Search: garlic mustard

Second year plants have terminal clusters of flowers. Photo by APhotFlora

Second year plants have terminal clusters of flowers. Photo by APhotoFlora

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.

First-year plants are short with kideny-shaped leaves in a rosette. Photo by Field Botany

First-year plants are short with kidney-shaped leaves in a rosette. Photo by Field Botany

It all started on this continent sometime around 1868 when Garlic Mustard, a native of Europe, was found on Long Island, no doubt brought over before then for food and medicine. It’s leaves are rich in vitamin C and A and medicinally was used for treating gangrene and ulcers. Garlic Mustard spread slowly across the country reaching Oregon by 1959. It wasn’t a severe problem until about 40 years ago. Then it began to proliferate alarmingly. It went from taking over an estimated 366 square kilometers a year to 6,400. In the last four decades it’s become a significant pest, a dreaded “invasive.” Why? My guess is deer. The deer population has also dramatically increased in numbers during the same for decades. They prefer to eat native plants rather than Garlic Mustard. However, if you have more deer eating the native plants to the ground it gives prolific Garlic Mustard chance and space to get going. Once it does it drives out other plants including trees.

Second-year plants grow rapidly tall and flower. Photo by Gary Fewless.

Second-year plants grow rapidly tall and flower. Photo by Gary Fewless.

Garlic Mustard can produce up to 8,000 seeds per plant. That can translate into 100,000 seeds per square meter which are easily spread around. Germination rate is close to 100% and up to 24,000 seedlings per square meter have been counted. The seeds can remain viable for up to 10 years. Most of the seeds don’t survive but it’s a numbers game and Garlic Mustard is simply out-breeding its competitors. Shade tolerant, the species is found in southern Canada and 34 US states where it’s officially invasive in six. In western Europe is ranges from Italy to Sweden, England to Russia and parts of Asia. Garlic Mustard basically skips the southern United States among other reasons because the seeds need long exposure to cold to reproduce, sometimes as much as one or two winters. However, seeds can germinate right at 32 F giving it a jump over other spring-time plants. Second year plants bolt very quickly.

The larva of this weevile may eventually reduce the Garlic Mustard population.

The larva of this weevile may eventually reduce the Garlic Mustard population.

Regardless of why Garlic Mustard is proliferating it is considered a serious invasive species in North America. But have little fear, the University of Minnesota is coming to the rescue. Starting in the 90s experts began looking for a biological control. Several insect candidates were considered. The university has decided thus far the leading contender is Ceutorhynchus scrobicollis, a weevil of a beetle from Europe. If approved the insect will be released between now and 2016. The goal? Wipe out this foreign invader that also has cyanide in it’s leaves. What? Cyanide? Yep, and those who demonize this wild edible are quick to point that out. So what about the cyanide?

Like many members of the Mustard family the species has long, skinny seed pods. Photo by K. Chayka

Like many members of the Mustard family the species has long, skinny seed pods. Photo by K. Chayka

It’s not that uncommon in the Brassicaceaes. The cyanide is usually minimal and below that to impact animals or people. However it is enough to be toxic to some fungi, pathogens and insects. It can be a killer if you have six legs. That also might be how it keeps other plants from growing where it grows by killing off necessary soil bacteria and the like. The level of cyanide is not a threat to people. Garlic Mustard did not earn a mention in Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada by Kingbury, for many decades if not still the “bible” on poisonous plants. (See the Herb Blurb below the recipe.)

Like all mustards the flower has six stamens, four long and two shot best seen in the top flower. Photo by Les Mehrhoff

Like all mustards the flower has six stamens, four long and two shot best seen in the top flower. Photo by Les Mehrhoff

A two-year plant, Garlic Mustard grows rapidly in the spring producing a basal rosette. During its second year it can reach one or two yards high. It is usually the tallest bloom plant in the forest around May. Also called Jack-By-The-Hedge and “Sauce Alone” the leaves taste like garlic and mustard with a slightly bitter aftertaste. The leaves smell of mustard when crushed and stems are often purplish. The first-year rosette has kidney-shaped toothy leaves. They can remain green through the winter. Second-year toothy leaves are more triangle shaped along a tall flowering stem. Seed pods are shiny black when mature. Plants that grow near Garlic Mustard and might be confused for it are Toothworts (Dentaria) Sweet Cicely (Osmorhize claytonii) and early saxifrage (Saxifraga virginica.)

Small brown-black seeds aline in the "silique." Photo by Steve Baskauf

Small brown-black seeds aline in the “silique.” Photo by Steve Baskauf

Botanically the species is Alliaria petiolata. Alliariea is a variation of Allium, the genus for garlic and onions. It is from the Greek word αλέω which means “to avoid” presumably because of the garlic/onion aroma. Petiolata is from Dead Latin: petiolatus “petiolate”, referring to leaf attachment. “Jack” by the way when referring to plants usually means the Devil.

If you do go through a patch of Garlic Mustard clean your shoes and any pants’s cuffs to keep you from taking home this species that can easily take over your yard. Of course, eating the invasive is your civic duty and tasty, too.

Green Deane’s Itemimized Plant Profile: Garlic Mustard

IDENTIFICATION: Alliaria petiolata: Biennial herb with a weak single stems 12 – 36″ high its second year. Leaves: Round, scallop-edged, dark green; first year, rosettes of three or four leaves; second year plants have alternate stem leaves. Leaves and stems smell like onion or garlic when crushed. Flowers: White, small, numerous, four separate petals. One or two flowering stems on second year plants. Seeds: Slender capsules to six inches long with a single row of oblong black seeds, 12 to 19 seeds per pod. White, slender taproot, S-shaped at the top. The root smells like horseradish.

TIME OF YEAR: Growing by March or April. Two-year cycle, low rosette the first year, tall and flowering the second. Grows very rapidly in spring.

ENVIRONMENT: Moist, shaded soil; river floodplains, forests, roadsides, edges of woods, trails edges, forest openings, disturbed areas. Does not tolerate highly-acidic soil and prefers to not grow under conifers. Often found in association with hardwoods.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Garlic Mustard is usually used raw. Second-year shoots before blossoming are choice. British naturalist Richard Mabey says the best use is as a sauce for lamb. Merritt Fernald, the grand botanist of Harvard a century ago, reported it was used like a lettuce leaf but for flavoring in sandwiches, mixed in salads, eaten with salted fish and used as a stuffing in pork. Cornucopia II says the leaves can be finely chopped and added to tossed salads, cooked as a pot herb, or eaten with bread and butter. It is also mixed with mint leaves and made into a sauce for salt-fish, mutton, and as mentioned before, lamb. Ray Mears reports the leaves are good added to nettle soup and the seeds make a very fiery mustard. Pick the leaves just before you want to use them. They wilt quickly.

The following recipe was created by  Paul Wedgwood of Wedgwood the Restaurant, one of Edinburgh’s finest and originally reported by Robin Harford on a British website with a name very close to this one, www.EatWeeds.com.Uk.

Garlic Mustard Vichysoisse

 

Garlic Mustard Vichysoisse

Garlic Mustard Vichysoisse

Ingredients
•    75g butter
•    1 onion, chopped
•    75g three cornered garlic stems
•    800 ml water
•    1 large potato, peeled, diced and rinsed
•    Salt and freshly ground black pepper
•    75g Jack by the hedge/garlic mustard
•    75g goat’s cheese
•    75ml milk for foam
•    Pinch cumin
•    Pinch white pepper
Suggested Instructions
1.    In a heavy bottomed pan add water and potatoes and a good pinch of salt and boil until potatoes are soft. Remove from the heat and set aside.
2.    Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the onion and cook until softened. Pour over the boiled potatoes and water.
3.    Blitz in food processor until smooth. Add water if required to the correct consistency. Pass through a sieve.
4.    Chill in the fridge. Check seasoning.
5.    Blanch jack by the hedge for 10 seconds in salted boiling water and refresh in ice water.
6.    Add jack by the hedge and blitz again until smooth.
7.    Then add the three cornered garlic blitz until smooth, check for seasoning again.
8.    Serve with some crumbled goats cheese, frothed milk, a pinch of cumin, some crispy fried nettle dusted with white pepper and a three corned garlic flower
Prep time: 30 mins.
Cooking time: 10 mins.
Serves: 4

Herb Blurb

 

J Chem Ecol. 2007 Jan;33(1):85-94.
Cyanide in the chemical arsenal of garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata.
Cipollini D, Gruner B. Source: Department of Biological Sciences, Wright State University, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway, Dayton, Ohio 45435, USA. don.cipollini@wright.edu

Abstract

Cyanide production has been reported from over 2500 plant species, including some members of the Brassicaceae. We report that the important invasive plant, Alliaria petiolata, produces levels of cyanide in its tissues that can reach 100 ppm fresh weight (FW), a level considered toxic to many vertebrates. In a comparative study, levels of cyanide in leaves of young first-year plants were 25 times higher than in leaves of young Arabidopsis thaliana plants and over 150 times higher than in leaves of young Brassica kaber, B. rapa, and B. napus. In first-year plants, cyanide levels were highest in young leaves of seedlings and declined with leaf age on individual plants. Leaves of young plants infested with green peach aphids (Myzus persicae) produced just over half as much cyanide as leaves of healthy plants, suggesting that aphid feeding led to loss of cyanide from intact tissues before analysis, or that aphid feeding inhibited cyanide precursor production. In a developmental study, levels of cyanide in the youngest and oldest leaf of young garlic mustard plants were four times lower than in the youngest and oldest leaf of young Sorghum sudanense (cv. Cadan 97) plants, but cyanide levels did not decline in these leaves with plant age as in S. sudanense. Different populations of garlic mustard varied moderately in the constitutive and inducible expression of cyanide in leaves, but no populations studied were acyanogenic. Although cyanide production could result from breakdown products of glucosinolates, no cyanide was detected in vitro from decomposition of sinigrin, the major glucosinolate of garlic mustard. These studies indicate that cyanide produced from an as yet unidentified cyanogenic compound is a part of the battery of chemical defenses expressed by garlic mustard.
PMID:
17146719
[PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

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Wild Onions/Garlic and Spiderwort growing along the road near Ocala Florida. Photo by Green Deane

Wild Onions/Garlic and Spiderwort growing along the road near Ocala Florida. Photo by Green Deane

Allium canadense: The Stinking Rose

Your nose will definitely help you confirm that you have found wild onions, Allium canadense, AL-ee-um kan-uh-DEN-see. Also called Wild Garlic and Meadow Garlic by the USDA, walking through a patch raises a familiar aroma which brings me to a foraging maxim:

Wild onions/garlic, set bulblets on top

If a plant looks like an onion and smells like an onion you can eat it. If a plant looks like a garlic and smells like a garlic you can eat it. If you do not smell a garlic or an onion odor but you have the right look beware you might have a similar-looking toxic plant. For example, we have a native lily here in Florida that looks like an onion but has no aroma. It is toxic.

All parts of this particular Wild Onion/Garlic are edible, the underground bulbs, the long, thin leaves, the blossoms, and the bulblets on top. The bulblets are small cloves the plant sets where it blossoms. Harvesting them is a little easier than digging for bulbs but those are easy to find also. They’re usually about four inches underground. The bulblets are on the tippy top of the plant. It’s called both an onion and garlic  because while it is a wild onion it has a very strong garlic aroma.

Onions and garlic belong to the Lily family. The most common wild one is the Allium canadense. It has flattened leaves and hollow stems. On top there can be bulblets with pinkish white flowers or bulblets with sprouted green tails.  When it sets an underground bulbs they will be no bigger than pearl onions.  (See recipes below the I.T.E.M. panel.) They were clearly on the Native American menu though our local natives didn’t refer to them much.

Ramps have wide leaves

It is often said the city of Chicago’s name is from an Indian phrase that means “where the wild onions grow.” That is quite inaccurate. Chicago is actually a French mistransliteration of the Menomini phrase Sikaakwa which literally means “striped skunk.” We would say ‘the striped skunk place.”  The skunks were there because Allium tricoccum (Ramps)  were growing there. Skunks know good food when they smell it (and are bright pets. Very common where I grew up.)  The nearby Des Plains River was called the “Striped Skunk River.” Incidentally because of man’s intervention that river now flows backwards from it original direction.

While northern Indians used the Allium species extensively there are few records of southeastern Indians using them, though various southern tribes had names for the onion.  Some of the tribes considered onions not edible. Ramps, A. tricoccum, (try-KOK-um) photo upper right, are also in the onion family, and very common in Appalachia. Farther north they are called “wild leeks.”  Unlike onions and garlic, ramps have wide leaves but are used the same way.

Allium was the Latin name for the onion. An alternative view is that it is based on the Celtic word “all” meaning pungent. “Alla” in Celtic means feiry. Canadense means of Canada, but refers to north North America. Tricoccum  means three seeds. Roman’s called garlic the “stinking rose.”

Allium canadense in large amounts can be toxic to cattle. Lesser amounts can flavor the milk as can salty fodder near the ocean.

 Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Wild Onion

IDENTIFICATION: Allium canadense: Grass like basal leaves, small six-petaled flowers, odor of onion or garlic, stems round, older stems hollow. Underground bulbs look like small white onions. Ramps, however, have two or three broad, smooth, light green, onion-scented leaves. Also see another article on a European import, the dreaded Garlic Mustard.

TIME OF YEAR: Depends where you live. Ramps in spring, onions through the summer, bulbs in fall. Locally we see bulblets in April then into the spring.

ENVIRONMENT: Like most plants onions like rich soil and sun but can grow in poor soil with adequate water. Leeks like rich leaf-losing woodlands and can grow in dappled shade. Locally all of the Wild Onions I’ve seen grow in damp places, or, places where run off gathers before seeping in.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: The entire plant is edible raw or cooked, in salads, seasoning, green, soup base, pickled. You can pickle them using red bay leaves, peppergrass seeds, and some vinegar

Recipes adapted from “Wild Greens and Salads” by Christopher Nyerges

Onion Soup On The Trail

Two cups onion leaves and bulbs

Two cups water or milk (or from powdered milk)

1/4 cup chia seeds (optional) or grass seed

four bottom end tips of cattails

A Jerusalem artichoke

Two table spoons acorn flour (or other flour)

1.4 cup water

Put chopped onions in 1/4 water and boil for five minutes. Add the rest of the liquid, cattail and Jerusalem artichoke. Cook at low temperature. Do NOT boil. When artichoke is almost done add flour and chia seeds. Mix. Salt and pepper to taste. Serves three.

Camp Salad

One cup onion leaves and bulbs

1/2 cup Poor Man’s Pepper Grass or Mustard leaves

One cup chickweed or other mild green

Two diced tomatoes

Juice of one lemon

Tablespoon of oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Collect onions, dice, add other green items torn into small bits, added tomatoes and other ingredients, toss.

 

 

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Field of Wild Radish near Tarpon Springs, Florida

Raphanus Raphanistrum: Radical Radish

Flowers are cross-shaped

The Wild Radish has an identity problem. It looks similar to it’s equally peppery cousin, the wild mustard. In fact, it really makes no difference which you have, both are edible, appear the same time and are used the same way. Both grow locally though I think radishs are more common. So, how do you tell them apart?

Seed pods are jointed

Wild radishes have singular flowers while mustards have a clump of flowers. The petals of the radish flowers are veined, mustard flowers are not. The seed pods of the radish are segmented, the mustard pods are not. Also wild radishes tend to grow to one or two feet high, maybe three. Wild mustards can four to six feet high. Usually just with a glance you can tell if it is a field of radis or mustards.

Blossooms and seeds are edible

Like the mustard the greens of the wild radish make an excellent greens, boiled for 10 minutes or so in plenty of water. They are edible raw but can upset some tummies. In fact, many livestock owners consider the radish and the mustard toxic for the same reason, then again, cows have several stomachs to upset.  I have eaten boiled radish greens for years and find them one of the tastiest short-lived plants of spring. That’s the only flaw of the Wild Radish, it’s here for a few weeks and gone. Thus for a few weeks I am busy harvesting, blanching, and freezing as much as I can process.

Leave reduce significantly during cooking

The blossoms are edible and the seed pods have many uses, from eaten raw to cooked to pickled.  Few mention the edibility of wild radish roots.  They are quite edible and remind me of kohlrabi in flavor, not a radish. They have vitamins B, C, rutin, and minerals.  The tough, outer layer peels off like a separate jacket, often coming off in strips the way colors wrap around a barbershop pole. What is left is the clean, smooth, inner core of the roots.  I dice them and cook them in plenty of boiling salted water for 45 minutes.  Depending upon their age, they can be occasionally be fibrous but still quite tender and tasty. They do, however, smell like radishes when peeling and can fill the house with a sulfur aroma when cooking. The cooking water may also turn light tan. I like them with salt, pepper and butter. Cooked, they are not peppery at all but rather mild.

Roots minus tough jackets ready for cooking

Also called the “Jointed Charlock” the Wild Radish’s name is a double take. Raphanus raphanistrum  (RA-fah-nus raf-ahn-ISS-trum.) Both come from Raphanis, a Greek word that means appearing quickly. It was the the Ancient Greek name for this vegetable. “Charlock” comes via Old English from the French word “cerlic” the name for the plant.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

Young seedling

IDENTIFICATION: Flower: Four sepals, four petals, six stamen, 4 long, 2 short, pistil in middle; Flowers tend to be solitary and petals clearly veined. Leaves lobbed, tough, stem round. The pods of wild radish break in fragments to expose the seed while the wild mustard open straight down the middle to expose the seed. Pods stick out around the stem like a spiral staircase. Under a yard high.

Chopping roots help cook them quicker 

TIME OF YEAR: Springtime to summer in northern clims, winter in Florida.

ENVIRONMENT: Well-drained soil, sandy to rich, old pastures, gardens, lawns, roadside

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Leaves as potherb, seeds for spice or flavoring, can use flowers to flavor vinegar. Some young leaves can be used raw in salads. Try a little first. Roots, peeled of outer core then boiled.

Recipe by Pascal:

Take 3 part apple cider vinegar, 2 parts white wine, 1/2 clove garlic, a bit of California Bay Leaf and Italian Spices, red chili and voila! Oh…and a dash of sea salt as well per jar. Canning it for 15 minutes (water-bath canning).

Wild radish seed pods ready for pickling (you can use mustard pods as well)

Wild radish seed pods ready for pickling (you can use mustard pods as well)

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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 the middle of a desert ‘cause they even grow in the arctic circle. In fact, it’s among the few plants in Greenland and is even found near the magnetic north pole.

Mustard blossoms, note four petals and clustered

A native of Eurasia and cultivated for some 5,000 years, the Mustard — Brassica et alia,  previously  Sinapis et alia, or as the botanists write, spp. — came to North America in the 1700s and is as wide-spread and varied as possible. It usually blossoms in winter here in Florida and over Christmas I saw a patch in full bloom in a backyard, feeding honeybees.  I would have brought some home for supper but couldn’t find the homeowner for permission to harvest. But that’s okay, there’s an orange grove near me that  is starting to sprout mustards, so…

The word “mustard” comes from the dead Latin phrase “mustrum ardens” because the Romans put the peppery “burning” seed in wine must. Why? They watered down their wine. Perhaps mustard added flavor.  Maybe they liked their wine peppery. Brassica is Latin for cabbage and Sinapis (sin-NAP-is) is Greek meaning mustard. In other words, it was correctly named in Greek but is now incorrectly named in Latin. That’s botanical progress. Modern Greeks call it sinapi. ( I think Latin is preferred over Greek because it is a dead language. One doesn’t have to learn to speak Latin to be considered a scholar of said…. which is kind of like being a celibate sex expert. )

While the table condiment mustard does indeed come from the mustard seed, the leaves, flowers, seed pods and roots are also edible.  Mustards are in the same large family with cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, turnips, kale, kohlrabi, wasabi, and others. The only problem is there are so many wild mustards its hard to tell which one you might have.   They are all edible, but some are a little more edible than others. What that means is mustard greens I used to pick in Maine were fairly tender, and not strong when cooked. The mustard greens I pick here in Florida are much tougher and spicier. They have to be chopped up more and cooked longer, but they still are delicious if a bit toothy. The point is you have to experiment a little to find your preference with your particular mustard.

Young leaves can use used raw in salads, or cooked as a potherb. As the plant ages, it becomes strong and sometimes the leaves are too bitter to eat. Tender young seeds pods can be added to salads, but are peppery.  If you are so inclined, you can make mustard out of the seeds, just grind them up and mix with vinegar, salt optional. Each plant can produces 2,000 to 3,500 seeds a season and the seeds can remain dormant underground for years.

Flower buds are also tasty when boiled. One nice touch is to add raw mustard flowers to your favorite vinegar to give it a little personalized pick-me-up — like the Roman wine, after all vinegar is just tarted up wine. The ratio is about half a cup of blossoms per pint of vinegar.  Oh, the shape of the blossoms — like a Maltese cross — gave name to their family, Cruciferae, or cross-like. That’s the positive side of mustard, here is the negative side:

Mustards leaves are usually cooked

Many agricultural departments classify wild mustard as poisonous because if cattle eat too much of it they can get quite ill with stomach irritations — and they have more than one stomach to irritate. Humans aren’t the herbivores cattle are and we don’t tend to eat as much mustard, still some caution is advised. Many are allergic to mustard so if you’ve never eaten any, it is best to try only a little at first. Mustard is a bane to dairy cows because it can flavor the milk making it unsellable.

Mustard, also know as charlock, is also at the heart of an academic controversy representing trillions of dollars. Canola is a mustard seed oil, from the rape plant, a mustard species. The word Canola comes from “Canadian Oil Seed, Low-Acid” which was its experimental name. Canola is currently very popular and presented as a healthy oil. Some experts would disagree, at the forefront, Dr. Mary Enig, PhD., an oil expert who often champions coconut oil.  Here is one place to read one side of the story: The Great Con-ola. 

There is a constituent in the rape seed oil — erucic acid — that is toxic to people and many animals in any significant amount. It has to be refined out. That refining process involves heating and deodorizing which Enig says increases the amount of chemicals and transfats in Canola oil. In her view it is a barely tolerable seed oil in its natural state made more unhealthy by refining.  One note though, erucic acid is helpful in the treatment of adrenoleukodystrophy, the wasting disease, and was the magic ingredient in Lorenzo’s oil.  Does this mean Lorenzo could have been helped by eating the seeds of a local mustard plant? That’s an interesting question. Modified olive oil and rapeseed oil stopped the progression of his disease. Lorenzo was helped with the usually toxic erucic acid about the same time agribusiness was trying to produce an erucic-free rapeseed oil. Whether that oil is good for those of us who are healthy is a hotly debated issue. In it natural state rape seed oil when used for cooking can cause lung cancer.

Mustard siliques

In the 1980’s corn oil — which research consistently shows is high-octane cancer fuel — and soybean oil, heavy in unbalancing Omega 9’s — were coming under increasing criticism as being unhealthy. The search was on for a vegetable oil that had a supposedly good health profile. Rapeseed oil was a possibility but it had to be refined for mass consumption and the erucic acid removed. In the quarter century since what was once considered an oil fit for only industrial uses has become the household food oil of choice. There isn’t much human use to prove this modified version of rapeseed oil  safe in the long term. None in fact. There are no long-term studies on human use because it has been assumed to be safe. Animal studies, however, implicate rapeseed oil in creating heart lesions, Vitamin E deficiency and stunted growth. Cattle growers refuse products with it. You may want to read up on Canola oil and consider its value to you.

Personally, I avoid Canola oil, preferring oils that were around in my grandparents’ day and avoiding all oils (and sugars or substitutes) discovered or made in the 1900s. I think the diabetes and obesity epidemics are directly caused by manufactured oils and high fructose corn syrup — that and the wrong advice to eat a high carbohydrate diet.  My mottos are: Trust the cow, Not The Chemist, and, Stay Away From Doctors… They Make You Sick. I am not a health nut, but in the long run I think eating like our great grandparents may just be the best diet because it was proven over thousands of years to work. They ate real food. Today we tend to eat processed semi-food stuff, what I call technofood.

Off the soap box and back to the plant: When I was a kid, back in the Dark Ages, my father built our house with no plans for a lawn. Still, the graded area had to be covered with something so he spread hay chaff from the hay barn all over the area in the spring. That year — 1960 — we had two major crops grow there. First was a very healthy and happy small field of mustard plants, most of them reaching towards six feet tall. Following them was an equally lush growth of pigweed, Chinopodium album. We ate a lot of greens that year.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Flower: Four four petals NOT veined; Flowers tend to in clusters. Leaves: toothed, somewhat lobbed. Seed are in pods called siliques. The pod open straight down the middle to expose the seeds on both sides. Wild radish pods usually break into fragments. Can grow to six feet tall.

TIME OF YEAR: Springtime, or summer depending on where you live.

ENVIRONMENT: Well-drained soil, sandy to rich, old pastures, gardens, lawns, roadside.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Leaves as potherb, seeds for spice or flavoring, can use flowers to flavor vinegar. Some young leaves can be used raw in salads. Try a little first.

Recipe by Pascal:

Take 3 part apple cider vinegar, 2 parts white wine, 1/2 clove garlic, a bit of California Bay Leaf and Italian Spices, red chili and voila! Oh…and a dash of sea salt as well per jar. Canning it for 15 minutes (water-bath canning).

Wild radish seed pods ready for pickling (you can use mustard pods as well)

Wild radish seed pods ready for pickling (you can use mustard pods as well)

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Watercress: A very good plant that often grows in very bad places.

Foraging is treasure hunting for adults. You’re never sure of just what you will find. But, the more you know the more you will discover.

Watercress Salad. Photo by Skopolos News.

Watercress Salad. Photo by Skopolos News.

I had classes in Gainesville and Ocala this past weekend. When I packed Friday I forgot to add my usual “samples” that I take to every class to start things going and accommodate any late students. Feeling guilty that I did not have my usual teaching materials I spent an hour before each class collecting some wild edibles not usually found at each location. While scrounging around early Saturday for my class I spied Watercress.

Watercress is an ancient and delicious green. It’s not native to North America but came here some 200 years ago and found a new home. It is perhaps the last  of the cooler weather plants to blossom just before spring (or summer) heats up.

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Watercress has the classic mustard blossom of four petals and six stamen, four long two short. Easy to see in the photo.

When in Gainesville this time of year I often to rummage for class examples where 12th Avenue meets Williston near some overhead power lines. I was there collecting Smilax, Grape species, Elderberries and wild garlic when I saw the low-growing Watercress. It’s quite easy to identify with its deep green color, mustard blossom and habit of growing in water. There are a few precautions, however. It often grows in drainage ditches, which have foul water and soil. But you could still take some to a wet spot or pot near you for planting. The other problem is that is also where deadly Water Hemlock likes to grow. They really don’t look that much alike but you have to harvest carefully to not get any Water Hemlock by accident. During the first minute and a half of this video I talk about that problem. Here is a video just about Watercress.  Or to read more about Watercress go here. 

Wild garlic cloves. Photo by Green Deane

Wild garlic cloves. Photo by Green Deane

Speaking of Wild Garlic not only is now the time to harvest it locally related species — such as Garlic Mustards and Ramps — are being harvested as far north as Indiana. Spring has come to many places. Now is the time to go looking. In fact, it might be what is called an “object” lesson. While the exact percentage changes somewhat given the location about 7% of wild plants are edible. That translates into a huge amount of plants. But, it is much easier to go looking for the 7% that are edible than trying to identify everything you see which includes the 93% that is not edible. As in the opening article, make it a treasure hunt. Identify a specific plant that is in season in your area, get a good description of the type of environment it likes to grow in, then visit that environment looking for that plant. It’s a much easier way to go about things.

A tessellated Green Deane teaching a foraging class. Photo by Kelly Fagan.

A tessellated Green Deane teaching a foraging class. Photo by Kelly Fagan.

My Upcoming foraging classes: 

Saturday, May 16th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935. 9 a.m.

Sunday, May 17th, Highwoods Preserve, 8401 New Tampa Blvd., Tampa FL 33647. 9 a.m.

Saturday May 23rd, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m.

Sunday, May 24th, Florida State College, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, 32246. 9 a.m.

To learn more about foraging classes go here. 

Looking for a new outdoor snake. Here's one from the Green Deane Forum, Pineapple Guava.

Looking for a new outdoor snack. Here’s one from the Green Deane Forum, Pineapple Guava.

Need to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Maybe you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane — chat about foraging all year long. 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 articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Poison Hemlock and Eating Birds, Study and Respect Plants, Firebow Elderberry, Not Yellow Pimpernel, Small Purple Flowers, Firebow Baccharis, Milkweed? Elderflower Fritters, Fuzzy Tree, Lacto-Fermenting Stachys Roots, Sweet Aromatic Herb, New Book: Southeast Foraging. Hibiscus Help. Native Wormwoods. Ancient DNA. Love Me Some Betony. Passiflora edulis,  And Top Restaurant Serves Deer Moss. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

Nickerbeans. Photo by Jeffery Pippen

Nickerbeans. Photo by Jeffery Pippen

Botany Builder #28: Echinate, covered with spines or prickles. It is from the Dead Latin echinatus, covered with prickles. Sea urchins are in the class of Echinoidea. “Urchin” by the way is an old word for porcupines as is hedgehogs. Mischievous boys are some times called urchins. Locally one medicinal plant is echinate, and that is the Nickerbean.  Not a vine and not a tree, it is a “climbing shrub.” The Smilax is also not called a vine but a “climbing shrub.”  The Nickerbean is not edible, but does, according to herbalists, have many medicinal applications.  To read more about the Nickerbean go here.  Incidentally, a student brought part of a shrub to class for identification Sunday. It, too, was prickly. After a bit of research I think it might have been an Aralia, sometimes confused with the Toothache Tree. 

Mystery botanical

Mystery botanical

Does anyone care to guess what this long-leaf shrub is? I find them at the base of pine trees and in pastures. You have to have the correct botanical name. As incentive I happen to have an extra copy of my DVD #9 which is videos 121 through 135. The first person who get’s it right gets the DVD #9.

This is EatTheWeeds newsletter #162. 

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A frozen cranberry ready for winter eating.

A frozen cranberry, blueberry’s wet cousin, is still tart and tasty.

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

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Bonfires and hot beverage make skating fun

The cranberries were conveniently above the ice just waiting to be harvested. I was on the north end of “Gowen’s Pond” in Pownal, Maine. It was at that end where water seeped into the pond to make the couple of acres we skated on every winter. It was also there where I once went skating at 52 below zero… the things you do when you’re a kid and there’s a huge bonfire going. I got chilblained hands and feet that night. More than forty years later air conditioning still makes my hands and feet itch.  (Yes, I now live in Florida and no, I do not have air conditioning.)

The water on that end of the pond wasn’t deep but it was moving so the ice could be shallow. Locals told a story about the farm next door that lost a cow through that ice one winter. I never did ask why the cow was out on the ice to start with. Maybe hungry and looking for cranberries.

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Many turtles stay active under the ice.

The pond had one little island. Very little. One person couldn’t stand on it… more like a stump. But it was always above the ice and had a bush on it. As I skated past it I saw a movement. It was a turtle swimming under the ice eating a little greenery from around the island. ‘Cranberries and turtle,’ I thought. Actually that turtle was spared but it did make me realize early on that one can forage in winter if you know where to look.

Of course, the real issue is what kind of winter? That can range from deep snow and rock-hard frozen ground to only occasional cool days. Finding wild food where there is no snow and little or no freezing is not difficult. It’s finding food in gawd-awful winters that is a challenge.

I am fond of saying food is where the water is. Whether you are referring to your yard, your county, state, region or country, the farther away from water you are the farther away from food you are. While that is true all year perhaps it is most critical in winter. Plants and creatures can be found near water in the winter.

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Ice huts are portable man caves.

Everyone is familiar with or knows about ice fishing. In some northern areas it is not only a passion but a rite of passage. It can certainly put food on the table (as can hunting and trapping.)  But not everyone has an ice hut or other equipment to harvest food that can move. In that case look for shallow, open streams or with ice than can be easily broken They have fresh water clams in the shallows. They don’t move too fast. As a young man I fished the Royal River in southern Maine and was always bringing home the clams I found. They are a bit tougher than those from the bay and occasionally one would yield a black pearl. I usually had a well-deserving lass to give it to.

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Freshwater clams are tougher than saltwater clams

Freshwater clams have to be handle carefully and cooked thoroughly but they are a good basis for a winter chowder. (The clams pick up parasites from land animal droppings requiring careful handling and cooking. Some clams are also federally protected so I’m sure you’ll check with local laws first.) Depending upon your stream or shallow pond you can also find crayfish and frogs (and turtles.) I should add that one of the advantage of aquatic turtles is that they do not eat toxic mushrooms. There is one instance where a person was sickened from eating a land turtle that had eaten mushrooms not toxic to it but toxic to humans.

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Cattail shoots are edible raw or cooked.

Open streams  or those with little ice can also produce cattail shoots and roots in winter. The shoots look like large dog’s teeth coming off the main root (actually horizontal rhizomes.) You can snap them off  — and the end shoot — eating them raw or toss them into the clam chowder. The roots are also full of starch. Getting it out is labor intensive and I think overrated as a flour. However a more calorie positive way is just toss the roots on a fire. That burns off the covering and the muck they’re usually in. That also cooks the starch in the fibrous middle. Then you open up the root and pull the fibers through your teeth to get the cooked starch off. It tastes like chestnuts, and there are no pots to clean.

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Groundnuts grow in a string in damp areas.

Also available stream side in winter are duck potatoes and groundnuts, the latter a good source of starch and protein. Duck potatoes grow deeper than groundnuts so they probably won’t be in any frozen banks but you do have to fish through cold water. Groundnuts are closer to the surface but still should be below the frost line or protected by water.  That’s a toss up. The good thing about groundnuts is they are unmistakable. Nothing else looks like them. While stream side also look for watercress, a plant that likes cold water. It’s a peppery member of the mustard family. Often found in winter streams, it can be a flavoring and/or a green to put into that clam chowder.

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Mussels were prime kid food when foraging 50 years ago.

If you live near the ocean there’s a lot of food available in winter. The natives used to say that when the tide was out dinner was on. Not only are there a wide variety of creatures to be had but sea weed as well. Most seaweed in northern climates is edible except for one variety in the pacific northwest that has sulfuric acid. If you mistakenly bite into Desmarestia ligulata you will know it. The problem with seaweed is most of it is not tasty but semi-drying and frying can help. If the weather is not too cold edibles can also be found hiding in the seaweed or on the rocks, such as crabs. One of the more odd things is that 50 years ago mussel at low tide were ignored except by us hungry latchkey kids. Now they are gourmet fare.

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Chickweed thrives in cold weather.

Depending on how cold and how much snow there are quite a few other edibles possible in winter.  Sorrel can often last through a mild winter. Some radishes and wild mustards can take quite a freeze and stay alive and green as can any cabbage left over in your garden. Oyster mushrooms can be found anytime of the year even after warm weather has past. They don’t take freezing, however. Dandelions can survive the winter in snow but they undergo some chemical changes that make them more a famine food than a tasty find. Hardy little chickweed can germinate under snow so when the spring melt comes it is among the first green plants. Wild garlic and garlic mustard can can also be found in winter especially on south facing hills with little or no snow (so can some of the little mustards.)  If there been no snow plantagos (plantains) can also be found in winter along with clover.  But you have to be careful with clover. It can be a blood thinner. In some areas  Stork’s Bill, (Alfilaria) is edible in winter. Just as a matter of routine south facing hills are always worth investigating for edibles particularly in the winter. Don’t forget to (carefully) roll over logs to find wintering lizards and or snakes. Colorful salamanders usually are NOT on the menu.

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Cheery red and green makes Wintergreen easy to spot.

Just as I collected frozen cranberries don’t forget to look for rose hips, dried grapes and frozen wild apples (which are often better after freezing and cooking.) Hawthorn berries can persist into the winter as can persimmonsmountain ash, wild plums (sloes) various edible Viburnum berries and Rumex seeds still on the stalk.  Partridgeberries are a common winter find as is wintergreen, which has edible berries and leaves for tea.  Where I grew up I always found wintergreen with berries in the spring snow. It was years before I learned the berries over wintered. The little plant is also medicinal. Most persistent grass seeds are also edible. There are no toxic native North American grasses.

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Birches offer several edibles.

You can also eat the inner bark (cambium) of true pines (best fried in oil. Boiling is the least preferred means of preparation.) Pine needles can also be used for tea. Also edible is the cambium of the Sweet Birch (Betula lenta). It can be eaten raw or dried or cooked. It also preserves well. Most lichen — such as Reindeer Moss — is also edible. But it is a survival food that needs to have its acid leached out first and even then it’s a food of desperation. Lichen such as is better used as an antiseptic.

Finding Burdock in Winter is Easy

Finding Burdock in Winter is Easy

There are more winter edibles but much depends upon the conditions. Acorns can be food but if they are covered with snow that doesn’t help much, and they will be frozen, and they need to be shelled, and they need to be leached and… well, you get the idea: Labor intensive in the best of times. The long skinny  Burdock Root is edible but if the ground is frozen it can be a challenge to dig up as are Jerusalem Artichokes. Thistles, the kind that produces a large basal rosette with thorns that prick you like needles, also have an edible root raw or cooked. But the issue is whether the edible is buried in snow, and or is the ground granite hard?

In northern climates juniper berries can be used for flavoring… but not in the clam chowder. Juniper berries are used for bigger, gamey game… Elk and Moose come to mind…

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Locally, blackberries are coming into season. Photo by Green Deane

Locally, blackberries are coming into season. Photo by Green Deane

Now is the time to go looking for blackberries. They are just coming into season with a few tart black ones and many pink to red berries aripening. Even when very sweet wild blackberries have a bitter note or aftertaste. That comes from the center, which stays with the blackberry when picked. That also gives it more shelf-life. Raspberry, in the same genus, leave the core behind when picked which is why they are sweeter and go bad quicker. If you have enough large blackberry shoots they can be peeled, boiled and eaten. The roots can produce a bit of sugar. Beside the fruit the most common use is the leaves for tea. It’s tasty and medicinal. Having foraged for them from Maine to Florida I think the farther north one goes the better the berry gets. To read more about the blackberry click here, and here.

Partially submerged Lemon Bacopa, Lake Seminary boat ramp, Maitland Fl., photo by Green Deane

Partially submerged Lemon Bacopa, Lake Seminary boat ramp, Maitland Fl., photo by Green Deane

Blackberries and Lemon Bacopa grow in two very different environments. Blackberries like it dry, Lemon Bacopa likes it wet. Yet you can find them close to each other if a hill slopes down to a lake. Thus after nibbling on the blackberries above I found some Lemon Bacopa at the base of the hill at shore’s edge. No where near as well known or as common as it’s genusmate Bacopa monnieri, it is actually the far better tasting of the two. It’s call Lemon Bacopa but tastes more like lime. Whether it has the same medicinal qualities as Bacopa monnieri is debatable. Some think so but the plants really are worlds apart in taste so personally I doubt it. One is exceptionally bitter, the other very citrusy. Lemon Bacopa makes a nice tea. To read about it go here.

Surinam fruit ranging from green to almost ripe. Photo by Green Deane.

Surinam fruit ranging from green to almost ripe. Photo by Green Deane.

The Surinam Cherry in my yard finally decided to fruit, about a month behind schedule. Nearly two months ago there was fruit in Port Charlotte and a month ago in West Palm Beach. The weather has been different this year. In the 10 years or so that shrub’s been bearing this is the latest that I recall. However, it is also probably producing the largest crop ever. The species is naturalized in warm areas of the world. In the picture to the left you can see the span of ripeness. The berries go from green to yellow to orange then red. The top one is not quite ripe. It needs to be a deep red with blue tones, like the color of old-fashioned fire trucks, a blue red not an orange red. The best ones are the ones you have to fight the ants for. There are no in betweens with the fruit: You will either find the ripe fruit edible or not. You will also only eat an unripe fruit once. They do not taste good. Do not eat the seeds. Not only do they taste bad but enough of them will make you sick. To read more about the Surinam Cherry click here.

Basswood  'tongue depressor" bracts are distinctive. Photo by Green Deane.

Basswood “tongue depressor” bracts are distinctive. Photo by Green Deane.

Tongue Depressors in the woods. Yes, tongue depressors. You’ll find something that looks that wood Popsicle on the Basswood Tree. It’s not wood but rather one bract of the flower. Blossoms are defined/arranged by their parts, from the outer most parts in, or the inner most out. Next out from flower petals are bracts (which can sometimes look like a petal as they do in the daylilies.) The Basswood has a bract that looks like a tongue depressor. If I remember correctly it is the only tree in North America to do that so identification when blossoming is quite easy. The tree is quite edible, actually most of it at one time or another from spring fresh leaves to inner bark. You can read more about the Basswood here.

Recently Added Article: Garlic Mustard. Also don’t forgt to check out my class schedule here. I’ve added three new locations.

This is only a test. Had this been a real spraying you would have been instructed to hold your breath and run a mile away.

Don’t worry. The label says it’s perfectly safe.

Lastly, a city park I teach in often sprayed herbicides on its lake shore on Earth Day.  How enlightened of them. When asked why the answer was to “make it look more aesthetically pleasing.” More aesthetically pleasing? To whom? To the birds who lost their nesting ground? To the animals that lost their shelter? How about the fish that have no where to hide or raise little ones? Maybe it is more aesthetically pleasing to suburbanites who like putting green lawns but that is a perverted view of reality. Looking more “aesthetically pleasing” is why here in Florida you see residential lakes that have decapitated grass to the shore line and then water but literally no other plants. Just naked lawn and dead lakes. It makes home owner associations proud: The only good nature is sterile and  coiffured. Wild Mother Nature? Banish the thought. In times of budget cuts and sensitivity to environmental issues one would think governmental agencies would stop wasting tax dollars on toxins that kill plants… if not animals and us.

 

 

 

 

 

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Candyroot can range from yellow to orange.

Candyroot can range from yellow to orange.

There needs to be a category between common and rare particularly for species that are not rare but aren’t seen often. Polygala are a good example: You never see them except in April in pine flatwoods.  You have to be in the right place at the right time and we were this weekend.

At Wickham park in Melbourne we found some “candyroot,” a few short orange ones and several tall yellow ones growing beside a drainage ditch. Colorful, distinctive, aromatic, they were important in the religious beliefs of the Miccosukee Indians. Polygalas break down into two groups for our purposes, those whose roots have methyl salicylate (and smell of wintergreen or liquorish) and those that don’t. They had medicinal uses and were also thought of as candy hence the same. You can read more about this unusual genus here.

Hairy Cowpea is related to the mung bean. Photo by Regional Conservaion.org

Hairy Cowpea is related to the mung bean. Photo by Regional Conservaion.org

If you are wandering around damp spots (as I was in Port St. Lucie Sunday for the Treasure Coast Environmental Education Council) look for the bright yellow blossoms of the Hairy Cowpea. They are closely related to Mung Beans and Black Eyed Peas. The blossoms are edible raw or cooked but are usually cooked. The seeds are edible cooked (not the pods.) Whenever you are near fresh water in Florida with a shrubby shore you are likely to find the Hairy Cowpea. And while one would not imagine so some folks confuse it with the common primrose willow which also had a yellow blossom. The primrose willow (which is neither a primrose nor a willow) is a shrub with a large four-petalled  blossoms. The Hairy Cowpea has a small pea blossom, with “wings and keel.” Quite different. You can read about the Hairy Cowpea here.

Barnyard Grass grows in damp areas. Photo by Find Duck Food.

Barnyard Grass grows in damp areas. Photo by Find Duck Food.

The Education Council’s location was graced with a large amount of Purslane and Amaranth which probably came in with landscaping soil. One odd interloper in the parking lot turn around island was Barnyard Grass.  I say interloper because Barnyard Grass usually likes to grow in damp places but perhaps there had been a lot of rain there lately. It’s an easy grass to identity: Barnyard grass is found in wet spots (usually) has a purple lower stem that’s often grows like a J, and does not have a ligule where the leaf blade separate from the main stem. Apparently it is the only grass in North America that does not have a ligule which helps in identification. From a human point of view the seeds can be used like wheat. You can read more about Barnyard Grass here.

The Rose Apple by any other name tastes as sweet. Photo by The Fruit Warehouse

The Rose Apple by any other name tastes as sweet. Photo by The Fruit Warehouse

The good folks of the Treasure Coast Environmental Education Council held two classes Sunday at two locations providing a look at Florida as it is and what was a nice homestead by the river. I think I will be holding future classes at the preserve location (which is also just a few miles from the junction of the interstate and turnpike.) While at the homestead there was a tree whose identification was in doubt. One person said she thought it was a “rose apple.” My guess was Syzygium. I think we were both right. I think it might of been Syzygium jambos which is also called Rose Apple. Unfortunately the tree was either hit by cold weather at the wrong time or has some disease in that the fruit and foliage was damaged which did not help identification. The genus name, Syzygium, has marital connotations in Greek. To read more about the tree you can click here.

New Article archived: Tropical Almond

What do these wild edible plants have in common: Water Hyacinth, Air Potato, Skunk Vine and Garlic Mustard? They have or soon will have some insect trying to make them extinct in North America. Forager have competition so eat them while you can!

There are big hopes that the like Air Potato Beetle can make a dent in the invasive plant.

Air Potato Beetle from China has locally proven to be successful.

Water Hyacinth is a multi-million dollar pest in warm water ways. It affects water traffic, water quality, pumping, hydro electric operations and contributes to fish kill. Great hopes have been placed on Megamelus scutellaris, a plant hopper from South America. Released in 2010 I have not found follow up reports on the success of the bug. They are not expected to bother Pickerel Weed, a native and close relative of the Water Hyacinth.  The latter species was intentionally released in the late 1800’s into Florida’s water ways.

Skunk Vine, intentionally brought to the state as a plant for making rope, may find its seasons numbered by a beetle from Thailand, Himalusa thailandensis. Only one tenth of an inch long the bug does a good job of killing off closely related species to skunk vine. There is no native insect in North America that feeds on skunk vine so hopes are high for the little bugger.

Released last fall to control the “Air potato” was the leaf beetle Lilioceris Cheni from China. In Davie, Florida, where they have liberated the Lilioceris on a limited basis they did have a local impact. The concern among foragers is that while intended to control the mostly non-edible Dioscorea bulbifera they will probably attack the Dioscorea alata as well. The latter has a highly edible root and is prime in Florida as a foraged caloric staple.

Garlic Mustard, Alliaria petiolata, is the sole food source for a small weevil with the large name of Ceutorhychus scrobicollis. First discovered in the New World on Long Island in 1868 it has invaded 34 mostly northern states. It is edible though most official news releases say while it is edible it is rather poor as said. A northern university is close go getting permission to let the weevil get garlic breath.

Cane toads are edible if cleaned correctly.

Bufo toads are edible if cleaned properly.

Florida is ground zero for not only introduced plants that turned bad but also bio-controls that went awry. was brought in to drain the everglades, bufo toads to control sugar cane pests (no one noticed the toads didn’t jump high enough to catch certain bugs) and blue tilapia to clear canals of weeds…. at least the tilapia are readily edible but they don’t take a hook. The toads are edible, too, but have to be cleaned correctly which includes removing the skin and parotoid glans. The glands are at the back of its head, behind the ears. They secrete a milky liquid that can burn your eyes and irritate your skin. The secretion can kill cats and dogs if they ingest it… see, yet another failure in that the toad has not had a major impact on the dog or cat population…

Next week: How to tell our two sow thistles apart.

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Sheep Sorrel, photo by Frogs On Ice

Sheep Sorrel, photo by Frogs On Ice

Is it Rumex hastatulus or Rumex acetosella? After all they look very similar. From one perspective it makes little difference: They taste the same and are used the same way. They both have oxalic acid and are tart: Think rhubarb lite. Regardless they are reaching maturity in the state now. These Rumex can show up in the early fall, and can be found in late spring. However, they favor the cooler winter months from Christmas to Valentines Day,  give or take a few weeks. These sorrels are quite easy to spot, a basal rosette of dagger-shaped leaves with several light green stalks topped with cream-colored plumes that turn pink to red as they mature. In a foraging class this weekend in Jacksonville the sorrel was happily putting on seed where lawns were’t being mowed. One can sometimes find them in pastures, depending what grazing animal is raised there.

Rumex hastatulus leaf, photo by Eol

Rumex hastatulus leaf, photo by Eol

To help with identification Rumex hastatulus has a tap root and reaches two feet high or more. Rumex acetosella doesn’t have a tap root and is more mat growing rarely getting above 18-inches high. The R. hastatulus has broadly winged seeds, the Rumex acetosella does not. Indeed, the Rumex hastatulus is called the Heart-Winged Sorrel for the distinct wings on the seeds. Rumex acetosella does not have a heart shape on its seeds or if the wings are there they are very tiny. As for the leaves being different shaped they’ve been quite inconsistent locally. If I had to guess the Rumex hastatulus has hilts on their leaves more often than not and Rumex acetosella less often or not. Both are a nice trail-side nibble and addition to salads. You can also make a soup out of them (the leaves that is.) You can read about the sorrels here and here.

Drymaria Cordata, West Indian Chickweed

Drymaria Cordata, West Indian Chickweed

Also gracing lawns right now — if that is the right verb to use — is Drymaria cordata, West Indian Chickweed. It’s zoochorous, which is all Greek meaning its seeds are spread by animals, including man. If you walk through it or grab a stem of seeding heads they will stick to you. And if the sun catches them just right it looks like a patch of snow on your green lawn, hence the other common Caribbean name: White Snow. (I must admit I have wondered why they called it White Snow, as if “Snow” would not have worked well. Then again, how much snow do they get in the Bahamas? Well… it did snow there 19 January 1977. It also snowed in Miami. I remember because I came to Florida from Maine that very day and it snowed in Florida… what a welcome…) Drymaria is a little controversial. I view it as a minor edible, toss a little in a salad now and then because it does have medicinal applications. Other people tell me they use it just like chickweed. To read more about it go here.

New articles added: Hydrilla,

What’s the Buzz? We know flowers attract pollinators through petal colors, shapes and scent. Two related edible species actually change blossom colors during the day to do just that, the Mahoe and the Seaside Mahoe. The blossoms start out yellow in the morning but turn red in the afternoon. But now scientists have found an invisible feature that flowers use to get more attraction.

Bee approaching a Spiderwort blossom, photo by Green Deane

Bee approaching a Spiderwort blossom, photo by Green Deane

Plants emit a weak negative electric fields that bees are able to detect, according to researchers at the University of Bristol in England. The research was published Thursday in the latest online edition of the journal Science Express. The study found that bees’ flapping wings create a positive electrical charge of up to 200 volts as they fly through the air. They forge a special connection when encountering the charged flowers. The electricity is not enough to produce sparks, but it makes flowers easier for the bees to remember. And the bees can keep track of different flowers by their electrical fields.

“This novel communication channel reveals how flowers can potentially inform their pollinators about the honest status of their precious nectar and pollen reserves,” said study leader Professor Daniel Robert.

Gray She Oak branchlet, cone and seeds. Photo by John Tann

Gray She Oak branchlet, cone and seeds. Photo by John Tann

The red sap is drinkable. When dried to a gum it’s edible. Young cones, branchlets and seeds are also edible. It’s a sign of fresh water even on tiny salty spoil islands. The tree can be cut down and burned immediately, and it’s a superior wood for barbecuing and smoking. It’s also an excellent windbreak, stabilizes canal banks, and fixes nitrogen. So why is the Australian Pine hated? They grow fast, threaten native ecosystems, their roots destroy roads and city water/sewer pipes, and its leaf litter is allelopathic. It has a growth inhibiting effect on other plants. Also in soil-shallow Florida they fall over, a lot.  While not a prime edible it is usually an overlooked resource. To read more about the Australian Pine, which is not a pine, go here.

Hydrilla, photo by S.L. Winterton

Hydrilla, photo by S.L. Winterton

Florida has both of the top two invasive aquatic weeds in the world: Water Hyacinth and Hydrilla. Water Hyacinths came to the state well over a century ago and was intentionally released. With preparation Water Hyacinth is edible. You can read about it here. But what about Hydrilla? It showed up some 60 years ago with no history of edibility. However, it’s available in powdered form in health food stores and packs a lot of nutrition particularly calcium. But you won’t be seeing it in your green grocer’s department. Why? I can think of two reasons. Most of it does not grow in wholesome water, and it has a texture issue that drying gets around, kind of. To read more about Hydrilla go here.

While fishing around to find an article to end this newsletter I read about WRISC, which is a CWMA. Wild Rivers Invasive Species Coalition is a Cooperative Weed Management Area that works in northeastern Wisconsin and the south western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This time, however, it is not a weed they are complaining about.

Forest enemy #1, photo by Animal

Forest enemy #1, photo by Animalstown

WRISC won a grant to “Slow the Spread: Earthworm Education for Anglers.”  Earthworms, you see, are not native to the Great Lakes area. Settlers brought the earthworms with them and there are now some 15 different species crawling under the hardwood forest, which is not supposed to have worms. They are an invasive species. WRISC writes “researchers have document dramatic changes in native hardwood ecosystems when exotic earthworms invade, including losses of naive understory plants and tree seedlings, changes in soil structure, and declines in nutrient availability. These changes affect small mammal, bird and amphibian populations, increase the impact of white-tailed deer, and facilitate invasion of exotic plants like buckthorn and garlic mustard.” Should you want to help protect the environment from these underground invaders you can join the Worm Watch by clicking here.  Or, you can read an article about preparing Earthworms to eat.

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Articles

Delicious and deadly, that’s ackee

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    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…
  • 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.…

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 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…

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

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…

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

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…

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

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

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

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

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 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.

 

Galium aparine: Goosegrass on the Loose

You don’t find Goosegrass. It finds you.

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

  • 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…
  • 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,…

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…

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.

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…
  • 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…
  • 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…
  • 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: 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…
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