattails.

  No green plant produces more edible starch per acre than the Cat O’ Nine…

• Caulerpa

  Caulerpa: Warm-Water Salad and Pest
  Caulerpa ssp.would seem to be a paradox. Eaten around the world by thousands for thousands of years but called a killer…

• Cereus Today Not Tomorrow

  Getting Down To Cereus Business

  There are three things irritating about Cereus other than their spines: 1) several botanical names for the same plant; 2)…

• Ceriman, Delicious Monster

  Monstera deliciosa: Hmm Hmm Good!
  Large Delight. That’s what Monstera deliciosa means…. It was an edible I did not know about until pointed out to me by my…

• Chain of Contamination

  In police work there is the chain of possession. When evidence is collected, who has it, and where it’s kept is recorded constantly. With food we might call it…

• Chaya: The Spinach Tree  (7)

  Cnidoscolus aconitifolius: Tree Pot Herb
  I knew about Chaya long before I ever saw one.

  It’s in the Cnidoscolus genus and has two relatives in the…

• Che: Che is not the tree it used to be.

• Checkerberry cum Wintergreen

  The Teaberry Shuffle
  I saw Gary Vickerson eat an earthworm I found near a checkerberry plant. Personally I preferred the Checkerberry.

  Before I go any…

• Chestnuts: Chestnuts have done more than just disappear from the landscape: They have dropped out of our lives save for a token appearance at Christmas.

• Chewstick, White Root

  Gouania lupuloides: How to Get Chewed Out

  The modern toothbrush was unknown in Europe until 1498, the year it came from China. Before that people…

• Chickasaw Plum: Yum  (5)

  Chickasaw Plum: First Springtime Blossom

  Every spring, three wild plums put on a show locally: The Chickasaw, the Flatwood, and the American. They…

• Chickweed Chic  (11)

  Chickweed Connoisseurs
  My being green really paid off this spring: For the first time (2009) I have chickweed in my lawn. I don’t know how it got there but it…

• Chicory History

  Cichorium intybus: Burned to a Crisp
  Chicory was not a common plant where I grew up or where I live. But I remember the first time I saw it, in 1990, in a…

• Chinese Box-Orange, Tsau Ping Lak

  Atalantia buxifolia: Wine-Cake Thorn
  The Chinese Box-Orange is one of my botanical mysteries. I know it is edible but I don’t know how… But I may still…

• Chinese Elm Take out

  Chinese Elm: A tree that doesn’t go Dutch
  Sometimes a wild edible can be under your feet and you never notice, or in this case, over your head.

  Anyone with…

• Chinese Tallow Tree  (1)

  Popcorn Tree, Florida Aspen, Tallow Tree

  There is a lot of debate whether the white waxy aril of the Chinese Tallow Tree is edible or not…

• Chocolate Vine, Abeki: Any plant with “chocolate” in the name is sure to get attention. And when it’s also called an invasive species then even more so.

• Christmas & Maiden berries

  Crossopetalums: Edible Berries & Medicine

  When I was an undergrad in music it was a revelation to learn that by studying music you also studied history:…

• Christmasberry, Wolfberry, Goji  (1)

  Christmas, Wolf, Goji, They’re All Berries
  It’s called the Christmasberry even though it fruits in April, and while it is one of several “Christmas Berries”…

• Chufa For Two  (1)

  Cyperus esculentus, C. rotundus: Serious Sedges
  There are two edible Cyperus locally: One that tastes like hazelnuts and one that smells and tastes to me…

• Cider Barrel Rules  (2)
  My mother was a horrible cook.I used to joke she thought I was a Greek god: Every meal was either a burnt offering or a sacrifice.I learned to cook…

• Cider Hard, But Quick and Easy  (22)

  How To Make Hard Cider
  You can make hard apple cider the difficult way, or the quick and easy way. I prefer the easy quick way. I’ve made a lot of beer and…

• Citron Melon, Tsamma  (6)

  Citron Melons: Abandoned Preserves
  Are they edible?

  Even people who do not forage want to know if the little watermelons they see in citrus groves are…

• Civilized Food

  While making my purslane video I was thinking back to a family friend who refused to eat purslane because it was a “weed.”

  It had taken over about one third…

• Climbing Fig, Creeping Fig  (3)
  If there is one thing about the Internet that irritates the sap out of me it is how mistakes proliferate rather than get corrected. I have ranted about…

• Clover, Available Around The World  (7)

  Clover, Available Around The World
  Hay may be for horses, but clover is for people…well…. almost.

  I was forever nibbling on clover blossoms when I…

• Coco-Plums

  Chrysobalanus icaco: Multi-Colored Fruit
  Coco-plums are three quarters patriotic: They can be red, white, or blue ( and yellow.)

  Actually, the “blue” is deep…

• Coconuts: It’s A Matter of Degrees

  Coconut, An Equatorial Palm
  Popular media and commercial production have made the coconut a common cultural item, even if you live thousands of miles away…

• Codium Compendium

  Codiums: Edible around the world
  Oceanographers like to call Codium a minor seaweed because it is not commercially exploitable. Yet where it is found around…

• Common Reed  (1)
  Some 20 years ago I pondered upon the identity of what appeared to be a very tall grass in a former marlpit in Port Orange, a few miles south of Daytona…

• • Cooking Like A Caveman

    The Mesolithic Era is not a sexy topic that will win friends and influence people at parties. But, it is something foragers should think about. If you are a…

  • Cooking without Pots or Pans  (2)

    Mesolithic Cooking: It’s the Pitshttps://www.eattheweeds.com
    How do you cook without pots or pans?

    It’s a question our distant ancestors never asked because pots and pans didn’t…

www.eattheweeds.com

• Coontie Courage

  Zamia Floridana: Making Toxins Edible
  This plant is included here in case 1) society falls apart; 2) You live in Georgia or Florida and need starch…

• Coquina: Tasty Tiny Clam
  Coquina: Donax: Good Eats
  Ounce for ounce there is probably no more delicious seafood than Coquina. The problem is getting an ounce of it, so we usually…

• Coral Bean: Humming Bird Fast Food
  Erythrina herbacea: Part Edible, Part NotThe (eastern) Coral Bean is one of those damned if you do, and damned if you don’t kind of things. Parts of…

• Coral Vine

  Antigonon leptopus: Creeping Cuisine
  The Antigonon leptopus ( an-TIG-oh-non LEP-toh-puss) inspires local names everywhere it grows: Tallahassee Vine, Honolulu…

• Corn Poppy
  Several plants have relatives whose reputations are difficult to live down. The Natal Plum is one. Related to the oleander the delicious plum suffers from…

• Corn Smut:   Mexican Truffles. Corn Smut. Raven Scat.  Ustilago maydis gets more unappetizing the further one goes down its list of names. The Aztecs called it huitlacoche.  The Mexicans call it a delicacy.

•  Crabgrass Was King  (3)

  Forage, Grain, Flour, Manna, Pest
  Americans did two interesting things when they moved from the farm to suburbia: They surrounded their homes with toxic…

• Cranberries, Lingonberries

  Get Your Annual Vaccinium Every Year
  Frozen cranberries are just as sour as fresh ones.

  I know that because when I was a kid skating on frozen ponds in Maine…

• Creeping Cucumber: Melothria Pendula  (2)

  Cute Cuke! Melothria Pendula

  The Melothria pendula is a little cucumber with a big reputation.

  That said, when it comes to the “creeping cucumber”…

• Crowfoot Grass, True Grits

  Dactyloctenium aegyptium: Staple Grain
  Grasses can be a pain in the …ah… grass…

  First, books about grasses are few and incredibly expensive. Next,…

• Dad’s Applewood Pipes  (3)
  Time edits your memories. It sands off the rough edges that were once painfully sharp. It makes some moments clearer by evaporating the fog of being…

• Dahlia Pinnata
  Here’s the good news: At least one species of Dalhia has edible roots. Here’s the bad news, there are some 20,000 cultivars, maybe even thousands more. A…

• Dandelions: Hear Them Roar  (3)
  Dandelion Wine and Coffee and SaladDandelions and I go back a long ways, more than half a century.When I was very young in Maine my mother…

• Dayflowers, Often One Petal Shy  (4)

  Commelina diffusa: What a day for a dayflower
  Common names can be a headache when one is trying to index a plant. The plant to the lower right is commonly…

• Daylily Dilemma  (3)

  Daylily: Just Cloning Around
  The daylily, a standard plant in foraging for a century or more, has become too much of a good thing and now presents a significan…

• Dead Man’s Fingers
  Decaisnea fargesii: True Ghoul Blue
  There are three Dead Man’s Fingers: A seaweed, a mushroom, and a shrub, all so-called because of the way they…

• Does Anyone Know What Time It Is?  (2)
  It is time for my semi-annual rant and wish that G.V. Hudson had a different hobby. Hudson, a New Zealander, collected insects and was a shift worker. In…

• Does The Nose Know?

  What Does a Word Smell Like?

  During nearly every class I have students smell three or four plants — depending upon the season — and I ask them what common…

• Dog and Cat  (1)
  Most Westerners would starve than eat their pet, and understandably so. There is a tacit agreement between pets and their owners. In exchange for putting…

• Doveweed

  Murdannia nudiflora: Tiny Dayflower Kin
  In India the Doveweed is a famine food. That should give you some idea of how it lines up in the culinary kingdom. The…

• Drymaria Cordata, Tropical Chickweed  (3)

  Drymaria cordata: Kissing cousin chickweed
  Drymaria cordata is one of those plants that confounds the mind. You know what it resembles: Chickweed. It has one…

• Duckweed

A Weed Most Fowl. Do ducks eat duckweed? Yes and no. Do humans eat duckweed? Yes and no. Domestic ducks tend to eat duckweed, wild ones don’t.…

• Dulse for Dinner

Foragers tend to ignore seaweed.

• Ear Tree, Sound Food

  Lend Me An Ear Tree

  Just about anyone who has spent anytime in a warm climate will some day find on a sidewalk a black seed pod that looks like a human…

• Earthworms  (7)

  Cooking with Earthworms
  The cartoon strip BC once had its peg-leg poet write: “The bravest man I ever saw was the first one to eat an oyster raw.”

• Eastern Gamma Grass:   Someone who supposedly knew their grasses wrote there are no toxic native North American grasses.

• Eastern Red Bud: Pea Pods Tree  (5)
  Cercis canadensis: In The Bud of TimeIt’s one of those trees that if you don’t see it at the right time you’re not looking for it the rest of the year.…

• Eating In Season  (1)
  There is little doubt that eating certain fiddlehead greens can significantly increase ones chances of cancer. In fact, science says they cause cancer. On…

• Edible Cultivated Flowers: All 20 articles in one article

• Edible Flowers: Part One  (1)Nasturtium, Calendula, Spanish Needles, Arugula, Squash, Cilanto, Bee Balm, Carnation, Dandelion, Lilac
  Which blossom will be your favorite edible…

• Edible Flowers: Part Two  (9)Tulips, Yucca, Begonias, Blue Porterweed, Queen Ann’s Lace, Dill, Gladiolas, Wapato, Impatiens, CitrusTulips are one of those wonderful flowers you…

• Edible Flowers: Part Three  (2)Mayflower, Chrysanthemum, Cornflower, Rose, Daylily, Elderberry, Chicory, Johnny-Jump-Ups, Linden, BananaA rite of spring in the frozen north, or at…

• Edible Flowers: Part Four

Spiderwort, Marigolds, Rosemary, Smartweed, Pineapple Weed, Chamomile, False Roselle, Lavender, Forsythia, Borage

• Edible Flowers: Part Five

Apple, Fuchsia, Sweet Goldenrod, Basil, Gorse, Bauhinia, Eastern Redbud, Angelica, Honeysuckle, Eastern Coral Bean
Apple Blossom
Every seed in every apple…

• Edible Flowers: Part Six  (1)Burnet, Magnolia, Fennel, Garden Sorrel, Tansy, Pink Wood Sorrel, Sunflower, Pineapple Guava, Prickly Pear, PansiesBurnet (Sanguisorba minor) is…

• Edible Flowers: Part Seven  (1)Scarlet Runner Bean, Peony, Hyacinth Bean, Clover, Jasmine, Chervil, Water Hyacinth, Plantain Lily, Meadowsweet, Perennial PhloxScarlet Runner Bean is…

• Edible Flowers: Part Eight

  Society Garlic, Anise Hyssop, Black Locust, Gardenia, Fragrant Water Lily, Strawberry, Marsh Mallow, Maypops, Milkweed, Hollyhocks

  It’s clearly not…

• Edible Flowers: Part Nine  (1)Mahoe, Moringa, Pineapple Sage, Plum, Hawthorn, Cattail, Papaya, Purslane, Tuberose, Wisteria
  Mahoe’s Blossoms Change Color
  One of the more fascinating…

• Edible Flowers: Part Ten

Alliums, Oregano, Pinks, Peas, Okra, Galium, Ginger, Scented Geraniums, Primrose, Mustard/RadishThe author of “Florida’s Incredible Wild Edibles” Dick…

• Edible Flowers: Part Eleven

Coral Vine, Citron Melon, Milkweed Vine, Dayflower, Evening Primrose, Kudzu, Stock, Dame’s Rocket, Freesia, Dendrobium phalaenopsisThe Coral Vine has…

• Edible Flowers: Part Twelve  (2)Forget-Me-Nots, Calamint, Mimosa Silk Tree, Clary Sage, Petunia x hybrid, Balloon Flower, Yarrow, Corn Poppy, Daisy, Sweet AlyssumThe story I heard…

• Edible Flowers: Part Thirteen  (1)Sesbania Grandifolia, Lemon Verbena, Szechaun Buttons, Horseradish, Tea Olive, Tiger Lily, Currants, Honewort, Thyme, Indian Paint BrushSesbania…

• Edible Flowers: Part Fourteen  (2)
  Manzanita, Rose of Sharon, Tea, Campanula, Artichoke, Saffron, Samphire, Sage, Parsley, Common MallowWestern states often seem to get short-changed in…

• Edible Flowers: Part Fifteen

Mango, Catnip, Pignut, Lovage, Salsify, Hairy Cowpea, Fritillary, Mint, Cow Slip, BirchDid you know mangoes and poison ivy are botanical kissing…

• Edible Flowers: Part Sixteen

Oregon Holly Grape, Snapdragon, Caesar’s Weed, Golden Alexanders, Loroco, Safflower, White Sagebrush, Puget Balsam Root, Yellow Commelina, Bitter Gourd

• Edible Flowers: Part Seventeen

Black Salsify, Coltsfoot, Yellow Pond Lily, Mexican Hyssop, Carambola, Baobob, Kapok, Durian, Italian Bugloss, BlueweedEdible plants collect a lot of…

• Edible Flowers: Part Eighteen  (7)

  Spring Beauty, Chickweed, Alpine Cress, High Bush Cranberry, Columbine, Hyssop, Musk Hyacinth, White Trout Lily, Yellow Adder’s Tongue, Aloe

  The Spring…

• Edible Flowers: Part Nineteen  (2)

  Tulip Tree, Eucalyptus, Melaleuca, King’s Spear, Gunnison Mariposa, Sego Lily, Star of Bethleham, Forest Lily, Guinea Arrowroot, Neem Tree

  The blossom…

• Edible Flowers: Part Twenty

Chinese Perfume Plant, Queensland Silver Wattle, Cloves, Chinese Lotus, Blue Lotus, Screwpine, Turpentine Tree, Sweet Autum Clematis, St. Anthony’s Turnip, Quince

• Edible Wild Flowers:

All 20 articles in one article

• Eels
  Eels: Lunch, Slip Sliding Away…
  I can remember the first time I caught an eel. It was in the Royal River in Pownal Maine, using an earthworm on the…

• Eggs

Eggs for Survival and Food
Eggs would seem like a simple foraging topic and it is, and it is not. My copy of the U.S Department of the Army…

• Elaeagnus Et Cetera

  Edible Elaeagnus
  First it was “poisonous.” Then it was “not edible.” Later it was edible but “not worth eating.” Actually, it’s not toxic but tasty, and easy…

• Elderberries: Red, White and Blue  (10)

  Sambuca’s Fine For Elderberry Wine
  Start your New Year off right with a glass of elderberry wine or elderberry blossom champagne. Don’t have any?…

• Epazote: Smelly Food of the Gods
  Mexican Tea, Dewormer: EpazoteHere is my dedication to being comprehensive: I am going to write about a plant I do not like.Why don’t I like…

• Eryngo, Tough Sweetie

  Eryngiums: Elizabethan Eryngo Candy

  While the edible versions are not widely distributed in North America, Eryngo (ERR-in-go) was too pretty a name to be…

• Evening Primrose  (5)

  Oenothera biennis: Foraging Standby

  The Common Evening Primrose has long been a foraging standby and for a century or so was a common vegetable found in…

• Experience and Judgment

  Sometimes a toxic plant can give even an experienced forager reason to pause.

  When I was making a video last week I saw a beautiful growth of watercress,…

• False Dandelions For Lunch  (2)

  Pyrrhopappus, Hypochoeris: Dandelion Impostors
  Most people don’t notice False Dandelions because they have the real thing. But here in the South where…

• False Hawksbeard

  Crepis Japonica: Seasonal Potherb
  If the Crepis fits….wear….ah…eat it

  Crepis japonica gets no respect. You won’t find it in field guides on edible…

• False Roselle  (1)I can’t do a stir-fry without visiting a tree. Actually, the False Roselle is a shrub not a tree but the point is made. Its leaves have just the…

• Fiddlehead Ferns, Signs of Spring

  Fiddlehead Fanatics
  If poke weed tests your foraging bravery, fiddleheads test your foraging philosophy.

  Pokeweed can kill you within hours if you make a…

• Fiddlewood  (1)

  Citharexylum fruticosum: Edible Guitar
  The Fiddlewood tree is not high on the list of edibles. As some authors state, only kids eat the fruit, lots of seed,…

• Field Testing Plants for Edibility  (7)

  I am dead set against it because it can kill you. I will make a large argument against it, and a small argument for it.

  “Field testing” is running through a…

• Figs, Strangler, Banyan and Strangler  (4)

  Wild Ficus: Who Gives An Edible Fig?
  It’s only 90 miles to the east, and 117 to the west, but the Strangler Fig and Banyan trees will grow farther south and…

• Finding Caloric Staples  (8)
  An Australian study tells us that modern day hunter gatherers get  two thirds of their food from animals, one third form plants.

• Firebush:
  The Firebush is probably one of the most commonly planted unknown edibles. They are usually arranged in the landscape…

• Fireweed Sale  (1)

  Erechtites hieraciifolia: Edible Pile Driver

  When I go to Greece I always stay a few days in Athens to get used to the time change and visit in-town…

• Fish Sauce and Rotten MeatFish Sauce, Rotten Meat, and Other Garbage
  There was a great scene from an episode of Barney Miller, a popular sitcom in the 70’s based in a…

• Fishtail Palms  (3)

  Caryota: Fishy Toxic Palms

  Often the botanical name of a species tells you nothing about the plant. Magnolia comes to mind. It’s a person’s name. However…

• Five Mile Walk

  Can you live off the land? Can anyone these days? I suppose the answer depends on what land, what you know, and whose else is also trying to live off it.

  Whe…

• Flamboyant FuchsiaMention “fuchsia” and most folks who recognize the word will think of a bright color. Personally I think of Fuchsia’s edible fruit and flowers.…

• Flowering Rush

  In one area of its native range — Israel — it’s endangered becauses of dwindling habitat. In another part of the world it is an invasive weed, and you can…

• Foraging After Dark

  I took a residential walk this evening to identify trees after dark. Yes, after dark. Now why do a silly thing like that?

  I know someone who has his foraging…

• Foraging Before There Was Botany

  Foraging before there was botany had to be a lot easier than after botany. Someone showed you what was edible and that was that. Of course somewhere back along…

• Foraging for Beginners

  I was asked to write a short piece for a survivalist blog on getting started in foraging:
  How are a Musician and a Botanist Alike?
  As a professional musician I…

• Foraging in Florida  (1)

  Of all the “survival” skills foraging is probably the most difficult to learn, or certainly the one that takes the most time and personal fortitude. It is one…

• Foraging Myth Busting  (3)

  As many of you already know I am highly critical of the Internet as a source of information on foraging. This is not to say there isn’t quality information…

• Forsythia Foraging For Forsythia
  If you study the eating habits of North American Indians you learn one thing quite quickly. They weren’t mono-green eaters.…

• Garlic Mustard: Gather Garlic Mustard now for pesto or it may disappear presto… well… maybe not immediately but if one university succeeds Garlic Mustard will become hard to find or extinct in North America.

• Galinsoga’s Gallant Soldiers
  Galinsoga ciliata: Quickweed is fast foodQuickweed does not look edible or gallant. In fact, it looks like a daisy that lost a fight. But it, and a…

• Gar: Treasured Trash Fish  (1)

  Eating Gar, a Taste of the Primitive
  There are two things you need to know about the Gar. The first is that it is very edible, really. The second is that…

• Geiger Tree, Scarlet Cordia
  Cordia sebestena: Foraging Geiger Counter
  Foragers eat the mild fruit of the Geiger Tree and care not about the particulars. Botanists care about particular…

• Getting To The Leaf Of The Problem

  Why sudy with someone? Because student foragers see what they want to see rather than what’s in front of them. Let me give you consistent example.

  There are…

• Giant Taro
  One can ignore large leaves for only so long, and the Alocasia macrorrhiza has big leaves, up to four feet long. As one might suspect, it also has a large…

• Ginkgo: Putrid Perfection

  Going Nuts Over Ginkgo Biloba Nuts

  Though the Army sent me to Japan I didn’t see my first Ginkgo biloba (GINK-go bye-LOW-buh) tree until I attended the…

• Glasswort Galore  (3)

  Salicornia bigelovii, Brackish Nibble
  Glasswort does not sound like breaking glass at all, though it does crunch a bit.

  Salicornia bigelovii (sa-li-KOR-nee-a…

• Golden Dead Nettle  (1)
  Lamiastrum is in the eye of the beholder.If you want a ground cover that will grow in dry, shady places, Lamiastrum is exactly what you’re looking for.…

• Golden Rain Tree

  Showers of Golden Rain Tree

  The scallions didn’t have a chance.

  My Taiwanese friend liked to grow scallions in a postage stamp garden in her back…

• Goldenrod Glorified  (1)

  Solidago Odora: Liberty Tea

  After the Boston Tea Party of 1773 the colonists had only one good alternative: Goldenrod tea, and not just any Goldenrod,…

• Gooseberries

A century can make a lot of difference.

•       Goosegrass, Cleavers, Bedstraw  (1)

Galium aparine: Goosegrass on the Loose

You don’t find Goosegrass. It finds you.

Covered with a multitude of small hooks, Goosegrass, Galium…

• Gopher Apples: Not Just For Tortoises Anymore
  If you like the taste of pink bubble gum, you’ll like gopher apples, if you can find themWhy can’t you find them? Because nearly every woodland…

• Gorse, of Course

  Ulex europaeus: Edible Gorse or Furze Pas
  Gorse has edible flowers. It also has thorns… Really bad thorns.

  In August 2005 an Englishman, Dean Bowen,…

• Gout Weed  (6)
  Gout Weed does not sound too appetizing. Nor do some of its other names: Ground Ash, Ashweed, Pot Ash, White Ash, Ground Elder, Dog Elder, Dwarf Elder,…

• Gracilaria, Graceful Redweed

  Gracilaria: The pot thickens
  People eat a lot of seaweed. They just don’t know it. In the industry it is called covert consumption vs overt consumption. What…

• Grapes of Path  (3)

  Vitis: Wild Grapes
  Who ever first wrote the phrase “grapes of wrath” certainly must have been trying to identify a particular grape vine.

  Grapes are at the…

• Grass and Tree War  (1)
  Point of view, thinking differently… Consider:What if plants are more goal-orientated than we think them to be? After all, we put ourselves on the…

• Great Grandmother Cat  (1)

  One of the reasons why Eat The Weeds exists is to advocate eating the wild foods around you but also to be another voice in the growing chorus that is…

• Green Deane’s Bio, and Oliver, Too  (1)

  If you have any comments or suggestions please send them to GreenDeane@gmail.com. The B&W picture is from a Christmas long ago. That’s Tinkerbell on my…

• Green Deane’s Videos On You Tube
  While these videos are still on You Tube and will soon be on DVDs, these links below do not work. In creating the page one character was dropped from every…

• Ground Cherry, Wild Husk Tomatoes, Almost  (2)

  Physalis: Tomato’s Wild Cousin
  I discovered ground cherries quite by accident.

  It was back in the last century. I raided a particular field…

• Ground Ivy  (2)
  Most of the time when someone mentions Ground Ivy the comment usually is something like “How do I get rid of the damned stuff?” Here at ETW we have have…

• Groundnuts and Bridge Diving

  For the second time recently I was reminded of development. My favorite field of lamb’s quarters is now an upscale gated community. And where I used to forage…

• Groundnuts: Anti-Cancer Treat  (3)

  Groundnuts: Dig ’em
  I will never forget the first time I dug up Apios americana, groundnuts. I got poison ivy. Oddly it showed up in the crook of one elbow,…

• Grub-A-Dub-Dub
  It had to happen. If you forage for wild foods at some point you run in to grubs and related insects and you wonder… edible? And once you’re past…

• Guinea Grass Panic Attack

  Panicum maximum and then some
  I eat grass. Actually we all do — rice, wheat — but my local trail nibble is Guinea grass, a relative to millet. I’d like to…

• Guinea Pigs, Cavy, Cuy
  Peruvians eat more than 65 million guinea pigs every year. That should answer any question about edibility.Sixty-five million guinea pigs (a 2005…

• Hairy Cowpea  (4)
  It’s called a Cowpea but it’s not THAT cowpea, and it has a famous relative that no one calls by its botanical name.So which Cowpea is it? Vigna…

• Halloween Editorial  (2)

  Halloween today is the most debatable of non-holiday holidays. With a past that perhaps goes back to Roman times it became in the Christian era All Hallows…

• Hardy Orange: Is the Hardy Orange edible? That depends on how hungry you are, or which century you live in.

• Have Dewberry, Will Travel

  Dewberries: Rubus Trivialis

  Dewberries go far in the world, for a lowly vine. They can reach up to 15 feet long, one node root at a time.

  Essentially a…

• Hawthorne Harvest

  The Crataegus Clan: Food & Poison
  The very first Hawthorn I ever saw — and the only one I knew for quite a while — grew on the other side of the dirt…

• Henbit: Top of the pecking order  (2)

  Henbit: Springtime Salad Green and More

  It was a zig and a zag for me. I heard the name as an edible for many years and saw the plant often but never…

• Hercules’ Club: Speak Softly But…

  Hercules’ Club: Zanthoxylum Clava-Herculis

  I sometimes feel sorry for my neighbors, who have lawns of decapitated grass. I’m sure my wild-looking…

• Hickory Harvest  (2)

  Cayra coffee, or Hickory Java
  Hickories are not a migraine, but when you’re learning trees hickories can be a headache.

  Just as plums and cherries are bothin…

• High Bush Cranberry  (1)
  I miss High Bush Cranberries. They don’t grow within a thousand miles of here, and they aren’t really cranberries. But they are hearty and familiar fare in…

• Hit With A Plank  (1)

  There’s an old joke. A man had a mule sit down under a load. Mules can be very stubborn. And despite all his efforts the man couldn’t get the mule to get up. I…

• Hollies: Caffein & Antioxidants  (4)

  Holly Tea With Vitamins A & C

  This time of year in the South — late fall, early winter —some of the hollies are so scarlet with berries that even…

• Honeysuckle Heaven

  Lonicera japonica: Sweet Treat
  The honeysuckle family is iffy for foragers. It has edible members and toxic members, edible parts, toxic parts, and they mix…

• Hornbeam, Ironwood, Blue Beech

  Carpinus caroliniana: Musclewood
  British author Ray Mears must have been thinking of the Hornbeam when he said a forager mustn’t pass up food no matter how…

• Horse Meat
  “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”We’ve all heard the phrase, and it comes from when horse was on the menu. It was rather significant phrase to me as…

• Horsemint, Spotted Beebalm

  Monarda Punctata: Bergamot’s Bud
  First the good news: Horsemint makes a nice, intentionally weak tea. Stronger brews are used in herbal medicine. The…

• Horseweed, Mare’s Tail  (1)

  Conyza canadensis: Herb, Fire, Food
  Conyza will light your fire!

  If you’ve ever made fire with a bow and drill — you know, the Boy Scout way — you also know…

• How Do Things Pan Out?
  When Europeans began to migrate into tracts of North America what was the one thing they had the native Americans wanted more than anything else? Rifles?…

• How Ungreen Of Us  (29)
  I’m reaching retirement age. I’m also reaching the point of being tired of being told how green we are today and how ungreen we were in the past. Oh? When…

• Huckleberry, Blueberries Kissing Cousin
  Gaylussacia: Huckleberry History
  What’s the difference between a blueberry and a huckleberry?There’s almost an easy answer. The huckleberry…

• Hyacinth Bean

  Hyacinth Bean: Purple Protein, and More
  I’ve never understood the brouhaha over the Hyacinth Bean. Is it edible or is it not?

• Hydrilla:     There is only one species of Hydrilla, verticillata.

• Ignite of the Iguana  (6)

  The cookbook’s title says it all. South Florida, parts of Texas and Hawaii have iguana issues. While teaching a class in West Palm Beach last fall I could not…

• Indian Pipes, Gold, and Emily Dickinson  (8)
  Monotropa is almost a monotypic genus. Instead of having one species in the genus there are two: Monotropa uniflora and Monotropa hypopithys.Most…

• Indian Strawberry  (5)

  Potentilla indica: Mistaken Identity
  One of the first things my uncle’s second wife said to me when I moved from Maine to Florida was “they have strawberri…

• Ipomoea: Water, Land & See in Gardens

  Glorifying Morning Glories
  Three of the pictures below are are not of the same Ipomoea. It’s three different species, but that should tell you something.…

• Is This Plant Edible?
  For a surprisingly simple question there is often a complicated answer. If it’s sea kale, then the answer is yes, top to bottom. It is edible. It is…

• Is wild taro in Florida edible?  (10)

  IS WILD TARO IN FLORIDA EDIBLE?
  “Wild Taro.” My research to date (fall, 2011)

  Is the wild taro in Florida edible? In one word, no. In two… may……

• It’s About Time  (1)

  I spend a lot of times in the woods, and also afloat. Three things you should always know in such environments are the cardinal directions, time of day, and…

• Ivy Gourd, Scarlet Gourd, Tindora  (2)

  Coccinia grandis: Cucumber’s Versatile Kin
  I was riding my motorcycle one day when I rumbled over a raised railroad track in an industrial area and to my…

• Jabuticaba: In it’s native Brazil the Jabuticaba is by far the most popular fruit.
• Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and Jill

  Arisaema triphyllum: Jack and Jill and No Hill
  For a little plant there’s a lot to write about with the Jack-In-The-Pulpit. Where does one start? What does…

• Jambul  (1)Syzygium: A Jumble of Jambul
  The Jambul tree makes you wonder what people were thinking.For a half a century or so the United States Department of…

• Japanese Knotweed: Dreadable Edible  (9)Japanese Knotweed gets no respect. Nearly everywhere it grows it’s listed as a prolific, noxious, invasive, dangerous bad-for-the-world,…

• Jelly Palm, Pindo’s Alter Ego  (4)

  Pindo Palm: Jelly, Wine and Good Eats

  Soon it will be time to go to the cemeteries. My visits are not memorial but rather culinary: I’ve got…

• Jellyfish

Stomolophus meleagris: Edible Jellyfish
“Music to the teeth” is what the Malaysians call them.Americans may not eat jellyfish, but the…

• Jerusalem Artichoke: Root Them Out  (5)
  There used to be a huge patch of Jerusalem Artichokes here in Central Florida beside the Interstate. Now they’re under a new exit ramp, and that was the…

• Jerusalem Thorn, Paloverde

  Parkensonia aculeata’s Thorny Past
  As foragers we are indebted to past writers and at the same time constrained by them.

  People who chronicled how Native…

• Jujube TreeZiziphus zizyphys: The Misspelled Jujube
  If you don’t find the Jujube tree, it will find you. The Jujube is covered with long, sharp thorns. They…

• Jumbie Bean, White Lead Tree  (2)

  Leucaena leucocephala: Food and Fodder
  Professor Julia Morton, the grand dame of toxic and edible plants in Florida, had this to say about the Jumbie…

• Juneberry

  Amelanchier arborea: Busting Out All Over
  Juneberries are as American as apple pie. In fact, they are more American than apples.

• Junipers:  In the cobweb recesses of my mind I have two memories of junipers

• Katuk Kontroversy  (2)

  Edible Katuk: Sauropus androgynus

  Katuk grows reluctantly in my yard. It likes truly tropical climes and I am on the subtropical/temperate line. But it’s…

• Kochia
  Immigration brought weeds from around the old world to the new world. Quite a few of them came from southern Russia — the grassy steppes — to the…

• Kousa Dogwood  (2)
  Cornus kousa: A Dog-gone-good Dogwood

The Kousa Dogwood is one of those plants that makes you ask: What is it?Its large, bumpy, red fruit looks like a…

• Kudzu Quickie  (4)Kudzu: Pueraria montana var. lobataThe government tells me that what grows up the street isn’t there.It’s kudzu, you know, the plant that…

• Landmarks

  Landmarks — accomplishments — are like a melody. Regardless of your taste in music, music is more than organized sound. Music firmly places you in time. When…

• Language of Flowers: A flower is a flower is a flower. But in Victorian England, one of the most self-repressed societies in modern times, the practice of using flowers to communicate was developed.

• Lantana  (3)

  Lantana camara: Much Maligned Nibble

  Ask anyone who has heard of the Lantana camara and they will tell you it is poisonous. And they are right. Unripe…

• Lawn Garden

  Can you have a “garden” that you ignore?

  I don’t see why not.
  Is That A Garden?
  Indeed, some might argue that is what my front lawn currently is. I really…

• Lemon Bacopa: Let’s Call It Lime Instead
  Lemon Bacopa, a misnamed edible nativeCall me cranky, but I think Lemon Bacopa has the wrong name.And, since it is wrongly named and no one comments on…

• Lemon Grass

  Cymbopogon citratus: A Real Lemon
  Technically Lemon Grass is naturalized in only one county in Florida, but you can find it in many yards and landscaping, and…

• Less Was Far More  (4)
  West of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, I stopped today and collected some thistle and took a few pictures. More than 50 years ago I marveled at the same plant…
• Lettuce Labyrinth  (9)

  Sorting Out Species
  Sorting out wild lettuce is one of the more difficult foraging tasks and may require you to watch a plant all season.

• Lion’s Mane

          I see Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus) on the same oak log every fall at the same time to the day.

• Litchi Tomato

Foraging is a treasure hunt because with perhaps 6,000 edible species in North America there is always a surprise now and then such as the Litchi Tomato.

• Living off the Foraged Land

  I am not a survivalist per se, though every day I do break my personal best record of consecutive days alive.

  That said, I know many survivalists. They tend…

• Locusberry

  Byrsonima lucida: Food and Medicine

  The Locusberry rises to the occasion. When the soil is poor it is a foot-high tree. When the soil is good, it can be…

• Looking for Lettuce
  I like my 14,000 subscribers, and the email I get. Many of the questions I can answer or I can refer the writer to where the answer can be found. But….…

• Loquat: Getting A Grip on Grappa  (2)
  Lovin’ Loquats: Eriobotryae Japonicae
  Long before there were couch potatoes there were couch Loquats.Loquats are homebodies. Most people who live beyond…

• Madeira Vine, Lamb’s Tail, Mignonette Vine  (1)

  Anredera cordifolia: Pest or Food Crop?
  The Madeira Vine is a love/hate relationship. You will either hate it — as many land owners and governments do — or…

• Mahoe, Sea Hibiscus

  Hibiscus tiliaceus: Edible Chameleon
  It’s difficult to find a hibiscus you don’t like, including the Mahoe.

  In fact, to this writer’s knowledge all…

• Mahonia Malange: When I first heard of the Mahonias it was a bit irritating. They’re widespread shrubs in the western United States and here I was in Florida. But as time revealed, we have a Mahonia here, just not a native.

• Make My Day
  It was one of those moments. I was biking along a rails to trails, stopping and taking pictures of this and that plant for past and future blogs. Better…
• Mallow Madness  (2)
  Lunch Landscaping: HibiscusMy mother’s favorite flower is the Rose of Sharon, which of course didn’t even go in one of my ears and out the…
• Mangrove Mystery  (1)

  Mangroves: Marvelous Muck Masters

  I did an unknown favor years ago that may stump some stuffy botanist in the near or distant future, and a mangrove…

• Maple Manna  (1)

  Maples: How Sweet It Is
  Maple Walnut Ice Cream. It’s amazing what you can do with two trees and a cow. It was the prime ice cream of choice when I was young.…

• Marijuana Machinations: You can’t rummage around the woods as a forager without running into someone’s marijuana patch.
• Marlberries and Ardisias kin

  Ardisias: Berries on the cusp of edible
  The Ardisias are a confusing family in Florida.

  There is the native Marlberry (Ardisia escallonioides) that has…

• Mayapple, Mandrake  (2)

  Podophyllum peltatum: Forgotten Fruit
  The first time I saw a mayapple I was certain something that strange had to be toxic, and it is, unless totally…

• Mayflowers, Trailing Arbutus

  Epigaea repens: Spring Sentinel and Nibble
  It was an annual family ritual. Every spring when the snow had finally melted we’d go through the low Maine…

• Maypops Mania  (6)

  Maypops: Food, Fun, Medicine
  As popular as they are, Maypops get stepped on a lot, but that doesn’t keep them down.

  They are one of five hundred kin in…

• Media Interviews With Green Deane

  This is Green Deane being interview for the local PBS station for Thanksgiving, 2009. This show was voted their best episode of the year. http://www.wmfe.org/au…

• Melaleuca, Tea Tree, Sweetener, Pharmacy
  The Melaleuca tree is the most invasive “weed” in the state of Florida, quite a feat when you consider there are…

• Mesquite  (1)

  Mesquite’s More Than Flavoring: It’s Food
  If Euell Gibbons was still around he might ask, “have you ever eaten a Mesquite tree?” rather than his famous…

• Milkweed Vine, Latexplant, Strangler Vine  (13)

  Morrenia odorata: Menace or Manna?
  One spring I was looking for poke weed when I spied a liana I had not seen before. It had a large fruit that looked…

• Milkweed, Common  (3)

  Asclepias: Some like it hot, some like it cold
  The question is to boil or not to boil.

  Actually that’s not quite accurate. There is general agreement…

• Milo, Portia Tree, Seaside Mahoe  (2)

  Thespesia populnea: Coastal Cuisine
  One of my uncles had the type of personality that where ever he hung his hat, that was home. The Milo is much the same…

• Mimosa Silk Tree  (7)

  Albizia julibrissin: Tripinnated Lunch
  I was drinking “Mimosas” — orange juice and champagne — about 20 years before I discovered the Mimosa tree was…

• Mole Crabs  (8)

  Emerita: Mole Crab Munchy Crunchies
  Mole crabs are probably the most common ugly food there is, though most people don’t know they’re edible.

  Fishermen…

• Mole Crickets and Lawns

  The name of my website is “Eat The Weeds (and other things too.)” If you wander around the long index — or click on the category “critter cuisine” — you…

• Mole Crickets, Kamaro  (1)

  Mole Crickets: Digging Your Lunch
  Nearly everyone knows crickets are edible — cooked — but few ever mention the ugliest of them all, the mole cricket.

• Monkey’s Apple: Monkey’s Apple is proof kids will eat anything.
• Monkey Puzzle Tree

  Lunch Drops In

  My good friend Saul is a luthier. He repairs premium wooden instruments. It is not unusual for him to be working on a Stradivarius or a…

• Monkeys and Weeds
  Put five monkeys in a large cage. Then put a step ladder in the cage with a banana on top. Soon the monkeys learn to go up the step ladder and get the…
• Moringa, More Than You Can Handle  (6)

  Moringa oleifera ….Monster…. Almost
  If you have a warm back yard, think twice before you plant a Moringa tree.

• Morels are perhaps the most foraged and prized fungi in North America.
• Motorcyclists and Mushroomists. I used to have a friend named Randy Armentrout. He died about 20 years ago of a brain tumor. We knew each other well and attended many a social function…
• Mountain Ash, Rowan: Long before Henry Potter Rowanwood wands were popular  ancients carried talismans of the tree to ward off evil and ate the fruit.
• Mugwort  (3)
  Like some other plants with famous relatives Mugwort gets lost in the negative publicity.Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, is completely over shadowed…
• Mulberry Express

  Mulberries: Glucose-controlling hallucinogen

  I used to get a lot of dates using mulberries.

  Not to sound sexist, but women like sweet food. And when…

• Musseling In:  His name was Hap Davis, gardener, woodsman, hunter, fisherman, teller of tall tales.
• Mustard, Wild, Tender And Tough  (2)

  Cutting the Wild Mustard: Brassica & Sinapis
  Lorenzo’s Oil and Canola, Too
  If you can’t find a wild mustard growing near you, you must be living in…

• Mustards, The Little
  Coronopus, Descurainia, Cardamine, Erucastrum & Sibara
  There are numerous “little mustards” that show up seasonally, to populate lawns and local…
• Nagi Tree, Japan’s Calm Tree

  Nageia nagi: Forgotten Landscape Edible

  I discovered the Nagi tree quite by accident, and added another edible to the list. I was in Mead Gardens in Winter…

• Nandina Not Bamboo

  Not So Heavenly Bamboo: Nandina
  It’s not heavenly nor is it a bamboo, but Heavenly Bamboo is an edible, barely.

  Naturalized in many part of the world…

• Nasturtiums: Nature’s Nose Nabber
  Peppery Nasturtiums Natives of Peru. Do the peppery nasturtiums make your nose twitch? Then you know how they got their common name. “Nasturtium” means…
• Natal Plums Num Num  (4)

  Natal Plum: Incredible Edible Landscaping

  A good reputation is hard to maintain when your closest relative has a reputation for killing people. That’s…

• New Jersey Tea

  Ceanothus americanus: Revolutionary Tea
  New Jersey Tea wasn’t always called that. It was Red Root Tea until the Boston Tea Party. With no tea from China…

• Non-Green Environmentalism  (1)
  Early on I developed two interests. One was foraging for wild plants. It assured me food where ever I went. The other was watching clouds, one of the few…

• Nostoc Num Nums

  Nostoc: Nasal Nostalgia and Edible, Too
  My website is “Eat The Weeds and other things, too.” Well this one of those other things. While I have put seaweed…

• Nutria, Coypu  (1)
• I have a close friend who’s Cajun. He said his family was so poor growing up in the bayou that if it moved they cooked it and threw it on rice. That…

• Nutrition or Food?

  The 20th century was a hundred years of significant changes in what we eat. In 1900 food was … well… food, and real. No food pretended to be something it…

• Oaxaca lemon verbena

  Lippia alba: Oaxaca lemon verbena
  It all started with a little tour of his back yard.

  He’s an aging Greek professor and doesn’t like lawn, so his back yard…

• Only Plant In Its Genus  (16)
  Call it an occupational hazard but I began to wonder one day how many genera were unique, that is, they had just one edible species in them, the so called…

• Osage Orange  (13)

  Maclura pomifera: The Edible Inedible
  Sometimes everybody is almost wrong.

  If you google “Osage Orange” or “Maclura pomifera” (mak-LOOR-uh pom-EE-fer-uh…

• Oxalis: How To Drown Your Sorrels  (2)
  Sorrels are like McDonald’s restaurants: No matter where you are on earth there’s one nearby.That’s because the sorrels, properly…

• Palmer Amaranth  (1)
  A farmer’s headache is not necessarily a forager’s delight.Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus Palmeri) has been a foraged food for a long time. It was used…

• Palmetto Weevil Grub: Grugru

  Rhynchophorus cruentatus: Raw or Fried?
  Here’s what you’re looking for: A palm or plametto that is dying. The growing tip is dead, bent or otherwise…

• Pandanus: During several visits over the course of a year it looked like a large berm of tall grass, about the size and height of a one-story house.

• Papaya Proliferation

  Carica papaya: Survivalist plant

  Papaya comes from the grocery store, unless you live where it seldom freezes. Then it is another wild edible, naturalized in…

• Paper Mulberry  (2)

  Broussonetia papyrifera: Paper Chase
  If you are a forager, you will be told two things constantly: One is that the plant of your admiration is “poisonous.”…

• Partridgeberry: Split personality  (1)
  Mitchella repens: Madder BerryThe Partridgeberry will not save you from starving but it can make your salad prettier and might keep you alive or ease…

• Pawpaw picking up is rare  (8)

  Pawpaw Panache

  Finding your first pawpaw is a thrilling moment.

  I can remember exactly where it happened and when. It was the summer of 1987 in…

• Pellitory, Up Against The Wall Weed

  Pellitory: Parietaria is a Whiz
  Finding greens locally in the cooler months isn’t much of a challenge unless you’re looking for Pellitory . It likes to hid…

• Pennyroyal Florida Style  (2)

  Florida Pennyroyal: Piloblephis Rigida
  You will thoroughly enjoy tea made by Florida’s native pennyroyal, or maybe even a Mint Julep Floridana.

  An…

• Pennyworts Making Sense  (12)

  A Pennywort For Your Thoughts
  It’s one of those practices of civilization that plants with little flavor or calories — lettuce for example — are…

• Peperomia:  I went to college in Maine where winter lasts from about November 1st to October 31st.

• Peppergrass: Potent Pipsqueak  (3)

  Lepidium Virginicum: Bottlebrush Peppergrass

  There are two ways of thinking about peppergrass, either as a real neat wild treat, or an obnoxious, noxious…

• Perilla, Shiso   (2)
  The first Perilla I ever had came from a can, just like the kind sardines snuggle in. The leaves were very spicy and were used that way, as a spice. Later…

• Persimmon Provisions  (3)

  Persimmons: Pure Pucker Power
  About the only bad thing you can say about a persimmon tree is that it has pucker power, if you pick it at the wrong time.

• Pick Of The Littering

  If flowers could think they would view man as an errand boy. That floral perspective would also explain one of man’s more annoying habits.

  Scientist who…

• Pickerel Weed

  Pontederia cordata: In a PR Pickerel
  Pickerel Weed Primer
  If the Pickerelweed could commiserate, it would find a friend with the Natal Plum. The Natal…

• Pigeon Plums, Dove Plums, Pigeon Seagrape, Tie-TongueCoccoloba diversifolia: Seagrape Sibling
  The first time you see a Pigeon Plum it will look familiar. In the same genus as the Seagrape it shares a…

• Pigweed Potpourri  (7)

  Chenopodium album: Getting Goosed!
  My first recollection of Chenopodium album, pigweed, came around 1960 via a neighbor named Bill Gowan.

  Mr. Gowan was…

• Pillbugs, Woodlice, Roly Pollies  (4)
  Armadillidium vulgare: Land Shrimp
  What shall we call them? Roly Pollies? Pill Bugs? Woodlice? Sowbugs, or a half a dozen other names?They are…

• Pineapple Weed

  Matricaria matricarioides for Your Tea & Salad
  A hard-packed gravel driveway is the last place you would expect to find a delicate plant that makes an…

• Pining for You  (5)

  Pines: Not just for breakfast anymore
  Euell Gibbons became famous for asking, “have you ever eaten a pine tree?”

  A lot of folks had a laugh over…

• Plant An Alarm Clock

  I don’t need an alarm clock. I have a cardinal.

  I don’t know exactly which cardinal it is, and if I did I might be tempted to shoot him. Cardinals are early…

• Plants Can’t Run  (1)

  Plants can’t run. That’s why the vast majority of them are unpalatable or lethal. Guesstimates range from 5 to 10 percent of plants are edible. Let’s split the…

• Podocarpus macrophyllus  (4)Podocarpus: Your Own Hedge Fund
  One can’t learn everything at once, and so I came to know the Podocarpus macrophyllus late in my foraging…

• Poison Ivy Ponderings  (28)
  I did something this past week I have not done in some twenty years. I got poison ivy.Given what I do for a living, running around the wild all the…

• Poisonous and Irritating Plants of Florida  (4)

  Below is a circular published by the state of Florida in 1978. I think it is no longer in print though I have a hard copy. It is reproduced below. Visual…

• Pokeweed: Prime Potherb  (11)

  Can Be Deadly But Oh So Delicious: Pokeweed
  Poke weed will challenge your commitment to foraging.

  It is not the most commonly eaten food from a poisonous…

• Pony Foot: Are they edible? That is often asked about a little lawn plant called Pony Foot, or Dichondra carolinensis.
• Poplars and Aspens

  Populus deltoides: Popular Poplars and Aspens

  I know where there is one (1) Eastern Conttonwood. For a popular Poplar it is not common locally. Fortunately…

• Practicing Homelessness

  There are less Christmas parties this year than in the past, with economic conditions reducing the usual yuletide cheer. Still, there are some traditions.…

• Prepared for Life  (2)

  We met by accident in the woods. I had hiked for a few miles already and he had just entered the trail.

  When ever I go into the woods, or on water, I am…

• Prickly Apple, Apple Cactus, Fragrant Apple Cactus

  Harrisia Trio: Endangered Edibles All

  Just as it is important to know what to eat, it’s as important to know what not to eat, or if you do, how to do it…

• Puffballs, Small and Gigantic  (2)

  Lycoperdon perlatum: Edible Puffballs
  I avoided mushrooms for a long time, and with good reasons. Some of them are on par with cyanide and arsenic and…

• Purslane: Omega 3 Fatty Weed  (8)

  Purslane: Any Portulaca In A Storm

  Her name was Zona. She was a grand friend-in-law

  She had been a friend of the family for about a century. To be…

• Pyracantha Jelly and Santa’s Belly

  Firethorn: Pyracantha Coccinea
  I don’t think it is a coincidence that “ho ho ho bellies and Pyracantha jelly jiggle into the season just before…

• Pyrrolizidine on my Mind  (4)
  How much pyrrolizidine is too much? Or perhaps the better question is how little is too much?First, what is pyrrolizindine? Pyrrolizidine (pie-row-L…

• Quack Grass  (4)
  Plants of little use often have only one common name, or not even that. Plants that are valued or are a pest usually have too many names such Quack…

• QueenPalm: The Queen Palm and I got off on the wrong frond. Before I met one I had read it was toxic. There are a few toxic palms but the Queen Palm is not one of them.

• Radish, Mustard’s Wild Rough Cousin  (7)   Raphanus Raphanistrum: Radical Radis. The Wild Radish has an identity problem. It looks similar to it’s equally peppery cousin, the wild mustard. In…

• Ragweed: Some 18 generations ago — 600 years ago give or take a few centuries — some Natives Americans stopped cultivating a particular crop and may have moved on to maize. About 150 years ago — five generations — American farmers were raising crabgrass for grain when they, too, moved on to corn, the descendant of maize. So what crop did the Indians stop growing? Ragweed, the most hay-fever causing plant in the world.
• Raspberry Razz  (3)

  Rubus ideaus: Delicate Raspberry. Raspberries were the first wild fruit I noticed on my own and ate as a kid.

• Ravishing Radish Greens  (2)

  I didn’t cut the mustard this morning. I cut the radish… radish greens to be specific, Raphanus raphanistrum, said RA-fa-nus raf-an-ISS-trum.

  The only bad…

• Real Food Rules!  (3)

  This blog all started with hot dog relish.

  I happen to like sardines on whole wheat toast with onions and mustard. (Regardless of what you think of…

• Red Bay for all seasonings
  Persea borbonia, palustris, humilis, and americana, too

  Having a famous relative can make one grow in the shadows, as three Perseas know too well.There…

• Redflower Ragweed: The first time I saw Redflower Ragweed I thought I was seeing two species at once some weird combination of Tassel Flower and Fireweed. It’s way too big and has the wrong leaves to be a Tassel Flower but the blossoms remind one of a Tassel Flower but the rests of the plant looks life Fireweed/Burnweed.
• Reindeer Moss  (1)

  Edible Cladonia: What’s not to Lichen?
  Lichen can be harder to tell apart than twins in the dark. My guess my picture above is of Cladonia Evanii…

• Resources
  The quickest and safest way to learn foraging is with a local expert. You not only learn what there is to know but do not spend time learning things you…
• Ringless Honey Mushrooms: The first time I thought I saw the Ringless Honey Mushroom was on my neighbor’s lawn.
• Root Beer Rat Killer  (1)

  It’s not smart or nice to lie about plants. It can get someone hurt. But the truth can sometimes be elusive, even with plants.

• Rose Apple: The apple is in the Rose family but the Rose Apple is not though it can sometime taste like rose water… and watermelon… but not apples.
• Roses
  I’m not sure I found wild roses or they found me.I grew up in Maine. The local soil was usually either ground-up glacial sand, clay, which is decomposed…
• Rumex Ruminations  (1)
  Mainer Merritt Fernald, who was the Harvard wunderkind of botany from around 1900 to 1950, said all of the 17 native Rumex species in North America…
• Russian Thistle, Tumbleweed

  Salsola kali: Noxious Weed, Nibble & Green
  When you first encounter a Russian Thistle it is the very last plant you would consider edible. Wiry, tough,…

• Saffron Plum

  Sideroxylon: Chewy Ironwood
  The Saffron Plum is not yellow or a plum, that is, it is not a Prunus. And it is called a Buckthorn but it isn’t one of those…

• Saltwort, Turtle Weed and Reef Banana

  Batis Maritima: Salt of the Earth
  It has a dozen or more names, but no one is quite sure about its scientific name, Batis maritima, (BAT-is mar-IT-i-ma.)

  Fora…

• Sandspurs: Sandlot Sadists  (2)

  Sandspurs: Cenchrus’ Secret

  If I were ever to invent a torture it would be dragging someone naked through a field of sandspurs.

•  Sargassum Sea Vegetable  (1)

Sargassum: Not Just for Breakfast Any More
Sargassum — Gulf weed — comprises a huge number of seaweeds in all oceans, both bottom dwelling and free…

• Sassafras: Root Beer Rat Killer  (7)

  Sassafras Albidum: Beaux Gumbo

  Bet your sweet sassafras: If you’re on the young side ask anyone not on the young side: Root beer used to taste a lot…

• Satinleaf, Olive Plum

  Chrysophyllum oliviforme: “Chewy Olives”

  “Turn left at the Satinleaf.”

  That’s not an unusual direction in an area where Satinleafs grow, they are that…

• Saw Palmetto Saga  (4)

  Serenoa Repens: Weed to Wonder Drug
  Rotten cheese steeped in tobacco juice
  That’s how starving shipwrecked Quakers described the flavor of the saw palmetto…

• Sawgrass, A Cut Below The Rest  (1)

  Cladium jamaicense: Water finder

  In Wekiva Springs state park in Florida there is a high and dry stretch of scrub pine and palmetto bushes, and oddly,…

• Scarlet Runner Bean

  Two beans are grown for beauty, the Hyacinth Bean, edible with precautions, and the Scarlet Runner Bean, also edible.
  Humming Bird at “Emperor” Blossom
  It’s…

• Scorpions  (1)

  Southern Fried Scorpions
  If I were going to rely on scorpions in Florida for sustenance, I would starve to death.

  In over 30 years of rummaging…

• Sea Blite, Seepweed

  Suaeda linearis, maritima: Edible Blite

  While most people find Sea Blite next to the sea, I find Sea Blite on the other side of the barrier…

• Sea Buckthorn, SallowberrySea Buckthorn: Sour Source of Vitamin C
  If you are collecting Sea Buckthorn you’re probably cold.Just as some edibles are found only in tropical…

• Sea Club Rush  (2)

  Scirpus maritimus: a Tough Root to Crack
  If you mention Sea Club Rush among foragers they give you a very blank stare. Understandably so. It was a fall-back…

• Sea Kale
  Sea kale is nearly the perfect primitive food. It’s difficult to imagine it not being on primitive man’s menu.We know from middens that seafood was…

• Sea Lettuce, UlvaUlva: Sea Soup & Salad
  Ulva is the greenest seaweed you will ever see from shore, or in the sea for that matter.Ten species, all edible, are…

• Sea Oats

  Uniola paniculata: Feeling your sea oats
  Opinions vary on Sea Oats. Not on flavor. They taste good. The questions are, are they endangered or not, and which…

• Sea Oxeye: There are edible plants, and there are inedible plants. Then there are those that sit on the cusp of edibility: Edible but not tasty, edible in small quantities, edible but with a horrible texture, edible but strong-flavored.
• Sea Purslane, Salty Nibble, Potherb

  Sesuvium portulacastrum: Maritime Munch

  It looks like garden purslane on steriods growing in sand. And it grows all over the local beach, and other beaches…

• Sea Rocket Siblings

  The Cakile Clan: Seaside Edibles

  Food is where the water is, be it fresh or salt, and one of the waterway foods of North America is Sea Rocket. There are at…

• Sea-Grapes: Maritime Marvels  (4)

  Sea-Grapes: Costal Caterer

  A lifetime ago I spent many a night on a dark Florida beach near the Space Center sleeping out under Sea-Grapes.…

• Seminole Pumpkin

Cucurbita muschata: Seminole Edible
Unlike watermelons which are from Africa, pumpkins and their kin are North American. When Panfilo de Narvaez was…

• Seminole Wekiva Trail

  Seven-Mile Appetizer
  The squirrels are in hog heaven, if you’ll pardon the menagerie metaphor.

  It’s Thanksgiving, 2007, in central Florida and I…

• Sesbania Grandiflora  (1)
  Any plant called the Vegetable Hummingbird has to be written about.Sesbania grandiflora, has managed to work its way into warmer areas of the world…

• Seven Year Apple

  Genipa clusiifolia: An Acquired Taste

  Like a Suriname Cherry, you’ll either find the Seven Year Apple edible or disgusting. In fact, a lot of folks can’t…

• Sida, Wireweed  (5)
  Sida is barely edible. A member of the Mallow mob it’s an object de interest because it is also a significant herbal medication, of which I am totally…

• Silverhead, Beach Carpet  (1)

  Blutaparon vermiculare: Beach Potherb
  My first thought on seeing Silverweed “was what is clover doing growing on the beach.” Well, Silverweed isn’t a clover…

• Simpson Stopper

  Myricanthes fragrans: Nakedwood Twinberry
  I took me about a year to know the Simpson Stopper.

  While most people think of Florida as flat there’s actually…

• Skunk Vine

  Paederia foetida: Much Maligned Skunk Vine
  Sometimes botanists go a little too far, or at least Carl Linnaeus did when he named a particular vine Paederia…

• Slugs, Snails and Fresh Water Mollusks  (1)

  Are Slugs edible? What about Snails?
  There is only one rule you have to remember: When it comes to land snails, land slugs, and fresh water mollusks you must…

•   Smartweed 
  Polygonum punctatum: Smartweed. I can remember my first taste of a smartweed leaf… kind of like trying a piece of burning paper. Indeed,…

• Smilax: A Brier And That’s No Bull  (40)

  For The Edible Love of Krokus and Smilax

  No, that is not a “Walking stick” insect. It is the growing end of a Smilax, a choice wild…

• Snakewood, Nakedwood, Mauby  (1)

  Colubrina elliptica: Mauby has Moxie
  First there was Moxie, then Mauby… actually it was historically the other way around though few until now would know…

• Society Garlic  (3)
  Because I am asked about it all the time I decided to do an article on it: Yes, you can eat Society Garlic… well… most of it, maybe all of it.The…

• Solar Cooking

  Solar cooking. Something new under the sun
  Once you cook your first solar meal, you’re hooked.
  Does it cost less than conventional methods? It can, but…

• Sorrel: Not A Sheepish Rumex
  Of all the Rumex that grow in the South, Rumex hastatulus is probably the most pleasing. The tart-tasting intensely green leaves are hard…

• Sourwood:  Sourwood honey is considered by some to be the best-flavored honey in North America, perhaps the world.

• Sow Thistle, Prickly, Common, Field  (4)

  Sonchus: Sow Thistle, In A Pig’s Eye
  As I write it is in mid-January in Florida two of three local species of sow thistles are invading my lawn in great…

• Spanish Moss  (3)
  Spanish Moss is not edible. Well, barely an edible. The bottom of the growing tips (pictured above) provide about one eight of an inch of almost tasteless…

• Spanish Needles, Pitchfork Weed  (13)
  Bidens Alba: Medical Beggar Ticks
  Some plants just don’t get any respect. If there were a contest for under appreciated plants, Bidens alba , above…

• Spiderwisp, Cat’s Whiskers, Spider Flower  (6)
  The spiderwisp looks like a mustard that lost its way or got some psychedelic-laced fertilizer. It has four-petaled flowers as the mustards do, seed pods…

• Spiderwort: Pocahontas and Gamma Rays  (4)
  There are 404 years, as of Dec 20th, 2012, between the sailing of John Smith to the New World and spiderwort gamma rays, but they are…

• Spinach Vine  (1)
  I like to think of myself as biclimatic, living part of my life (thus far) in a cold climate and  part in a warm climate.

• Spring Beauty  (2)The Spring Beauty is aptly named.Actually there are several “Spring Beauties” and most of them are edible in similar ways. We’ll focus on…

• Spurge Nettle: The Nettle With The Mettle  (15)
  Cnidolscolus Stimulosus: It’s The Real Sting
  This is how to not dig up a spurge nettle root: Take a shovel, find a plant, and start digging.When…

• Stinging Nettles

  Urtica chamaedryoides: Nettle Knowledge
  Stinging Nettles Know How
  I was hiking one day when I saw what I thought was a mint I had not seen before. I…

• Stork’s Bill, Cranesbill

  Erodium circutarium, Geranium carolinianum: Two Bills You Want to Get

  Stork’s Bill is one of those little plants that’s not supposed to grow locally…

• Strawberries of Spring  (1)

  Fragaria virginiana: Be A Strawberry Sleuth
  Fragaria don’t like Florida. Only one northern county in the state reports having wild strawberries. But that’s…

• Strawberry GuavaPsidium littorale var. cattleianum: Strawberry Guava
  One man’s fruit tree is another man’s weed. My one Strawberry Guava tree is a fruiting…

• Strawberry Tree Curse

  Strawberry Tree, Koumaria, Koumara, Pacific Madrone, Madrona
  Any plant called “strawberry” other than a strawberry is doomed. Strawberries pack a lot of…

• Strongback  Not strong bark Bourreria succulenta: Soapy Fruit and Viagra
  Botanists are feisty in their own way. The Strongback is a good example. Is it B. succulenta or B. ovata? One…

• Sugar Cane on The Run  (4)

  Saccharum officinarum: Sweet Wild Weed
  Among the edible wild plants on this site are a few escaped fruit trees and ornamentals that have become naturalized.…

• Sugarberries & Hackberries  (3)

  Sugarberries are Hackberries with a Southern Accent
  Sugarberries like to be near water and that’s why it caught my eye as I coasted by: It was growing on top…

• Sumac: More Than Just Native Lemonade  (4)

  Sumac, Rhus Juice, Quallah: Good Drink
  Sumacs look edible and toxic at the same time, and with good reason: They’re in a family that has plants we eat and…

• Sunflowers: Seeds and More

  Sunflowers: Sun Sentinels

  His name was Bob Davis and he grew sunflowers some 15-feet high. I dated his niece, Edie May. I remember her and the…

• Sunny Savage

  I had the pleasure this past week of having the well-know forager Sunny Savage visit two of my classes here in Florida (If you think she is attractive on TV…

• Surinam Cherry: Only Ripe Need Apply  (18)

  Surinam Cherries: You’ll love ‘em or hate ‘em

  The Surinam cherry is not a cherry nor is it exclusively from Surinam. It’s also not from…

• Swamp Lilly Wrap

  Thalia geniculata: Swamp Wrap
  You won’t find the “swamp lilly” in many foraging books. For a big plant it receives little attention.

  Thalia geniculata…

• Sweet Clover

  Melitotus: Condiment to Tea to Blood Thinner
  When I was growing up we owned horses. Lots of horses. And they eat a lot of hay in the winter. Lots of hay.…

• Sweet Gum Tree  (4)
  The Sweet Gum tree is the sand spur of the forest. You painfully find them with your feet. The vicious seed pods have impaled many a forager and has done…

• Sweetbay MagnoliaMagnolia viginiana: How Sweet It Is
  Let’s say you want or need to trap a beaver. First you need a trap, but then you need to bait the trap. And…

• Swinecress, Wart Cress: Micro MustardsCoronopus didymus/squamatus: Smelly Pot Herbs?
  Opinions are mixed on Swinecress. I think it’s a nice walkabout nibble and pot herb. Others…

• Sword Fern’s Secret

  Nephrolepis cordifolia: Edible Watery Tubers
  Edibles are often right under your feet, or my feet as it were.

  I had a yard of non-edible ferns. If you like…

• Sycamores Get No RespectSycamores: Not Just Another Plane Tree
  Sycamore trees are not high on the edible list, unless you’re in need.Actually, sycamores, Platanus occidental…

• Take Things Lying Down
  Early in life I settled on a hobby I can do on a summer’s day, in a hammock, on my back….. No, it’s not napping. I watch clouds. Call it reclining…
• Tallow Plum

  Ximenia americana: Known by Many Names
  If I listed this edible under its botanical name few would find it. On the other hand it has some three dozen commons…

• Tamarind: I drove past a dozen Tamarind trees for a decade or so until I looked up one day. The lumpy brown pods on pretty trees had finally caught my attention.
• Tansy Mustard, Western

Descurainia pinnata: Abandoned Seed
What shall we call this little member of the Brassica family? Western Tansy Mustard or Tansy Mustard? We could always…

• Tape Seagrass  (3)
  It is said that all seaweed is edible but that’s not true. There’s at least one species that is not, Desmarestia ligulata. Why? Because it is laced…

• Tar Vine, Red SpiderlingBoerhavia diffusa: Catchy Edible
  Some times you just can’t identify a plant. Some times you’re frustrated for a few days, other times for a few…

• Tassel, Musk and Grape Hyacinths  (2)
  There are dozens of edible species that are wild in Europe and cultivated or escaped in North America. Three related species with a multitude of names are…

• Thistle: It’s That Spine of Year  (3)

Thistle: Touch me not, but add butter. Thistles, you’re either going to love ’em or hate em. Of course, I think eating them is the sensible…

• Ti, Good Luck Plant

  Cordyline fruticosa: Food, Foliage, Booze
  Simply called Ti (tee) Cordyline fruticosa spent most of its history with humans as a food, a source of alcohol, or…

• Tick Clover  (2)
  Tick Clover barely makes it into our foraging realm.I have found only one reference to its edibility. In the 47th volume of the Journal…

• Tiger Lily
  The word “lily” causes more confusion than four letters ought to be able to make. There are true lilies, usually not edible, some of them quite toxic, a…

• Tomato Tobacco Hornworms  (4)

  Manduca Cuisine: Eating Green Gluttons
  You’re picking tomatoes and suddenly there it is: Big, ugly and green, a tomato hornworm. To which I say, get or the…

• Tools of the Trail

  Over the years I have added a few items to my back pack that can make foraging more easier. You might want to add one or two of these items.

  The handiest…

• Topi Tambo, Leren, Guinea Arrowroot  (2)
  A lifetime ago off the Maine coast at low tide there were many mussel shoals. The vertical tidal change near the rock-bound coast can be measured in…

• Torchwood
  One reason to write about the Torchwood is very few people know about it these days yet it was once an esteemed wood and produces an edible, citrusy…

• Toxic tomatoes: I rarely write  about toxic plants because this site is about edibles. However there are enough prickly nightshades around to justify an article about them and how to identify them even if they aren’t edible.
• Traveler’s Palm Travails

  Ravenala madagascariensis: Palm, NOT!
  The Traveler’s Palm is reportedly known for providing wayfarers water, but it also has some food to offer as well.

• Trilliam Trifecta: Every May Day — the first of May — we kids would hang a May Basket on our teacher Arlene Tryon and disappear off the school grounds.
• Tropical Almond: I went to Ft. Myers one Friday to look at plants on an 11-acre monastery. On the property there was a large tree they didn’t know nor did I. The following Sunday while teaching a class across the state in West Palm Beach two students knew a tree there that I didn’t know. It was the same tree at the Monastery. Small botanical world. The tree was a Tropical Almond.
• Tropical Chestnuts: Pachira aquatica  (1)
  My foraging existence is slightly schizophrenic. I grew up in a northern climate, and I write about many northern plants, or it is accurate to say that…
• Tuberous Pea: Anyone who has mowed fields for hay hates vetch… wild pea.  It binds up the machinery and a lot of livestock won’t eat it. That’s a lose lose all around unless the vetch is Lathyrus tuberosus.
• Tuckahoe, Arrow Arum  (2)Peltandra virginica: Starch Storer
  You wouldn’t think there would be a connection between the United States’ Capital and a toxic bog plant, but…

• Tulip Tree  (9)
  Not every edible plant has to be a nutritional powerhouse. Some are “edible” by the barest of means. A good example is the Tulip Tree, Liriodendron…

• Tulips  (2)

  Tulips: Famine Food, Appetizer Assistant
  Many years ago a social acquaintance upon learning I ate weeds said she and her mother had eaten tulip bulbs. If I…

• Tupelos: Black, Swamp, Bear, Water, OgeecheeNyssus: Tart Botanical Tangles
  The Black Tupelo is an old friend from around ponds where I grew up in Maine to around ponds (called lakes) here in…

• TurtlesThe Shell Game: Eating Turtles
  The evidence is clear: Man has been eating turtle for a long time. But which turtles and how?While land turtles…

• Unresolved Botanical Ponderings  (2)Cnidoscolus stimulosis: Can the leaves be boiled and eaten like other species in the genus? I personally know of two account of…

• Usnea: Likable LichenUSNEA is not an international committee. It’s a likable lichen. In fact all but two of the 20,000 lichen are forager…

• Valuable Viburnums: The only significant problem with Viburnums is choosing which one to use, and which ones to write about.
• Velvet Leaf: Velvet Leaf is a commercial failure but a successful foreign invader.

• Vinegar: Your own unique strain  (5)
  The vinegar mother above —three inches across and a half in thick — was collected from the wild in Lake Mary, Florida, in 1996 and has been making…

• Violets’ Virtues

  Viola affinis: Florida’s Sweet Violet
  My introduction to violets was seeing my mother eat “Piss-a-beds” in the spring (Viola rafinesquii. VYE-oh-lah…

• Wapato: All It’s Quacked Up To Be  (2)

  Sagittaria Lancifolia: Duck Potatoes, Wapato
  Artificial grass is not grass. Non-dairy creamer contains a dairy product. And ducks don’t eat duck potatoes.…

• Water Arum, Water Dragon, Wild Calla: 

  Calla palustris: Missen…Famine Bread. Like so many in the same family the starchy rhizome of the Calla palustris is laced with calcium oxalate crystals…

• Water Chestnut: The Water Chestnut is a plant of contradictions.

• Water Hyacinth Woes
  Water Hyacinth Stir Fry: The state of Florida minces no words about the water hyacinth: “Eichhornia crassipes is one of the worst weeds in the…

• Water Lettuce  (5)
  No one knows if Water Lettuce is native to North America or not. Botanists disagree with some saying it’s from Africa, a few South America. Explorer and…

• Water Shield Salad

  Brasenia schreberi: Palatable Pond Weed
  The Water Shield is edible. The problem is getting it sometimes. It likes water … up to six feet deep. On the good…

• Watercress: Ancient Flavor

  Florida is the Winter Watercress Capital of the U.S.

  Nasturtium officinale (nas-STUR-shum oh-fis-in-AY-lee ) is one of the oldest leaf vegetables…

• Wax Myrtle Jewels  (1)

  Myrica cerifera: A Tree That Makes Scents
  Wax Myrtle was the Indians’ minimart of the forest.

  Need some spice? Drop by the Wax Myrtle tree. How about a…

• Weeds and Wolves  (2)

  I am often invited to see someone’s vegetable garden, and it’s usually growing well. Then I’m asked if I see any edible weeds, and usually there are some. I…

• Weeds of Southern Turfgrasses
  The link to the university’s site to buy the book — I do not get a cut — is here.The list of known edibles in the book is below. Many of…

• Welcome to EatTheWeeds.com  (28)

  No description found for this item.

• What’s Green and What’s Not?

  An arctic express of frigid air recently sped down and across the United States. Here in Florida it snowed for the second time in 33 years, delivering a week…

• When Is A Lawn A Lake?  (2)

  It sounds like a trick question, when is a lake a lawn, but there is a non-tricky answer: When it is in Florida.

  Regular followers of this writer know I am…

• When Scholarship Isn’t Enough

  I saw a religion-themed movie once that actually holds an instructive point for us foragers.

  In it a Catholic priest is facing a moral decision that could…

• Where Do You Forage?

  It’s a simple question with a complex answer. When I was younger the 1000 acres behind the house and the 2000 across the road answered that question. Today it…

• Where the Weeds Are

  There is little doubt that man has been foraging for food for a long time. As one might guess, in different places he foraged for different plants. He also…

• White Indigo Berry Has A Dark Side

  Randia aculeata
  The White Indigo Berry is not high on the food list. Dr. Daniel Austin, author of Florida Ethnobotany, has this to say on page 562:

• White man’s Little Foot: Dwarf PlantainWhite man’s Little Foot: Dwarf Plantain
  Plantain, Plantagos To Go
  When I was about 10 a bee stung my hand while I was being a pest in the…

• Who’s Manipulating Whom?
  I don’t care for Salvia coccinea. It’s not edible and it likes to crowd out my herbs. I’m forever removing it from flower pots. The other day I was about…

• Why Forage?  (1)

  Often I am asked “why forage for wild food?” Why that question is asked is probably worthy of an article unto itself. But here let’s focus on one answer (out…

• Wild Carrots and Queen Ann’s LaceDaucus Carota & Pusillus: Edible Wild Carrots
  I’ve never understood the confusion over identifying the Wild Carrot also called Queen Ann’s…

• Wild Citrus, Footloose Plants

  Feral Citrus: Snack, Seasoning and Soap
  Citrus, like apples when left unattended by man, tend to revert to their natural state of being sour and acidic. A lot…

• Wild Coffee But Not Kentucky  (5)

  Psychotria nervosa Florida Style
  Because I am constantly asked about it: Yes, you can eat the pulp off the seeds of the wild coffee, and yes, you can make a…

• Wild Dilly, Wild Sapodilla

  Wild Dilly: Almost Chique
  If the Natal Plum and the Wild Dilly could sit down and have a conversation they would probably agree that having a famous…

• Wild Fennel: One of the outstanding sensory experiences of hiking in Greece is smelling in the wild herbs one usually buys in little plastic containers.

• Wild Flours  (8)
  A wild flour is different than a starchy root. The Spurge Nettle has a starchy root that tastes like pasta but it does not lend itself to being processed…

• Wild Ginger: Wild Ginger is cantharophilic, sometimes myophilic or sapromyophilic.

• Wild Lettuce, Woodland Lettuce

  Lactuca floridana: Let Us Eat Wild Lettuce

  Wild lettuce is not as tame as garden lettuce.

  Garden lettuce is one of those nearly flavorless nearly…

• Wild Onion, Wild Garlic  (2)

  Allium canadense: The Stinking Rose
  Garlic and onions don’t like to set underground bulbs here in hot Florida. I got around it by growing wild onions,…

• Wild Pineapple  (2)

  Bromelia pinguin: Wild Pineapple
  I took the picture directly above while out bicycling on a Christmas Day, 2008. But, didn’t identified the object de green…

• Wild Rice  (4)
  Love and marriage, horse and carriage, Zizania and canoe… not exactly lyrical but you get the idea. If you want Wild Rice you have to go where the Wild…

• Will Bisin Make GMOs Look Good?

  I have long criticized what I call chemists in the kitchen. They brought us such things as cancer-causing additives, artery-damaging trans-fats, insulin-skewing…

• Willow Weep For Me  (1)

  Salix caroliniana: Nothing Would Be Finer
  The willow is not prime eats. It’s not even secondary eats. In fact, it is famine food, but, willow can also cure…

• Winter Foraging:   The thermometer was near zero one day when I was on ice skates collecting frozen cranberries.

• Winter Soul-stice

  On the shortest day of the year one should take a long look around. It’s the inventory time of year, a bit of soul searching. That requires a little looking…

• Wisteria Criteria  (3)Wisteria, Wistaria
  There is a duality to Wisteria, starting with those who think it is an invasive weed and those who like to eat its sweet, fragrant…

• Wood Oats

  Chasmanthium latifolium: Edible Wood Oats
  Most people discover Wood Oats by mistake. They’re traipsing through the forest, come across a plant, and wonder…

• Yacon  (1)
  Is it a Polymnia or a Smallanthus? Botanists took some 70 years to make up their minds. Let’s call it Yacon like the natives.In publications before…

• Yam A: The Alata  (6)

  The Dioscorea Dilemma: Which ones are edible, and what parts?

  One wouldn’t think wild yams would be hard to sort out. It only took me about a dozen…

• Yam B: The Bulbifera  (9)

  The “Cheeky Yam, or Yam on the Lamb
  Yam B, Dioscorea bulbifera, is definitely second best to Yam A, Dioscorea alata. Why is Yam B, the D. bulbifera second…

• Yam C: The Chinese

  Dioscorea Polystachya: Yam C
  Just like Rambo movies, there is Yam A, Yam B and, yes, a Yam C, the Chinese Wild Yam or the Cinnamon Vine yam, either way we…

• Yaupon Holly, Ilex vomitoria  (10)
  History has many layers and shades. It’s not a straight timeline of great clarity but more like a meandering muddy river with much confluence, influence…

• Yellow Pond Lilly: Raising A Wokas

  Picking Pond Lillies: Nuphar Luteum subsp. advena

  Once upon a time there was just one Nuphar luteum… and it was good.

  The yellow pond lilly…

• Yew:  The Yew can kill you.

• You Can Learn To Forage For Wild Edibles

  There is such a thing as a free lunch, or almost free: The edible wild plants around you.

  With a little specialized knowledge and a “guidance” system…

• Your Choice for a New Vegetable  (2)

  If you could choose one wild plant to become a commercial product, what would it be?

  Many people have tried to make poke weed (Phytolacca americana) a green…

• Yucca’s Not Yucky  (5)Yucca, Yuca: Which is Edible?
  When isn’t a yucca a yucca? When it is spelt with one “C” as in yuca.What’s the difference? A belly ache, maybe…

While these videos are still on You Tube and will soon be on DVDs, these links below do not work. In creating the page one character was dropped from every link so they have to be reloaded, one by one.

Video name, # order of production

Acorns #50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28yYMb_RwBo

Acorn Grubs, #124
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSBdA0B-rwk

Apples, WIld, #96
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aWkpfRtUcM

Amaranth #17
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcrZ5XYcbvk

American Beautyberry #40
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igKeqZjxPYQ

American Lotus #25
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzPXA7y1gZY

American Nightshade, part I, #120
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n_fP1znhBs

Apios Americana, Mic-Mac, Hopniss #47
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqQ7LcB9cdU

Apios american II, #101
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2c9451Zxm8

Backyard Forage, #137

http://youtu.be/_aSdokl-6n4

Bacopa and Creeping Charlie #110
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BviXaUdO_io

Bananas #28
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK8j2yJ4VGo

Basswood, Linden Tree, Lime Tree #70
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeR9FC-vf_4

Beach Orach, Crested Salt Bush #95
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc_u0pQ3Rz8

Beebalm, spotted; horsemint #36
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOH8dfIRogc

Begonias, #102
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9zjoTgddYA

Bitter Gourd, Balsam Pear #39
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq2JmwO9xik

Blackberries, Dewberries #87
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6xXGevM9HM

Blue Porterweed #129

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoUWjRdlTjQ

Bon Appetit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6qCIrW_1Uw

Cabbage Palm, #107
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iORmCxpBYL8

Cactus, opuntias #16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jma9dmiSg3g

Caesar Weed #41
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mk0UIhvC9o

Camphor Tree #132

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYBoC35g6q8

Cast Iron and Pig Weed #114
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfvHUahZYgM

Cattails #64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrVCTE68fbU&feature=channel

Cherries, Wild, #85
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRAoTyq3Ld8

Chickasaw Plum #27
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkoEtxNCUs0

Chickweed #12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy3vRYftDqE

Chinese Elm #51
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Iw9NsahVo

Christmasberry, Goji, #127
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVR-eGqquXE

Coral Bean (Eastern) #116
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEPOhVVyC_w

Coquina and Mole Cabs #88
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQTyr17mp4c

Creeping Cucumber #53
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbHa_mqHnCc

Crepis Japonica #3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ilk3VWHbCw

Crepis II #57
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDeBOlRhQEs

Crowfoot Grass #56
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03en6YXSE8k

Dandelions #62
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0yFeKN1Pw

Dayflowers (Commelinas) #99
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l96_95qbYmM

Daylily #18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1CS7Ks-cJM

Drymaria Cortata #65
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbixMEATEhI

Eastern Redbud #126
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzYOBLfsVSw

Elderberries #29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXFVfQMfZ8w

Epazote # 128

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoq_3aHk70s

False Roselle #35
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRYkPNhlwPI

Firethorn, Pyracantha #55, #108
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjR29dGurFE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obZkfO3tKt0

Glasswort, Salicornia, Samphire #74
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrAk_4r7Egc

Ground Cherries, Physalis #58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zft5mbWUlU

Hard Cider, making #9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cybdxjf7ac

Henbit, Lamium amplexicaule #14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulyZwMtfWhI

Hickories #54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk3jgq5XZ6Q

Hollies #121
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ombJKBPx5NQ

Horseweed #130

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2hAt6oFDfU

ITEMIZING, rules of foraging #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x97jebTQisU

Ivy Gourd, tindora, #123
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzDCzaDg9OM

Kudzu, #73
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbCMDQSWFWY

Jelly Palm, The Pindo Palm #31
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB35TeqeNYQ

Lake Lily, videos #112, 113, typical urban edibles around water

Part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obPWEbJDotI
Part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6_Sa51KKYI

Lambquarters, video #84
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oL49PBsCP0

Lichen #20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnEkfrLRFYg

Loquats #118
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyseWslMTSA

Maypops, Passion flowers #34
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmDqWSwbU7A

Mead Garden #77, 78, 79, 80

Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI4yLr8kL6k
Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmhZHU3t5xI
Part Three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obj9oLSGsQE
Part Four: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGMNdte6-Ro

Milkweed Vine #83
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjMHCB6nXbw

Mulberry, #117
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JAwC5VMToI

Mulberry, Paper #119
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP4zzhvn5KQ

Natal Plum #94
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03S6T4ODxaU

Oxalis #67
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqxZhbIzUlI

Pellitory #61
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM86QCcBZN4

Pennyworts #23
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xNIPdbU_WM

Peppergrass #6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkeUM8SnWNE

Persimmon #42
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1h22Pbh0Xw

Persimmon # 106
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQXQg6PxenY

Pickerelweed #89
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKy6Ivh0HaE

Pine # 92
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA39XQ8UAr4

Plantgos, plantains #13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBeI3tc6Xdo

Podocarpus Macrophyllus #103
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgTag0ucUtU

Poke weed #7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6d5jBJ355c

Poke Weed II #82
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwT2ssiUJXU

Purslane #91
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tw8DcGAGmo

Radish, wild, #111
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14R8fmsTVKU

Red Bay, #104
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3L3Hw6ajQM

Rumex, sorrel #10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrkX48HZ_sc

Russian Thistle #93
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqyahRfYH8g

Sandspurs #100
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX5KoKNnVXw

Sassafras #44
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN9dE3n36t0

Sassafras and Mulberry #8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPlTWMdtPZU

Saw Palmetto #48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Bud3a3LtQ

Sea Blite, Seepweed #72
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUpgGXrm4Tk

Sea Purslane #81
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VIzM4p7qXc

Sea Rocket #76
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6mV3fDaHIE

Silverthorn #125
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5pMLDBYIeU

Simpson Stopper #133

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqDRD2rFrAw

Skunk Vine #105
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fRg3jRtc5E

Smartweed #90
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5xOOEo7r5Q

Smilax, bullbrier #19 & #115
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b-DyO28srg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ccDW8vUrqI

Solar Cooking #71
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtuE1SZtbLI

Soldier’s Creek, Seminole County Fl #68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MVTVs_dA3I

Sow Thistle I #4, 59, 66
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUhBM6_2qbg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPdsNJOCxSU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heV9TnfGfWM

Spanish Needles, Bidens #75
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6AaozZpBok

Spiderwort, Tradescantia #15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoVXhnDsEtw

Spurge Nettle #21
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WhbyeLOzPHE

Stachys Floridana, Betony #46
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAudL109GOg

Stinging Nettles #63
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ulH6x65DY

Strawberry Guava #97
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttVhgnyZ_HY

Sumac #43
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPH-IDwVmrM

Sword fern #122
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e0CtNta_2Q

Thistle, Bull One #11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18eLqProtik

Thistle, Bull II #109
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpUKgdLyBrY

Turtle Mound, Wild Edibles, New Smyrna Beach FL #52
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMtiwivLcMA

Usnea #49
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqiXp1DNQcw

Vinegar, Homemade #33
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEwOzhyVYyc

Violets, violas #60
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukzxrl2dvg4

Wapato: Duck Potatoes #22
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D-dbMUtCYM

Watercress #69
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVxSUYqOH30

Water Hyacinth #38
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1kkn5Sz4MI

Wekiva River #24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW5xmNW98cY

Wekiva State Park, 24 Wild Edibles #37
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv3u9P1VWPo

Why Forage for Edible Weeds? #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Z9FlsV4T0

Wild Grapes #32
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mc0tk3cDZA

Wild Mustard Greens #5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXqYbWMBzqM

Winged Yam #45
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5iG2Ju5nts

Yellow Pond Lilies #30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Y0T6xZJ-c

Wisteria in DeLand. The species is usually invasive. Photo by Green Deane

The weather may be chilly still it’s a hot time of year for foraging as many wild fruit species ripen this month. A species  blossoming now and rarely covered is Wisteria. The blossoms are edible raw or cooked but the rest of the plant is toxic (though that varies from species to species.) With some two seeds can kill a child. While most Wisteria is considered Asian there is a native species in the Americas, W. frutescens. You can read about Wisteria here.  

The non-aromatic Cherokee Rose is not native. Photo by Green Deane

Another Asian species sighted recently is one that was once considered native, the Cherokee Rose, which is actually an invasive. Botanically Rosa laevigata (Rosa is from the Greek ῥόδον (rhódon) meaning rose and laevitata or (Levis) is Dead Latin for  smooth or polished. It’s a “climbing shrub” as is Smilax and Nicker Bean. Cherokee Rose is a large nearly odorless white bloomer from the low mountains of China and Vietnam. It was carried to the Americas in 1780 and was reportedly cultivated by the Cherokee thus the name. In 1916 at the urging of womens’ clubs it was made the state flower of Georgia and still is. It  produces huge rose hips to two-inches long though you have to burn bristles off to use them. And as one might presume the rugged vining shrub is covered with mean prickles. Handle carefully. Sugar from the plant has been used to make wine.

“Deer Mushrooms” are edible. Photo by Green Deane

An edible mushroom taking advantage of the weather is the Deer Mushroom, in this case Pluteus petasatus. These are bunching mushrooms usually growing on old hardwood remains, either logs, stumps, roots or debris. As often is the case the botanical name is more confusing than enlightening. Pluteus  can mean shed or penthouse. Petasatus is Dead Latin for wearing a cap (meaning) ready for a journey. A relative is called P. cervinus the latter means deer or stag because of that species’ cap color. It is also sometimes called the Deer Mushroom or Fawn Mushroom. These two are edible but are viewed as marginal. One reason is the cap is mostly gills with little cap material. Sometimes it can have a radish flavor. Spore print is salmon to pink. 

Foraging classes are held rain or shine, heat or cold. Photo by Nermina Krenata

Foraging classes: Many species, especially wild fruits are coming into season. 

Saturday, April 6th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 to noon.

Sunday, April 7th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. meet just north of the Museum, 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday, April 13th, Red Bug Slough 5200 S. Beneva Road, Sarasota. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot.

Sunday, April 14th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Meet at Ganyard Rd and Bayshore. 9 a.m. to noon.

Saturday, April 20th, Blanchard Park,  2451 Dean Rd, Union Park, FL 32817, meet beside the tennis courts, 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday, April 21st, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL, meet at the dog park. 9 a.m. to noon.

Saturday, April 27th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday, April 28th, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 32706. meet at the bathrooms, 9 a.m. to noon.

Saturday, May 4th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 to noon. 

For more information on these classes, to prepay or sign up go here. 

Mild in flavor Betony roots have a radish-like texture. Photo by Green Deane

Found this week, east of Tampa, Florida betony roots. Tasty raw, boiled or pickled, the roots are distinctive and easy to identify. While one can find them in lawns they also like sandy pastures with a thatch layer.  Millions of dollars are spent every year trying to poison these into submission. Why not eat them? You can read about Betony here. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? The Green Dean Forum is up and running again. Have you come to dislike Facebook, then join us on the forum. Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. 

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  Most of the 172 USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. 

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in its second printing is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 275 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. It’s available in many locations including Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile.  It can also be ordered through AdventureKeen Publishing.

This is weekly newsletter #595. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Smilax are considered by many as out best spring time green. Photo by Green deane

Now is a good time to harvest smilax tips and Florida betony roots. As warm weather increases, the smilax tips tend to get peppery and bitter (and are better cooked than raw.) Betony tends to not store energy in the heat of summer, reducing their root size. Now, at the end of spring, good sized, pure white root can be dug up.

Betony root has a texture and flavor like a radish but no heat. Photo by Green Deane

Now is the time to inspect any Jambul Trees you know of. Their fruiting can vary as much a six weeks.If I had to guess I would suspect they will be early this year. August is their usual ripening time. Three years ago they were late because of light rains. Also called Java Plum or  Jamun. The tree also demonstrates quite a few principles. One is that the toxin is often on the outside. Why? Because that is where insects, birds and other animals attack first. This is why green potatoes can make you sick if you eat the skins. In the case of the Jambul Tree the skin of the sweet fruit is loaded with tannin, about 10 times more than a red grape. So they are edible but there is a bitter astringency. Sprinkling with salt or soaking in salt can reduce that. 

Even ripe Jambul fruit is slightly astringent. Photo by Green Deane

The major impediment to the tree — though it is a commercial fruit — is the tannins. Salt does mitigate that some when eating them fresh and is reported to lower blood glucose levels. Making wine out of the fruit is a challenge because of the tannin. Often when you make wine you have to add tannin. In this case one has to use strategies to reduce the tannin. This ranges from yeast selection to fining agents that grab onto the large tannin molecules and help them sink to the bottom so they can be left there.  You can read about the Jambul Tree here.

The Toxic Atamasco Lily. Photo by Green Deane

What are they? The first answer is they are NOT edible. The second is they are a threatened species. And the third answer is they are the toxic Atamasco lily, aka Rain Lily ( Zephranthes atamasca.) For a threatened species they are seen in a lot of lawns this time of year prompting many emails asking for an identification. These natives like wetlands but a well-watered lawn after seasonal rains will do nicely. The problem with the Atamasco is that it resembles wild garlic before it blossoms (and even has a bulb!) However, it does not have the telltale garlic aroma. Remember if it smells like a garlic AND looks like a garlic you can use it like a garlic. The Atamasco does not have any garlic/onion aroma. It is not edible. All parts are poisonous. Leave it alone. And while these in the picture have a pink tinge there are also all-white blossoms.

Black Cherries can still be found in season. Photo by Green Deane

Black Cherry has  been mentioned a couple of times earlier this year and that’s the reason for it being mentioned now: It’s still fruiting. The season seems a bit longer this year than usual and I still see them here and there. It is safe to say Black Cherries look better than they taste. There is an initial cherry sweetness but then a residual bitterness takes over whereas chokecherries are bad start to finish. There were four of those trees on the other side of our lawn where I grew up in Maine. They were quite irritating: They looked wonderful but tasted awful (unless made into wine.)  Black Cherries, like the chokecherries, are much better processed into jelly and jwine (or cough medicine from the cambium.) Do not eat the seeds. To read more about the Black Cherry go here.

Chamberbitters, Phyllanthus urinaria, is medicinal not an edible. We don’t cover herbals here because I am not qualified to talk about them much. However I  know this one has a lot of good reserch behind it. This plant is a rich source of lignans, tannins, flavonoids, phenolics, terpenoids, and other secondary metabolites. Pharmacological activities include anticancer, hepatoprotective, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, and cardioprotective effects. As a point of identification note the seeds line up on the bottom of the stem. You can read about it here.

Foraging classes are held rain, shine, hot or cold. Photo by Nermina Krenata

Foraging Classes: Because of rennovations, we have to meet at a different location at Red Bug Slough in Sarasoata. Normally it is at 5200 S. Beneva Road. Instead we will have to park at Gypsy Street and South Lockwood Ridge Road. Gypsy can be reached by Camphor Ave which runs south of Proctor west of Beneva. 

June 10, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 9 a.m., meet at the bathrooms.

June 11, Red Bug Slough , Sarasota. 9 a.m. Because of rennovations, we have to meet at a different location at Red Bug Slough in Sarasoata. Normally it is at 5200 S. Beneva Road. Instead we will have to park at Gypsy Street and South Lockwood Ridge Road. Gypsy can be reached by Camphor Ave which runs south of Proctor west of Beneva.

June 17, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL 9 a.m.

June 18,  Blanchard Park,  2451 Dean Rd, Union Park, FL,  meet next to the tennis courts. 9 a.m.

Bring cash on the day of class or  click here to pay for your class

Chamberbitter, Phyllanthus urinaria.

Chamberbitters, Phyllanthus urinaria, is medicinal not an edible. We don’t cover herbals here because I am not qualified to talk about them much. However I  know this one has a lot of good reserch behind it. This plant is a rich source of lignans, tannins, flavonoids, phenolics, terpenoids, and other secondary metabolites. Pharmacological activities include anticancer, hepatoprotective, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, and cardioprotective effects. As a point of identification note the seeds line up on the bottom of the stem. You can read about it here.

You get the USB, not the key.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by 171-videos on a 128-GB USB, see right.  The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy especially if social order falters.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. Or you can make a $99 donation, which tells me it is for the USB (include a snail-mail address.)  I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. I had to stop making them as few programs now will read the ISO files to copy them. Burning a set also took about three hours. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Stale Bread and Cod Liver Oil, Killing Bugs with Tobacco Plugs, Eating weeds: Is it safe? Have they mutated? Not the Eastern Red Bug but the Pink Tabebuia, African Tulip Tree, Asparagus densiflorus, Green Deane’s Book… You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is my weekly newsletter #561. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.