Search: black nightshade

Smaller fruits are more edible as older fruits become dry and get milkweed fluffy inside.

It doesn’t have the best pubic relations name: Latex Strangler Vine. But you have to realize it was named decades ago by citrus growers. The vine, which can easily grow over 100-feet long, happily covered low-growing citrus trees shading out the sun and killing the tree. The state of Florida has spent millions of dollars trying to control and eradicate it. In tropical American it’s what’s for dinner.

Aromatic blossoms are distinct and edible raw.

The vine has been in the state about 78 years. Under cultivation in 1939 in Pasco County, by the mid-1950s it was showing up in citrus groves in Orange County about 100 miles due east. That’s when it came to the state’s attention and became an official problem. While it might have made it onto the state’s noxious weed list it did not make its way into wild foraging books.  Perhaps that’s because in other parts of the word it’s a staple. The plant highlights two different mentalities. To one population it is daily food, to another it’s not food but a threat to income.

The vine flourishes on fences and walls.

While it was one of the plants banned by citrus industry one doesn’t hear about it much now. It has greener issues to contend with. I find the Latex Strangler Vine not in groves but on the land around them. It also likes to grow on hedges and fences. In Blanchard Park it is on ornamentals by the tennis courts, in Winter Park it is near a dentist’s office on a hedge, on the West Orange Bike Trail it is on a pond fence and many miles away on the same trail on a subdivision fence. I see it on chain link fences driving in to Winter Garden and on junk yard fences in west Orlando. It is even in one protected site in Ocala in Jervey Gantt Park. If you look for the vine you will find it. To read more about the Latex Strangler Vine go here.

Ripe Podocarpus arils can be dark red to deep purple.  Photo by Green Deane

Podocarpus is afoot which makes sense as its name means Foot Fruit. Locally August is ripening time for the plant’s arils which we eat. We do not eat the seed on the end. Just the aril. They resemble grapes in taste and texture and can be used like them as well. Podocarpus macrophyllus is almost impossible not to find. It is an extremely common hedge plant in suburbia. Hardly a subdivision or a shopping center is not without a row of podocarpus. They are usually heavy with fruit but trimming at the wrong time can leave them fruitless. If left on their own — that is not trimmed into a perpetual hedge — them make nice trees similar to pines. And while August is their ripening time locally that only holds true if they are a hedge. I know where there are four podocarpus trees and they fruit in December. I don’t know why and I can’t explain it. They just do. To read more about the podocarpus go here.

The Black Nightshade produces edible berries.

There’s much confusion about the American Nightshade. For some the name alone conjures up death. There are several reason why this is so. First is European prejudice. Settlers assumed nightshades in the Americas were toxic like nightshades in Europe (I know someone now who still thinks tomatoes are poisonous, not allergenic but actually poisonous like Belladonna.) Botanists didn’t help foraging things by changing the names and getting various species widely confused. And lastly indeed the unripe berries of the American Nightshade are toxic, how toxic depends on how many and how old you are. A few can sicken a child, it takes more to bring down an adult. However, totally ripe berries are, as they, say sub-acid and edible. The flavor ranges from nice and perfumey to uninteresting. I’ve also found some in Ocala — always in the same place — that are bitter even when ripe. I don’t eat those. To read more about this maligned edible go here.

Orlando Mushroom Group

OMG is now official. Nearly four years ago I created several Facebook pages about mushroom because I wanted to know more about them. Two pages I worked on and two I did not. Since then Florida Mushroom Identification Forum and the Southeastern U.S. Mushroom Identification page have done well. I kept Edible Mushrooms: Florida kind of a secret but folks found it anyway and this year it grew. So it was time to populate and promote Orlando Mushroom Group. Besides, I wanted OMG. The goal is to also have mushroom forages and start a group that actually meets in person. There are nearly none of those in Florida like there are in most places around the country. So OMG is open for fungal business and we will have our first hunt and class next month!

Classes are held in sunshine and rain.

Because I am attending a fungal fair on Saturday I have only one foraging class this week, in Jacksonville. The class size is currently small which usually means more personal attention and a class under four hours because of less questions and smaller groups move faster.

Sunday, August 27th, Florida State College,  Jacksonville, this class will be rescheduled later in September.

Saturday, September 2nd, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m.

Sunday, September 10th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405, 9 a.m.

Sunday, September 17th, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. 9 a.m.

For more information go here. 

The Nine-DVD set includes 135 videos.

All of Green Deane’s videos available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for this newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in slightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each.  Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. They make a good gift for that forager you know. Individual DVDs can also be ordered. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right of this page or you can go here.

Do you know what these edibles are? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum.

Want to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Do you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified? On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations around the world share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. One special section is “From the Frightening Mail Bag” where we learn from people’s mistakes. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is issue 271.

If you would like to donate to Eat The Weeds please click here.

Black Cherry ripen unevenly. Photo by Green Deane

Sporadic rain and fluctuating temperatures can alter plant schedules. Already this year Surinam Cherries have been unpredictable, full fruit in some place, just starting in others, gone elsewhere. Also ripening rough shod is Black Cherry, the only true cherry we find locally (Surinam Cherries are actually in a different genus.)

Black Cherries are both sweet and bitter at the same time. They can be eaten out of hand and made into a variety of products. Black Cherry cough syrup, however, is made from the cambium not the fruit. In the past three weeks I’ve seen trees totally laden with fruit and others still with unripe green fruit. The ripening time is proving to be uneven. While that might make ripe fruit harder to find it also could also extend the harvesting season a few weeks.  To read more about the Black Cherry go here.

A mature Black Cherry leaf has hair along the main stem.

Black Cherry vs Cherry Laurel: While on the topic of cherries this is an opportunity to highlight the differences between the edible wild Black Cherry and deadly wild Cherry Laurel, both native. The fruit of the Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) is edible when ripe. The fruit of the Cherry Laurel (Prunus caroliniana) is always toxic. A quick look at the leaves can tell them apart. The Black Cherry, right, has consistently small teeth around the entire edge of the leaf. And if you look at the backside of the leaf the main stem near the base will have hair on both sides for about an inch. This time of year the hair can be white but it will change to light tan and then dark brown as the season progresses. The soft Black Cherry fruit is dark red to purple with a dimple in the end.

The toxic Cherry Laurel has two glands on the back of every leaf near the stem.

The Cherry Laurel leaf, left, is quite different. Its teeth are sporadic, especially on older trees or older leaves can have no teeth at all. Younger leaves can have many teeth but they are not consistent or well-organized. Also the back of the Cherry Laurel leaf does not have any hair along the stem. Instead it often has two gray-green dots near the base. They can be faint but each leaf usually will have those dots, which are really glands. They also are not in the exact same spot all the time and on very young leaves can be red. Cherry Laurel leaves also smell of almonds or maraschino cherries when crushed which is cyanide (assuming you are among those who can smell cyanide. Many people cannot.) The fruit of the Cherry Laurel is hard, dark blue to black and pointed. NOT EDIBLE.

Although it may sound odd the Black Cherry tree also looks like more like a typical cherry bark being more checkered than the Cherry Laurel. I have read there are Pin or Red Cherries growing in Florida but the only edible one I’ve ever see here is the Black Cherry. I grew up in Maine where we harvested choke cherries to make jelly and wine…. we also suffered trying to eat them raw.

One of the more pleasant aspects of teaching foraging in Florida — and one of the headaches — is huge climate differences and subsequent plant species. The state ranges from temperate forest to tropical. Between temperate and subtropical one can find the Tamarind tree.

Tamarind Pods

Tamarindus indica is from warm Africa. Today it is commonly found in South Asia and Mexico. India is the world largest producer of the legume. Tamarind’s nutritious pods are consumed raw and cooked and is one of the current flavor darling of many avant-garde restaurants. The flavor is distinctive, both sweet and sour. The tree itself is slow-growing and long-lived. Without the pods it’s just another pea tree, of which there are so many here in Florida. I see it regularly when I teach in West Palm Beach.  Without its annual pods the tree can easily hide, moderate in size, not too distinct. The other interesting part is that most trees in the greater legume group are toxic with some notable exceptions, the Tamarind being one and the Eastern Red Bud another. Generally pea trees don’t offer much to the forager.

Yucca blossoms are edible once debugged and cooked. Photo by Green Deane

Also blossoming now are our local yucca, Yucca filamentosa. While some wild edibles are under rated perhaps the Yucca is over-rated. You will read in many foraging books that the blossoms are edible raw. Good luck with that. I have never found that so with our local species. Raw they have a wonderful texture and initial flavor but then a natural soap kicks in and leaves a bitter aftertaste that is quite disappointing. Cooked flowers, however, are quite tasty though you always have to knock out a lot of insects before cooking… well, you don’t really if you want some extra protein.  I usually boil the blossoms. The flower spike is also edible when very young.  Other parts are famine food. To read more about the yucca go here.

While ripe American Nightshade berries are edible green ones are toxic. Photo by Green Deane

Also fruiting now is the controversial American Black Nightshade, Solanum americanum.  Several genera have one foot in edible and the other in toxic. The Nightshade is one such family, as is the Honeysuckle and the aforementioned Peas. I eat S. americanum berries as a trail side nibble often to the aghast of students or even other foragers. It’s a family with a lot of misunderstanding but also justified warnings about toxicity. If I have a problem with the S. americanum it is that the fruit is not consistent. Sometimes you find some very ripe but bitter fruit. Don’t eat those. Sometimes that are also larger than usual fruit and bitter (something I have noticed in the species in Ocala.) Perhaps there is some cross pollinating going on. Always taste a ripe berry first and wait a minute or two to see if any bitterness shows up. The green berries are definitely toxic. Do not eat them. To read more about the American Nightshade go here.

FORAGING CLASSES: Heading north this week for a foraging class in Gainesville at Boulware Spring. This location is close to the Hawthorne Bike Trail which we will also walk on for a ways. It’s one of the few places in Florida I have found Partridge Berries and also Chicken of the Woods mushrooms. Sometimes we get a glimpse of a surrogate deer mother, a partially blind deer on site that raises orphaned fawns. If lucky we might also find some end of season wild garlic.

Classes are held in sunshine and rain.

Saturday, May 27th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m. Meet next to the spring house.

Sunday, June 4th, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL  9 a.m. 34685.

Sunday, June 11th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. Meet at the parking lot at the intersection of Bayshore Road and Ganyard Street.

Saturday, June 17th, Florida State College,  south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246. 9 a.m.

Sunday, June 18th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. Meet east side of the tennis courts near the YMCA building.

To read more about the foraging classes go here. 

Can you identify this marginal edible? You could if you read the Green Deane Forum.

Want to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Do you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified? On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations around the world share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. One special section is “From the Frightening Mail Bag” where we learn from people’s mistakes. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

The Nine-DVD set includes 135 videos.

 All of Green Deane’s videos available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for this newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in slightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each.  Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. They make a good gift for that forager you know. Individual DVDs can also be ordered. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right of this page or you can go here.

From the Archive 2012

It was a road tour weekend with a Saturday class in Port Charlotte and West Palm Beach on Sunday. Round trip it was a total of 533 miles for the weekend on the big red motorcycle. I always enjoy these two locations because they have species not found even 200 miles to the north.

Non-edible Nickerbean

In Port Charlotte we saw a gray Nickerbean, Caesalpinia bonduc. It’s included among the “sea beans” that float north on ocean currents from Central and South America. However, the gray Nickerbean — aka Nickernut —  is actually a Florida native. I have not found any reference to this legume vine being edible however the seeds have been used medicinally for many applications. As the plant was used extensively to combat malaria, it’s also been called the “quinine of the poor.” The non-edible seeds float and stay viable for at least 30 years. They have been found as far away as Scotland where they are called Molucca Beans. Oddly the Scots call all sea beans that come ashore arna Moire, or in Gaelic, Mary’s Kidney.  One relative of the Nickerbean is edible. That is the C. pulcherrima, whose young seeds are eaten fresh or cooked. The flowers of that species are edible after cooking. The stamens of C. gilliesii flowers are used to adulterate saffron.  Interestingly the Nickerbean is related to the Bauhinias.

This is issue 258

If you would like to donate to Eat The Weeds please click here.

The American Lotus, photo by Erie County Master Gardener Blog

Foraging can be fun but survival requires more daily calories in on-average than out or one moves towards starvation. To that end ancient man found many local caloric staples which here include cattails, acorns and the American lotus. All three are labor intensive but of the trio the lotus is my personal favorite and is in bloom now.

Uncooked young lotus seeds. Photo by Green Deane.

This past weekend I attended the Fifth Annual Mushroom Intensive in Gainesville put on by Mycol Stevens and crew. More about that in a moment. The journey there includes a mile of highway crossing what is called Paynes Prairie, a 12,000 acre “solution basin” that is it’s own unique ecosystem. Thousands of American lotus were in bloom, their huge yellow blossoms — the largest in North America — are unmistakable even while going 65 MPH. The prairie — a cyclical temporary lake — is fed by a creek from Newnan’s Lake which is also heavily populated with lotus and no doubt the species moved into the prairie eons ago.

If I had to vote for the major caloric staple that tastes the best and takes the least amount of work the American Lotus seeds would be my winner. The roots are also edible but they require a lot of wet, back-breaking work to harvest depending on the density of plants, the water level, and means of digging. Though once a major food source for Native Americans, the lotus is considered an annual, clogging nuisance in several places along the Mississippi River and tributaries. To me it is an attractive reminder that I will not starve. To read more about the American Lotus, go here.

The Show & Smell table at the 5th Mushroom Intensive with dozens of species to study. Photo by Green Deane

The Fifth Annual Mushroom Intensive is now history. I am extremely pleased that I went and it is already on my calender for next year. Put it on yours. While I am quite confident with scores of edible plants my mushroom skills are limited to perhaps a dozen or so edible and medicinal ones. Thus anytime I have a chance to get my identification skills confirmed and improved I am there. We started out with some three dozen species to consider and then went on a field trip to find more. At least four species got cooked up for tasting, which is exactly the right time and place to do such a thing. You also get to hear the nitty gritty and inside hints about various mushrooms. And if you don’t have a microscope it was an opportunity to get some micro-views of identification elements such as spore shapes. Such events are a distillation of experience that help move you forward in your foraging goals. They are well worth attending about mushrooms (and other plants.)

One plate of many chanterelles that made it to many tummies. Photo by Green Deane

Mushrooms are much maligned it the British and hence American culture yet they are so important for many reasons. It’s a reasonable forager’s goal to be comfortable with a few mushrooms and their role in the environment and as food. Within mushrooming there are also several levels of skills one can aspire to. My goal is to identify the some choice ones, the local toxic ones, and to appreciate their role and resource.  On this particular occasion I got to not only talk mushrooms but to eat some I identified and took to the conference. Moving mushrooms forward, always something to learn, so a big thank you to Mycol for organizing the event and see you at the Sixth Annual Mushroom Intensive.

Purslane is edible but what about other genus-mates?

Botany is similar to law. Some things are “settled” others are not. Dandelions and apples are settled. They are certainly edible, and have been eaten for a long time by a lot of people in different populations. Yellow-blossomed Purslane, Portulaca oleracea, is settled. You can eat it. But what about other Portulaca, the ones that have red, pink and orange blossoms or large double blossoms of many colors? That is not settled, and it’s a question I hear often. There is a local species called Portulaca pilosa with cylindrical leaves and tufts of white hair. It tastes bad to me and irritates my stomach yet some say it is edible. I’ve met beginners who say they eat it but to my knowledge I have not met an experienced forager who eats it (and who would not misidentify it for something else as beginners might.) The many-colored cultivated varieties are often seen in garden shops for sale with names such as Toucan Hot Mix and Heirloom 2000. Are they edible? I don’t know, and experienced forager Dick Deurerling said he didn’t know either when I asked him some 20 years ago. It’s not a dangerous family and I suppose I should try some but intentionally getting ill is not fun. That’s why only the common one is on my site as an edible. But back to the original point: Not all things are settled in botany and that includes some of the plants we forage for.

Green Deane during a foraging class.

I will have classes on opposite sides of the state this weekend, Melbourne and Sarasota. Then there is a break for two weeks while I swing up through the Carolinas with my first local class again in mid-August at Mead Garden in Winter Park. Also if anyone knows of a good place to meet and greet in Boone, North Carolina, please let me know.

Saturday, July 26th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335.

Sunday, July 27th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233.  9 a.m.

Saturday, August 16th, Mead Garden,1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m.

Green Deane Forum

On the Green Deane Forum we post messages and pictures about foraging all year long. There’s also a UFO page, for Unidentified Flowering Objects so plants can be identified. Recent topics include: Plants as Medicine, the plant Indian Warrior, the Flora of China, how to compare, plants to identify, how to keep figs unblemished, the paleo diet, unidentified trees, Chenopodiums, which species of ground cherry, Linguistic Overdive (in the social lounge) and Black Nightshade.  The link to join is on the right hand side of this page.

Eat The Weeds DVDs are now available.

My foraging videos do not include alligators but they do cover dozens of edible plants in North America. The set has nine DVD. Each DVD has 15 videos for 135 in all. Some of these videos are of better quality than my free ones on the Internet. They are the same videos but many people like to have their own copy. I burn and compile the sets myself so if you have any issues I handle it. There are no middle foragers. And I’m working on adding a tenth DVD.  To learn more about the DVDs or to order them click here.

Ripening podocarpus are early this year. Photo by Green Deane

Here’s a reminder that locally the Podocarpus is fruiting. Remember we do not eat the seed on the end. It is the fleshy aril that is edible when they are dark red or purple. They can be eaten out of hand or made in to wine, jelly and syrups. I have several pounds being made into wine. Also note they dehydrate well and resemble raisins. Again, do not eat the seed on the end. It is mildly toxic. It is the fleshy aril that we eat. To learn more about the Podocarpus go here.

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Cattails are not native to many areas of North America. Photo by Brandeis University

If you were starving and came upon a patch of cattails you would have great cause for celebration. You have found food, and water. You will survive. But if you are not starving and do not have all the time in the inter-connected world you just might find cattails highly overrated.

Cattail starch extraction by hand takes time and calories. Photo by Zubacorp

It is true that no plant can produce more starch per acre than cattails, about 3.5 tons under cultivation. And it can produce a lot of starch economically if you can mechanize the extraction. But hand extraction is time consuming and labor intensive. It is also wet, smelly work all of which can be worsened significantly by harvesting in cold weather. So yes, cattails are food but the time demand is such that harvesting food has to be your prime occupation.

Kudzu has mustached leaves of three. The blossom smells like cheap grape soda.

A similar argument can be made for kudzu. The roots do have edible starch but it takes a gargantuan amount of work to get the starch out, literally hours of steady pounding. It is not a calorie positive activity. It moves you closer to starvation. But, mechanize the process with some hammers run by falling water — or hammers run by a horse fed on an endless supply of grass — and it becomes a reliable calorie-positive food.

Even squirrels avoid the most tannin-laden part of the acorn. Photo by Sumpretty

Just how good are these wild “staples” came up in a foraging class this weekend when it was asked why did the Native Americans eat acorns when they need so much processing? There can be several answers. One is the natives had no choice and they had a lot of time to process acorns. It was their 9-to-5 job, so to speak. Another is acorns are nutrient dense and have fat which is not only nice but essential to have if you can’t run down a buffalo. A third answer is variety. The menu only changed with the season so variety was important. One could also add that acorns, if care for, store well for a few years making a food bank one could rely on.

Tools can help make food production a calorie-positive activity.

All these foods if approached efficiently are calorie positive. But they take time and calories to make edible. Another variable is whether the food is for one on the run or for a group in a settled situation. It makes a difference. Personally I look for shortcuts. I roast the cattail root reducing the labor and time needed significantly. I look for Live Oaks (white oaks)that have acorns with minimal tannin thus requiring less work. And I reduce that work by crushing the nutmeat in an oil expeller first. This extracts the oil and mashes up the acorns so they leach faster and more completely. Having a nutsheller to shell them also reduces hours of work down to minutes. As for kudzu I look for little roots the size of my fingers, or I feed the leaves to goats and let them turn it into something easier to work with, such as milk.

Some wild food requires little work some a lot. Much of what comprises success with wild foods is knowing the difference and the most efficient way to harvest a particular food. Still interested? Here’s an article on “wild’ flours. 

Fresh Blackberries don’t store well so they are best eaten fresh. Photo by Green Deane

While seasonal changes are not as dramatic in warmer climates we definitely do have them regarding plants. Pellitory is all but gone for the season. We shouldn’t smell its cucumber-like aroma again until Thanksgiving or so.  Sow Thistles are reaching the end of their season as well. Most are past the stage of eating. On the gangbuster side are Blackberries and Creeping Cucumbers.  Blackberries will be done soon the the cukes will keep on producing until a fall frost, freeze or the really short days of the winter solstice. Dare I also mention we are getting our first crop of Black Nightshade berries, Solanum americanum. I have yet to make a pie out of them — I really don’t like to bake — but I eat the berries all the time as a trailside nibble. Just make absolutely sure they are ripe. And in reference to ripe our Lantana berries are not in season yet and are still toxic green. That’s another berry that must be totally ripe before one eats it.

Wild Carrot, photo by Ilovequeenanneslace.com.

Giant Hog Weed which turned out to be Queen Anne’s Lace, Pine Pollen’s Up, Unidentified Animate Object, I call her Needles, Help on ID, Bamboo, Bay Foraging, Yellow/Pink Pyracantha, and Foraging Safety Tips… all were recent discussions on the Green Deane Forum. On the Forum we post messages and pictures about foragering all year long. There’s even a UFO page for Unidentified Flowering Objects so plants can be identified. The link to join the forum is on the right hand side of this page.

Upcoming foraging classes are always being updated on my “classes” page (see button above.) Some dates are yet to be scheduled.  Saturday, May 17th Mead Garden,  1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m. Saturday, May 24th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 23000 Bayshore Rd., Port Charlotte, 33980, 9 a.m. Sunday, May 25th, at John Chestnut Park, 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. 9 a.m

You won’t see alligators on my foraging videos like this little one seen on Rock Spring Run, Florida. Photo by Green Deane

My foraging videos do not include alligators  but they do cover dozens of edible plants in North America. The set had nine DVD. Each DVD has 15 videos for 135 in all. Some of these videos are of better quality than my free ones on the Internet. They are the same videos but many people like to have their own copy. I burn and compile the sets myself so if you have any issues I handle it. There are no middle foragers. And I’m working on adding a tenth DVD.  To learn more about the DVDs or to order them click here.

What Do You See #13. Photo by Green Deane

Answers to What Do You See #13 had four edible species. This is a very common sight in scrub areas locally.  1) Is wild blueberries. 2) Is wild grapes. 3) Is gallberry. The berries of this species are not edible but the leaves make a nice caffeine-less tea. 4) Is a young Smilax, but whether the root is large or small would require some digging.

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Maypops aren’t ripe yet locally but they soon will be. Photo by Green Deane

Maypops are a greatly under-rated plant. Their fruit is tasty, the vine long-producing, and a couple of medicines can be made out of it as well. Any down side? One of the identifying characteristics is the leaves smell like a degrading rubber sneaker.

The species starts producing in the spring and will continue until cold weather knocks them out.  They sprouted locally about two months ago and are now putting on fruit. The above photo was taken along the Seminole-Wekiva Bike Trail in Lake Mary, FL. Production of green egg shaped fruit is continuous with ripening fruit on the older vine and new fruit near the growing tip. Green fruit can be eaten cooked, ripe yellow fruit raw. While the entire raw ripe fruit is edible the highly esteemed part is the sweet-sour pulp inside. To read more about the Maypop click here.

Yucca blossoms are edible once debugged and cooked. Photo by Green Deane

Also blossoming now are our local yucca, Yucca filamentosa. Just as the Maypop is perhaps an under-rated plant the Yucca is perhaps over-rated. You will read in many foraging books that the blossoms are edible raw. I have never found that so with our local yucca. Raw they have a wonderful texture and initial flavor but then a natural soap kicks in and leaves a bitter aftertaste. Cooked flowers, however, are quite tasty though you always have too knock out a lot of insect first. The flower spike is also edible when young.  Other parts are famine food. To read more about the yucca go here.

Pawpaw blossoms can be ruby to cream colored. Photo by Green Deane

Pawpaws are ratty in Florida, ranging from runty dwarfs to gangly, small understory trees. Their blossoms often appear a bit exotic. The fruit is hard to find primarily because woodland creatures like them. You won’t read this in foraging books but the most common location I find papaws is at the base of pine trees in scrubs. They are quite common. Another place to find pawpaws is in pastures and along the pasture fences. Often along the fence will be the dwarf pawpaw and in the pasture a larger species. Further north pawpaws become good size trees.  If you want to read more about pawpaws click here.

Black Cherry ripen unevenly. Photo by Green Deane

Black Cherries are in full fruit now, ranging from still unripe ones to dark semi-sweet racemes. I say semi-sweet because no matter how ripe they always have a bit of a bitter kick back.  Making wine or syrup out of the cherries usually gets rid of the bitter aftertaste. While several kinds of cherries are reported to grow in Florida I have only ever seen the Black Cherry, Prunus serotina. It’s fairly to identify because of the hair along the mid-rib of older leaves. Whether your cherry tree will have fruit is up to the woodland creatures. In some areas ripe fruit is stripped as soon as it is edible, in others you can collect most of the fruit yourself. You have to be careful, however, not to now confuse the Black Cherry with the Laurel Cherry, Prunus carolinana which is deadly. To read more about the cherries, go here

While ripe American Nightshade berries are edible ripe check for bitterness. Photo by Green Deane

Also fruiting now is the most controversial American Black Nightshade, Solanum americanum.  Several genus have one foot in edible and the other in toxic. The Nightshade is one such family, as is the Honeysuckle and the Peas. I eat S. americanum berries as a trail side nibble often to the aghast of students or even other foragers. It’s a family with a lot of misunderstanding but also justified warnings about toxicity. If I have a problem with the S. americanum it is that the fruit is not consistent. Sometimes you find some very ripe but bitter fruit. Don’t eat those. Sometimes that are also larger than usual fruit and bitter. Perhaps there is some cross pollinating going on. Always taste a ripe berry first and wait a minute or two to see if any bitterness shows up. The green berries are definitely toxic. To read more about the American Nightshade go here.

Upcoming classes this week include a familiar site, Mead Garden on Sunday, and a new location Saturday, Seminiole-Wekiva Bike Trail, and upland area with a lot of interesting edibles.

Saturday, June 8th, Seminole Wekiva Bike Trail, Longwood, FL., 32779. Meet at the Jones Trail head parking lot which is at the southeast corner of the intersection of Markham Woods Road and Long Pond Road.  9 a.m.

Sunday, June 9th,  Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m.

Seminole-Wekiva Bike Trail. Photo by Green Deane

Seminole-Wekiva is an active bike trail. There are no lakes or ponds along the trail so there are no aquatic plants where we will be. But what edibles we do see we will see often. Among them are maypops, yucca, black cherry, horsemint, spurge nettle, gopher apples, reindeer moss, pawpaws, sassafras, persimmons, winged yams and elderberries.

Here today gone tomorrow chickweed

Chickweed stole the show this weekend.

In well-watered spots chickweed was in green glory, lush, full, blossoming, happy to be alive. With such healthy plants it was easy to find the identifying characteristics: stretchy inner core, a single line of hair on the main stem that switches 90 degrees at the nodes, a five-petal blossom that looks like 10 petals, and uncooked chickweed tastes like raw corn. Also sprouting patches of green on the monoculture brown park were stinging nettles. It’s still early in the season for nettles with most of them no higher than four inches, just about the same height as our winter henbit also available for the picking. A private forage later on produced, surprisingly, some native mint and a lot of true thistles. Lot’s of food and flavor there. There were also ticks-a-plenty.

Sublimed Sulfur to thwart tick attacks

Before the state of Florida went on the Internet most of the information it thought fit for its citizens to know was produced in pamphlet form. When the shift was made to the Internet some information got lost or was dropped. One useful bit of advice was using sublimed sulfur to keep ticks off.  Available online or through local pharmacies or chemical supply stores you put it in an old sock or the like and dust your cuffs and collar with it before entering tick habitat. It either repels them or vastly slows them down from finding a place to grab on, giving you more time to find the hardy ones. I have used it for many years very successfully. I still find a tick or two on me now and then but not attached. While I am not a biochemist I would suspect this would not be something you would do if you had a sulfur allergy.

Emily Ruff

Florida Herbal Conference is February 15-17. Organized by Emily Ruff, you learn better at conferences because you are getting a distillation of information from teachers with years of experience. Any questions can be answered quickly and to the point, no rummaging around to resolve an issue. You’re also with like-minded folks so there’s instant camaraderie. You are the majority. For more information and a discount if you use EATTHEWEEDS go to: Florida Herbal Conference.

Green Deane’s DVDs

Green Deane’s videos on DVD are nearly ready. All that is left is figuring out the printing on the DVD’s themselves. There will be 15 videos per DVD and nine in the set, ordered separately or together. It has taken a long time — a year — to put these together because of varying formats and basic video quality. There was also a compromise between quality and the number of videos that can be put on a DVD. I am hopeful that starting this month they will be available for order. The videos  will be almost the same — in number and quality — as what is available online for free. However I know many of you want your own set. They will be ready soon.

Weeds of Southern Turf Grasses

If you didn’t find a weed book you wanted under the Christmas tree here’s one you can pick up locally or order. There isn’t as of this writing a good book about Florida weeds in the south with good pictures et cetera. However, the University of Florida has put out an unintentional one, Weeds of Southern Turfgrasses. What I mean is the book is not designed for foragers but rather land managers. However, the majority of the plants in the book are edible. It has 437 color photographs of 193 weed species found in the south usually on lawns and the like. As you can see by the link I have a list of them and what pages they are on. Many of my students just print the list then paste each entry on the appropriate page. There is also a link on the page to order it through the state of Florida. DO NOT ORDER IT THROUGH AMAZON OR OTHER BOOKSELLERS. Why? Because they can charge you from $49.95 to over $800 for a book you can buy at a local extension office for $8. If you order it through the link I provide it is $14 plus shipping. Yes, I actually found one bookseller asking over $800 for it. As it says on the link I do not get any money for recommending this book. It is just an inexpensive, handy book to have.

Natal Plum, edible when totally ripe.

As Charlie Brown said often: Aaaaaaarughhhh. Preparing for a class Sunday morning (at 40 degrees) I carefully picked some stinging nettles with gloves on. The “Burning Dwarf” fought back with one finger bearing the brunt of its wrath. That burn will be with me for a week. Apparently I am amongst the most sensitive people on earth to its sting. As Walter Cronkite used to say at the end of each broadcast: “And that’s the way it is…” 

The False Roselle, Hibiscus acetosela

We had a good class and managed to stay warm. I also took with me a natal plum, swinecress (which we later found there) some and a couple of Milkweed Vine fruit, some of which was mentioned in last week’s newsletter. While we nibbled on many things among them were Turks Cap, Oxalis,  Black Nightshade (see photo below), Violets, False Hawk’s Beard, Plantagos, Fireweed, and Hairy Bittercress which is barely hairy at all. Also noticed during the forage was a tasty False Roselle not yet done in by the cool weather. And although the Eastern Red Bud won’t flower in profusion for couple of months we found a couple of cold-daring blossoms to look at.

The Amaranth has a seed spike

What is the prime mistake made by foragers? That’s very easy to answer: They make the plant fit the description. It happens to beginners and old hands as well. The beginners don’t see the details and the more experienced are irritated the plant doesn’t fit so they stretch the definitions. But as the bromide warns the devil is in the details. I will readily admit I loathe details. It is not me by mind or personality. It is one of two reasons I did not stay with law…details and the you-must-win mentality even when you’re wrong.  But details, as much as we might not like them, are what foraging is all about. If I can suppress my irritation with details and work with them so can you. The good part is that you can get to know a plant well enough that the details make a whole picture and you don’t have to think about them as much with plants you know.

The Black Nightshade produces berries.

I had a friend who thought of himself as an outdoorsman thus beyond needing to study edible plants. Many years ago he called me one day asking “how do I get the seeds out of the pigweed berries.”  I knew there was a problem immediately. Our local “pigweed” does not have berries but our local nightshade does. Our “pigweed” (upper right photo) is an Amaranth and has seed spikes. About the size of fingers or more they are covered with tiny flowers that produce a multitude eye-of-the needle seeds, tan to black.  No berries involved at all. Conversely the nightshade produces an umbrella-like spread of black shiny berries on one small stalk (photo to left.) It does have a lot of seeds inside the berries. So I thought I had better ask him why he wanted the seeds before I told him him the Amaranth didn’t have berries but the nightshade did. He wanted to grow some in his yard. They had been steaming the leaves and eating them like spinach! When I got done explaining he said “then that’s why we’ve all been getting headaches after eating the leaves.” Indeed. The leaves of this particular nightshade are edible but they must be boiled in one or two changes of water, not steamed.

Agaricus campestris

My friend had skipped many details. The wrong identification also led to the wrong preparation compounding the error. Admittedly they did have a few things in common. They were both green, grew in Florida and had leaves that can vaguely be the same rough shape, diamondish. But the difference between a seed spike of small green flowers vs. a cluster of shiny black berries is not paying attention to details. Fortunately no great harm was done. No matter how much you study plants details are always the bottom line. I have been struggling this past week with a mushroom identification, an endeavor in which details can quickly mean life or death. I’ve got the genus figured out, Agaricus, but the species is eluding me. Supposedly there are no deadly species in the genus but I don’t want to prove an exception to the rule. It has come down to two details that are, thus far, thwarting identification: The spores are the color of milk chocolate. They are supposed to be the color of dark chocolate. And the annulus, that’s a ring around the stem. It basically doesn’t have one when it should. I think I have figured it out but I think it will take me another season — read a year — to be sure.

Details are important even though I don’t like them. But staying alive is even more important. Locally two plants you will commonly encounter that you need to know about are the edible elderberry and the deadly water hemlock. To the beginner they can look similar. To learn important details about them and how they differ click here.

And lastly it is time for 2012 to make like a tree and leave. Thank you for reading this newsletter, visiting the forum, watching the videos, and of course thanks to the hundreds of wonderful students that came to foraging classes this past year. You can do it, keep on growing. Happy New Year.

To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Articles

•     Ackee

Delicious and deadly, that’s ackee

• Acorn Grubs: Bait, Trailside Nibble  (2)

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

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

• Acorns, or Oak Nuts?  (1)

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

  I had several requests to do something about acorns.…

• Acorns: The Inside Story  (27)

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

• Agave, Century Plant

  Century Plant: Edible Agave Americana

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

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

  Alternanthera philoxeroides: Exotic Munch

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

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

  Hibiscus pernambucensis: Walking Lunch

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

  There is something of a…

• Amaranth: Grain, Vegetable, Icon  (3)

  Amaranth, the forgotten food

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

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

• Amaranth Identification:

  Sorting out some amaranths

• A Matter of Attitude

  “Yuck.”

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

  English…

• American Lotus: Worth Getting Wet For  (1)

  More American than apple pie
  Nature fights back.

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

• American Nightshade: A Much Maligned Edible  (5)

  Solanum americanum: Food or Poison?

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

• Annona Quartet

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

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

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

• Apples, Wild Crabapples

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

• Are Raw Vegetables Healthy for Humans?  (4)

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

• Are You A Cook Or A Baker?

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

  While one…

• Armadillo: Possum on the Half Shell  (2)

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

• Attitude Makes The Difference

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

  If you know much about the state of Florida…

• Australian Pine  (1)

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

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

  If it is…

• Balloon Vine, Heart Vine, Heart Seed

  Cardiospermum halicacabum: Edible Leaves

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

• Bamboo Doesn’t Bamboozle You

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

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

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

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

• Basswood Tree, Linden, Lime Tree

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

  First we’d…

• Bauhinia: Pretty Eats

  Bauhinias’ Beauty

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

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

• Beach Bean, Bay Bean  (2)

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

• Beach Orach, Crested Salt Bush

  Atriplex cristata: Pigweed by the Sea

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

  A…

• Beautyberry: Jelly on a Roll  (23)

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

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

• Beech, American

  Fagus grandifolia: The All-American Beech

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

• Bees In Litigation

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

• Before There Were Baked Beans

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

• Begonia Bonanza

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

• Betony: Rich Root, Poor Root  (5)

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

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

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

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

• Bird Peppers

  Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum: Hot Eats

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

•  Bitter Melon (6)

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

• Bitter Lettuce

  Launea intybacea: Edible Bitter Lettuce

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

  Every botanical wonderkin thinks…

• Bittercress and Kissing Crucifer Cousins

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

  How did I know? Plants…

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

  Prunus serotina: Better Late than Never Cherry

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

  Not a 100 feet from the…

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

• Black Medic  (2)

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

• Black Walnuts and Butternut

  Juglans nigra and butternut, too!

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

• Blackberries, A Forager’s Companion  (1)

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

• Bladderwrack

  Fucus vesiculosus: Edible Bladderwrack
  Bladderwrack can wrack your brain.

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

• Blolly, Beeftree

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

• Blue Porterweed, Bottom Up!

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

• Blueberries, or Huckleberry’s Kin

  Vacciniums: Am I Blue?

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

• Botanical Bachelor

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

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

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

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

• Brown Anoles  (3)

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

  “No” he said.

  “You cooked them whole?”

  “Yes.”

  “You ate them head, tail and…

• Browne’s Savory: Clinopodium Browneii

  The Mighty Minty Micromeria Browneii

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

• Budget Cut Benefits

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

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

• Bulrush Bonanza  (3)

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

• Bunchberry Brunch

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

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

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

• Buttercups:  Buttercups are usually considered not edible.

• Cabbage Palm, Sabal Palmetto  (4)

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

  The Sabal palmetto, actually an overgrown…

• Cactus: Don’t Be Spineless  (3)

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

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

• Caesar Weed Sampler  (5)

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

  We have…

• Camphor Tree: Cinnamon’s Smelly Cousin

  Campy Camphor: Not Just For Grandma

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Carolina Bristle Mallow  (1)

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

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

• Cassia Clan aka Senna

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

  Now that I have your attention,…

• Cast Iron Cookery, Buying and Restoring  (3)

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

  B…

• Cast Net Junkie

  I will admit to being a cast net junkie.

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

• Cast Nets: Throwing Your Weights Around

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

• Cattails – A Survival Dinner  (3)

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

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

• Caulerpa

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

• Cereus Today Not Tomorrow

  Getting Down To Cereus Business

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

• Ceriman, Delicious Monster

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

• Chain of Contamination

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

• Chaya: The Spinach Tree  (7)

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

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

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

• Checkerberry cum Wintergreen

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

  Before I go any…

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

• Chewstick, White Root

  Gouania lupuloides: How to Get Chewed Out

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

• Chickasaw Plum: Yum  (5)

  Chickasaw Plum: First Springtime Blossom

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

• Chickweed Chic  (11)

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

• Chicory History

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

• Chinese Box-Orange, Tsau Ping Lak

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

• Chinese Elm Take out

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

  Anyone with…

• Chinese Tallow Tree  (1)

  Popcorn Tree, Florida Aspen, Tallow Tree

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

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

• Christmas & Maiden berries

  Crossopetalums: Edible Berries & Medicine

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

• Christmasberry, Wolfberry, Goji  (1)

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

• Chufa For Two  (1)

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

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

• Cider Hard, But Quick and Easy  (22)

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

• Citron Melon, Tsamma  (6)

  Citron Melons: Abandoned Preserves
  Are they edible?

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

• Civilized Food

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

  It had taken over about one third…

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

• Clover, Available Around The World  (7)

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

  I was forever nibbling on clover blossoms when I…

• Coco-Plums

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

  Actually, the “blue” is deep…

• Coconuts: It’s A Matter of Degrees

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

• Codium Compendium

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

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

• • Cooking Like A Caveman

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

  • Cooking without Pots or Pans  (2)

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

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

www.eattheweeds.com

• Coontie Courage

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

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

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

• Coral Vine

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

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

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

•  Crabgrass Was King  (3)

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

• Cranberries, Lingonberries

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

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

• Creeping Cucumber: Melothria Pendula  (2)

  Cute Cuke! Melothria Pendula

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

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

• Crowfoot Grass, True Grits

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

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

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

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

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

• Dayflowers, Often One Petal Shy  (4)

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

• Daylily Dilemma  (3)

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

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

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

• Does The Nose Know?

  What Does a Word Smell Like?

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

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

• Doveweed

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

• Drymaria Cordata, Tropical Chickweed  (3)

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

• Duckweed

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

• Dulse for Dinner

Foragers tend to ignore seaweed.

• Ear Tree, Sound Food

  Lend Me An Ear Tree

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

• Earthworms  (7)

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

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

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

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

• Edible Cultivated Flowers: All 20 articles in one article

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

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

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

• Edible Flowers: Part Four

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

• Edible Flowers: Part Five

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

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

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

• Edible Flowers: Part Eight

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

  It’s clearly not…

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

• Edible Flowers: Part Ten

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

• Edible Flowers: Part Eleven

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

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

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

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

• Edible Flowers: Part Fifteen

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

• Edible Flowers: Part Sixteen

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

• Edible Flowers: Part Seventeen

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

• Edible Flowers: Part Eighteen  (7)

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

  The Spring…

• Edible Flowers: Part Nineteen  (2)

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

  The blossom…

• Edible Flowers: Part Twenty

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

• Edible Wild Flowers:

All 20 articles in one article

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

• Eggs

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

• Elaeagnus Et Cetera

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

• Elderberries: Red, White and Blue  (10)

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

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

• Eryngo, Tough Sweetie

  Eryngiums: Elizabethan Eryngo Candy

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

• Evening Primrose  (5)

  Oenothera biennis: Foraging Standby

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

• Experience and Judgment

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

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

• False Dandelions For Lunch  (2)

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

• False Hawksbeard

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

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

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

• Fiddlehead Ferns, Signs of Spring

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

  Pokeweed can kill you within hours if you make a…

• Fiddlewood  (1)

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

• Field Testing Plants for Edibility  (7)

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

  “Field testing” is running through a…

• Figs, Strangler, Banyan and Strangler  (4)

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

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

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

• Fireweed Sale  (1)

  Erechtites hieraciifolia: Edible Pile Driver

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

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

• Fishtail Palms  (3)

  Caryota: Fishy Toxic Palms

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

• Five Mile Walk

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

  Whe…

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

• Flowering Rush

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

• Foraging After Dark

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

  I know someone who has his foraging…

• Foraging Before There Was Botany

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

• Foraging for Beginners

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

• Foraging in Florida  (1)

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

• Foraging Myth Busting  (3)

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

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

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

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

• Gar: Treasured Trash Fish  (1)

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

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

• Getting To The Leaf Of The Problem

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

  There are…

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

• Ginkgo: Putrid Perfection

  Going Nuts Over Ginkgo Biloba Nuts

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

• Glasswort Galore  (3)

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

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

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

• Golden Rain Tree

  Showers of Golden Rain Tree

  The scallions didn’t have a chance.

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

• Goldenrod Glorified  (1)

  Solidago Odora: Liberty Tea

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

• Gooseberries

A century can make a lot of difference.

•       Goosegrass, Cleavers, Bedstraw  (1)

Galium aparine: Goosegrass on the Loose

You don’t find Goosegrass. It finds you.

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

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

• Gorse, of Course

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

  In August 2005 an Englishman, Dean Bowen,…

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

• Gracilaria, Graceful Redweed

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

• Grapes of Path  (3)

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

  Grapes are at the…

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

• Great Grandmother Cat  (1)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Groundnuts and Bridge Diving

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

• Groundnuts: Anti-Cancer Treat  (3)

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

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

• Guinea Grass Panic Attack

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

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

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

• Halloween Editorial  (2)

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

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

• Have Dewberry, Will Travel

  Dewberries: Rubus Trivialis

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

  Essentially a…

• Hawthorne Harvest

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

• Henbit: Top of the pecking order  (2)

  Henbit: Springtime Salad Green and More

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

• Hercules’ Club: Speak Softly But…

  Hercules’ Club: Zanthoxylum Clava-Herculis

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

• Hickory Harvest  (2)

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

  Just as plums and cherries are bothin…

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

• Hit With A Plank  (1)

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

• Hollies: Caffein & Antioxidants  (4)

  Holly Tea With Vitamins A & C

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

• Honeysuckle Heaven

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

• Hornbeam, Ironwood, Blue Beech

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

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

• Horsemint, Spotted Beebalm

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

• Horseweed, Mare’s Tail  (1)

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

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

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

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

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

• Hyacinth Bean

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

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

• Ignite of the Iguana  (6)

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

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

• Indian Strawberry  (5)

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

• Ipomoea: Water, Land & See in Gardens

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

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

• Is wild taro in Florida edible?  (10)

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

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

• It’s About Time  (1)

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

• Ivy Gourd, Scarlet Gourd, Tindora  (2)

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

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

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

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

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

• Jelly Palm, Pindo’s Alter Ego  (4)

  Pindo Palm: Jelly, Wine and Good Eats

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

• Jellyfish

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

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

• Jerusalem Thorn, Paloverde

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

  People who chronicled how Native…

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

• Jumbie Bean, White Lead Tree  (2)

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

• Juneberry

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

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

• Katuk Kontroversy  (2)

  Edible Katuk: Sauropus androgynus

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

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

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

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

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

• Landmarks

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

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

• Lantana  (3)

  Lantana camara: Much Maligned Nibble

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

• Lawn Garden

  Can you have a “garden” that you ignore?

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

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

• Lemon Grass

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

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

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

• Lion’s Mane

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

• Litchi Tomato

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

• Living off the Foraged Land

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

  That said, I know many survivalists. They tend…

• Locusberry

  Byrsonima lucida: Food and Medicine

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

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

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

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

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

• Mahoe, Sea Hibiscus

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

  In fact, to this writer’s knowledge all…

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

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

  Mangroves: Marvelous Muck Masters

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

• Maple Manna  (1)

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

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

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

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

• Mayapple, Mandrake  (2)

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

• Mayflowers, Trailing Arbutus

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

• Maypops Mania  (6)

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

  They are one of five hundred kin in…

• Media Interviews With Green Deane

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

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

• Mesquite  (1)

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

• Milkweed Vine, Latexplant, Strangler Vine  (13)

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

• Milkweed, Common  (3)

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

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

• Milo, Portia Tree, Seaside Mahoe  (2)

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

• Mimosa Silk Tree  (7)

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

• Mole Crabs  (8)

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

  Fishermen…

• Mole Crickets and Lawns

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

• Mole Crickets, Kamaro  (1)

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

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

  Lunch Drops In

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

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

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

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

  Mulberries: Glucose-controlling hallucinogen

  I used to get a lot of dates using mulberries.

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

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

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

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

  Nageia nagi: Forgotten Landscape Edible

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

• Nandina Not Bamboo

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

  Naturalized in many part of the world…

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

  Natal Plum: Incredible Edible Landscaping

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

• New Jersey Tea

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

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

• Nostoc Num Nums

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

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

• Nutrition or Food?

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

• Oaxaca lemon verbena

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

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

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

• Osage Orange  (13)

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

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

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

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

• Palmetto Weevil Grub: Grugru

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

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

• Papaya Proliferation

  Carica papaya: Survivalist plant

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

• Paper Mulberry  (2)

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

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

• Pawpaw picking up is rare  (8)

  Pawpaw Panache

  Finding your first pawpaw is a thrilling moment.

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

• Pellitory, Up Against The Wall Weed

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

• Pennyroyal Florida Style  (2)

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

  An…

• Pennyworts Making Sense  (12)

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

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

• Peppergrass: Potent Pipsqueak  (3)

  Lepidium Virginicum: Bottlebrush Peppergrass

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

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

• Persimmon Provisions  (3)

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

• Pick Of The Littering

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

  Scientist who…

• Pickerel Weed

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

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

• Pigweed Potpourri  (7)

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

  Mr. Gowan was…

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

• Pineapple Weed

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

• Pining for You  (5)

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

  A lot of folks had a laugh over…

• Plant An Alarm Clock

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

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

• Plants Can’t Run  (1)

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

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

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

• Poisonous and Irritating Plants of Florida  (4)

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

• Pokeweed: Prime Potherb  (11)

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

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

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

  Populus deltoides: Popular Poplars and Aspens

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

• Practicing Homelessness

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

• Prepared for Life  (2)

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

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

• Prickly Apple, Apple Cactus, Fragrant Apple Cactus

  Harrisia Trio: Endangered Edibles All

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

• Puffballs, Small and Gigantic  (2)

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

• Purslane: Omega 3 Fatty Weed  (8)

  Purslane: Any Portulaca In A Storm

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

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

• Pyracantha Jelly and Santa’s Belly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Ravishing Radish Greens  (2)

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

  The only bad…

• Real Food Rules!  (3)

  This blog all started with hot dog relish.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Saffron Plum

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

• Saltwort, Turtle Weed and Reef Banana

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

  Fora…

• Sandspurs: Sandlot Sadists  (2)

  Sandspurs: Cenchrus’ Secret

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

•  Sargassum Sea Vegetable  (1)

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

• Sassafras: Root Beer Rat Killer  (7)

  Sassafras Albidum: Beaux Gumbo

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

• Satinleaf, Olive Plum

  Chrysophyllum oliviforme: “Chewy Olives”

  “Turn left at the Satinleaf.”

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

• Saw Palmetto Saga  (4)

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

• Sawgrass, A Cut Below The Rest  (1)

  Cladium jamaicense: Water finder

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

• Scarlet Runner Bean

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

• Scorpions  (1)

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

  In over 30 years of rummaging…

• Sea Blite, Seepweed

  Suaeda linearis, maritima: Edible Blite

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

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

• Sea Club Rush  (2)

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

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

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

• Sea Oats

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

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

  Sesuvium portulacastrum: Maritime Munch

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

• Sea Rocket Siblings

  The Cakile Clan: Seaside Edibles

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

• Sea-Grapes: Maritime Marvels  (4)

  Sea-Grapes: Costal Caterer

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

• Seminole Pumpkin

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

• Seminole Wekiva Trail

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

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

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

• Seven Year Apple

  Genipa clusiifolia: An Acquired Taste

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

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

• Silverhead, Beach Carpet  (1)

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

• Simpson Stopper

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

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

• Skunk Vine

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

• Slugs, Snails and Fresh Water Mollusks  (1)

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

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

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

  For The Edible Love of Krokus and Smilax

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

• Snakewood, Nakedwood, Mauby  (1)

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

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

• Solar Cooking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Stinging Nettles

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

• Stork’s Bill, Cranesbill

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

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

• Strawberries of Spring  (1)

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

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

• Strawberry Tree Curse

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

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

• Sugar Cane on The Run  (4)

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

• Sugarberries & Hackberries  (3)

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

• Sumac: More Than Just Native Lemonade  (4)

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

• Sunflowers: Seeds and More

  Sunflowers: Sun Sentinels

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

• Sunny Savage

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

• Surinam Cherry: Only Ripe Need Apply  (18)

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

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

• Swamp Lilly Wrap

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

  Thalia geniculata…

• Sweet Clover

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

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

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

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

• Sword Fern’s Secret

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Ti, Good Luck Plant

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

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

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

• Tomato Tobacco Hornworms  (4)

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

• Tools of the Trail

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

  The handiest…

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Tulips  (2)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Violets’ Virtues

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

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

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

• Water Arum, Water Dragon, Wild Calla: 

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

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

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

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

• Water Shield Salad

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

• Watercress: Ancient Flavor

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

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

• Wax Myrtle Jewels  (1)

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

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

• Weeds and Wolves  (2)

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

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

• Welcome to EatTheWeeds.com  (28)

  No description found for this item.

• What’s Green and What’s Not?

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

• When Is A Lawn A Lake?  (2)

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

  Regular followers of this writer know I am…

• When Scholarship Isn’t Enough

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

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

• Where Do You Forage?

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

• Where the Weeds Are

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

• White Indigo Berry Has A Dark Side

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

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

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

• Why Forage?  (1)

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

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

• Wild Citrus, Footloose Plants

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

• Wild Coffee But Not Kentucky  (5)

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

• Wild Dilly, Wild Sapodilla

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

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

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

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

• Wild Lettuce, Woodland Lettuce

  Lactuca floridana: Let Us Eat Wild Lettuce

  Wild lettuce is not as tame as garden lettuce.

  Garden lettuce is one of those nearly flavorless nearly…

• Wild Onion, Wild Garlic  (2)

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

• Wild Pineapple  (2)

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

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

• Will Bisin Make GMOs Look Good?

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

• Willow Weep For Me  (1)

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

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

• Winter Soul-stice

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

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

• Wood Oats

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

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

• Yam A: The Alata  (6)

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

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

• Yam B: The Bulbifera  (9)

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

• Yam C: The Chinese

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

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

• Yellow Pond Lilly: Raising A Wokas

  Picking Pond Lillies: Nuphar Luteum subsp. advena

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

  The yellow pond lilly…

• Yew:  The Yew can kill you.

• You Can Learn To Forage For Wild Edibles

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

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

• Your Choice for a New Vegetable  (2)

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

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

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

Foraging Class Schedule

Below is my upcoming class schedule which is updated weekly. Please make reservations. For payment methods, see below. Walk-in’s are accepted if the class is not full. To make your reservation send me an email.  Please include date(s) desired, number of people, and contact information. Class size is limited to assure personal attention. Cost is $30 per adult.

The class is usually around three hours long or so and covers edible plants, mushroom, and some medicinals that we find that day. Classes are held hot or cold, rain or shine except for hurricanes. Descriptions of each location and where to meet are below under additional information. Times and day of week can differ with each location and time of year. Double check. Hiking and clothes requirements change with each class as do facilities. Again, double check. More details about each individual venue — such as where to meet — are listed below the Pay Now button. 

Payment method: Cash on the day of class, $30 per person** 18 and over. Or you can pay by credit card by clicking on the Pay Now button below. Or, if you have a Pal Pay account email me and ask for the appropriate email address. No checks please. If you pay by Paypal or credit card there is and additional $5 charge.    ** If the fee is a hardship email me: GreenDeane@Gmail.com    

Saturday, May 18th, the Princess Place Preserve, 2500 Princess Place Rd, Palm Coast, FL 32137, 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot. 

Sunday, May 19th, Red Bug Slough 5200 S. Beneva Road, Sarasota. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot. 

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

REGULAR CLASS LOCATIONS 

Red Bug Slough 5200 S. Beneva Road, Sarasota. There are about 12 parking places and a residential street across the street that can be used. Among the edible there are pokeweed, pepper grass, pines, sida, tar vine, Spanish needles, fireweed, amaranth, puslane, bitter gourd, horseweed, sow thistles, plantagos, native and non-native grapes, smilax, sumac, cabbage palms, oaks, magnolias, gallberry, caesar weed, beautyberry, willow, sword ferns, hairy cowpea, wax myrtle, elderberry, pellitory, saw grass, true thistles, blackberries, sweet bay, sweet clover, panic grass, water shield, wapato, black medic, day flowers, dollar weed, dock, bottle brush, epazote, silverthorm, saw palmetto, maypops, ground cherries, porter weed, black nightshade, False Hawk’s Beard, Oxalis, creeping cucumber, and a few toxic ones such as poison ivy, coral bean and rosary pea.

Seminole Wekiva Trail, Sanlando Park, 401 West Highland St. Altamonte Springs, Florida 32714 (at the intersection with Laura Avenue.) We meet in the first parking lot on your right immediately after the entrance. This class involves about two miles of walking over several hours , some of it on an active bike trail. There is parking, drinking water and several bathrooms.  We visit the immediate park area near tennis courts then north through park woods to a softball park. After that we walk the bike trail south back to the park seeing about 60 edible species depending on the time of year. 

Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. GPS: N 20°05’35.4″ W080°58′.26.2″  Entrance is on the west side of southbound Ridgewood Ave (which is also US 1) Northbound traffic will have to make a U-turn. For southbound traffic, after passing Nova Road and the twin bridges the park entrance is 1/2 mile south on your right. The park, not far from Daytona Beach, has 1,637 acres and three miles of “nature” trails. It combines in a small area three different plant environments; a small patch of weeds common to urban areas, coastal hammock growth, and plants tolerant of the salty environment. Most are noticeable four species of hollies including the infamous Ilex vomitoria, the North American equivalent of Yerba Mate. Two common brackish water edibles, Saltwort and Sea Purslane, are also abundant. We will meet at the restrooms (it’s actually it’s a pavilion but the direction sign says restrooms.)

Tide Views Preserve, 1 Begonia Street, Atlantic Beach Fl 32233 (near Jacksonville Fl.) This is a new location still being explored. 

Treaty Park, 1595 Wildwood Drive, St. Augustine, Florida 32086. Go past the dog park, the skate park and the racket ball courts. We’ll meet at the pavilion near the pond.

Turtle Mound: Canaveral National Seashore Park. While there are plenty of plants to look at we will probably have to change locations in the park at least once during the class. Because of parking this may require car pooling. There is also a fee per car to get into the park. For a preview see my video on You Tube entitled Turtle Mound. We will meet at Turtle Mound parking area. Among the edible species growing there are: Ground cherries, saw palmettos, eastern coral bean, wild grapes, seablight, sea purslane, salicornia, searocket, Persea, cabbage palm, smilax, black mangrove, Ilex, feral citrus, spurge nettle, papaya, wild peppers (in season) sea oats (protected) crowfoot grass seaside bean, opuntia, nopalea, toothache tree, seagrapes, purslane, hackberry, sedges, Spanish needles,  sweet bay, and oaks,

Urban Crawl, meet in front of Panera’s, north end, 329 N. Park Avenue, Winter Park. Free parking in the parking garage, levels four and five behind Panera’s. The Urban Crawl is designed to help you identify edibles found in a city environment. We will see edible natives, imports, ornamentals, and neglected landscaping. We’ll also discuss issues with foraging in an urban area. Afterwards we can talk plants over coffee at Panera’s. We will walk approximately 2.5 miles most of it, but not all, on sidewalks. The following edibles can be seen:  Dandelions, Podocarpus macrophyllus, false Hawk’s Beard, cabbage palms, white clover, the bottle brush tree, Bidens pilosa, various Oxalis, pellitory, dollarweed, night blooming cereus, oaks, camphor trees, sword ferns, pepper grass, hairy bittercress, roses, cherries/plums. saw palmetto, dwarf and full grown Ilex vomitoria, pines, skunk vine, Turks cap, two species of sow thistle, Nandina, beautyberry, smilax, cattails, koontie, pickerel weed, dock, Micromeria brownii, bulrush, yellow pond lilly, water shield, shell ginger, Chinese elm, natal plum, Stachyis floridana, pansies, canna, lantana, purslane, wax begonia, sedges, pindo palm, American holly, spiderwort, goose grass, mulberry, chickweed, and tansy mustard. Non-edibles worthy of mention: Rosary pea, the most toxic seed on earth, dog fennel and mexican poppies.

 Venetian Gardens, 201 E. Dixie Ave, Leesburg, FL 34748. What do you do with low islands that flood regularly? Add some bridges and call the park Venetian Gardens, which is about a half mile west of Leesburg Regional Medical Center. It’s a 100-acre park on Lake Harris and is also adjacent to a ball park. The flat landscape lends itself to easy walking but we’ll cover about three miles during the class walking about the park. As it is lake side the list of foragables leans towards the aquatic and we might get our feet wet. There are also many freeloading birds and squirrels in attendance… will beg for photo opt. 

Wekiva State Park, 1800 Wekiwa Circle, Apopka, Florida 32712. There is a park admission Fee: $6 per vehicle. Limit 8 people per vehicle, $4 for a single occupant vehicle, $2 pedestrians or bicyclists. Meet at the Sand Lake parking lot. Unlike city parks or the urban area, Wekiva Park is “wild” Florida. There are very few weeds of urbanization. The edibles are mostly native plants and far between. This class is recommended for anyone interested in what the natives used. We will walk about four miles roundtrip. The plants are sporadically located. We will visit upland scrub and river bottom ecological zones, and then we will retrace our path and ”test” everyone. The walking is on trails and depending on the weather, at times it can be taxing. Bring water, appropriate clothes, and hiking equipment.

Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park (turn right after entrance, go 1/4 mile, dog run on right, parking at run or on previous left.) This park is a recreational area more than a wildlife habitat, Wickham Park still offers several dozen edible species in two distinct habitats. We will walk about 1.5 miles. Among the edible species are Oaks, Cabbage palm, Crowfoot grass, Pines, Centella erecta (Asian Dollar Weed) Pennywort, Dollarweed, Plantains, Bidens pilosa (Spanish needles) Saw palmetto, Caesar weed, Grapes, ( native and hybrids) Smilax, Yucca filamentosa, Gopher apples, Wax myrtles, American Beauty Berry, Poke weed, Sumac, Saw grass, Elderberry, False hawks beard, Pellitory, Creeping cucumber, Oxalis, Bitter gourd, Cattails, smooth-leaf bacopa, Gallberry, Wapato, or wapati, Bull thistle, Ground cherry, and Purslane.

Port Charlotte Foraging Class path

 Blanchard Park,  2451 Dean Rd, Union Park, FL 32817 This is a large park with a YMCA facility built in as well as play grounds, tennis courts and soccer fields. It also runs along a the Little Econlockhatchee River so there is an opportunity to see some water plants as well. One down side is the only bathroom open a 9 a.m. is about a quarter mile west from where we meet. By the end of the class the YMCA is open. Jay Blanchard Trail runs east-west south of University Boulevard. The park can be entered on the west side by Dean Road (thus you dive by the bathrooms) or from the east side off Rouse Road.

Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. We start at the park and on a small portion of the Gainesville-Hawthorne State Trail, total distance 1.8 miles. Because of the distance this class has to have confirmed students ahead of time. DIRECTIONS:   Take 4th Street off State road 331 (SE Williston  Road.) At SE 15th Street (a T-intersection) turn right. In less than a mile you will see the entrance on your right to the Hawthorn Trail, pass that. Take the immediate next right into the Boulware Springs parking lot, adjacent to SE 15th St. Besides studying the area around the spring we also walk along the Hawthorne Trail and side trails.

Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 32706. Situated on Lake Coby and sometimes called Lake Colby/Royal Park, the 124-acre historic site was recently renovated with a quarter million dollar grant. It has a pavilion, bathrooms, boat ramp, plenty of shade, parking and a nature walk. It is the most handicap accessible site for studying wild edibles. A July survey showed at least three dozen edible species growing, from fruiting persimmons to spurge nettle to blossoming kudzu. Directions: Take Interstate-4 to Exit #114 (formerly Exit #54.) Turn west onto Highway 472  (toward Orange City/Deland. That is a left if coming from from the south, a right if coming from the north.) Once on 472 and leaving the interstate behind go to the first traffic light and turn right onto Dr. Martin Luther King Parkway. After you are on the parkway, turn right at the first street, which is Cassadaga Road (Country Road 4139.) Continue 1.5 miles to Cassadaga. You will pass the Cassadaga Hotel on your right. While the main road immediately turns left you will go straight (which is where the GPS puts you.) Go down a short hill where the road bears right and ends in the park. Meet near the restrooms. We will walk 1.8 miles with most of it on a paved walkway or a sand path.

Dreher, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. Take exit 68 (Southern Boulevard) off Interstate 95 and go east. Entrance to the park is an immediate right at the bottom of the interstate bridge. Follow the convoluted signs to the science center (which is not where the GPS puts you.)  Park anywhere. We meet 300 feet northwest of the science museum near the banyan tees.  It’s a noisy area but early in the morning isn’t too bad. The amount of plants we can see depends upon the season and how much mowing they do. Among them are: American beautyberry, malaleuca, pigeon plum, pines, caesar weed, elderberry, wild grapes, citrus,  oxalis, conyza, smilax, passion flowers, sandspurs, koontie, ipomoea, oaks, commelinas, Emilias, purslane, amaranth, figs, Bauhinia, crowfoot grass, surinam cherry, bitter gourd, red spiderling, sea grapes, sida, cattails, yellow pond lillies, Spanish needles, mangos, sedges, wapato, firebush, pickerel weed, sabal palms, royal palms, queen palms, bamboo, traveler palms, coconuts, date palms, dollar weed, water hyssop, mahoe, varigated mahoe, seaside mahoe, fishtail palm, podocarpus, lichen, pellitory, porter weed, pepper grass, smartweed, false hawk’s beard, sow thistles, epazote, sword fern, juniper, Ilex, cocoplums, bittercress, and two of the most toxic seeds on earth and an iguana or two.  

Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. Situated in Largo on the Pinellas peninsula it’s a large park with a variety of different environments.  On my first trip there I found: Amaranth, American Beautyberry, Bacopa Monnieri, Bitter Gourd, Brazilian Pepper, Bull Thistle, Burn Weed\Fire Weed, Caesarweed, Camphor Tree, Creeping Cucumber, Crowfoot Grass, Dollar weed, Duckweed, Eastern Cedar/Juniper, Eastern Gamma Grass, Eastern Redbud, Elderberry, False Hawk’s Beard, Ganoderma, Gotu Kola, Lantana, Latex Strangler Vine, Magnolia, Sweet and Southern, Nopales, Oaks, Palm, Panic Grass, Pellitory, Pines, Pokeweed, Pony Foot, Poor Man’s Pepper Grass, Purslane, Red Bay, Saw Palmetto, Simpson Stopper, Smartweed, Sow Thistle, Spiny/Common, Stinging Nettle, Sweet Bay, Sword Fern, Tansy Mustard,  Wax Myrtle, Yellow Passionflower, Yellow Pond Lilly, Yaupon Holly.

Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246. We meet at Building A next to the administration parking lot. This is a pleasant wander around the campus with environments ranging from pond to woods and in between. There are also a good complement of edible ornamentals. We walk about two miles over three hours. 

Ft. Desoto Park, 3500 Pinellas Bayway S. St. Petersburg Fl 33715. There is an entrance fee to the park. Meet at the fishing pier parking lot. It’s a large parking lot, meet near the bathrooms. This is a compact area with a lot of poison ivy so we have to be alert. Among the forageables at this location is a hurst of Persimmons, numerous Seagrapes, native Blue Porter Weed and a planted Chaya. We will also see some salt-tolerant edibles and perhaps some seaweed as well.

George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. The preserve is only about three miles from the junction of the Turnpike and I-95. It has no bathroom or drinking water so take advantage of the various eateries and gas stations at the exit. After exiting either the turnpike or I-95 go east on Okeechobee Road. Turn right onto S. Jenkins Road. Then left on Edwards Road. Then right onto Silvitz Road. After crossing the small St. Lucie River (a small S-curve among those straight roads) turn right onto Ralls Road. Go to the end of Ralls Road then turn left into the preserve. Part of the trails through the preserve take you along ox bows of the St. Lucie River and Ten Mile Creek. During my last visit I saw a lot of Ground Cherries, Amaranth, Purslane, Barnyard Grass, Dollar weed, Spanish Needles, Gopher Apples, Sow Thistles, native and escaped grapes, Smilax, Poor Man’s Pepper Grass, Pellitory, False Hawk’s Beard, Water Hyssop, Coral Bean, Hairy Cow Pea, Southern Wax Myrtle, Fireweed, Epazote, Catails, Willows, Pines and a lot of fish.

Jervey Gantt Recreation Complex, 2390 SE 36th Ave., Ocala, FL, 34471. Meet at the entrance to the pool, aka Aquatic Fun Center. This walk is about a mile long and mostly on well-graded paths. While there are no immediate aquatic plants at this site there are numerous wild edibles. Among them are: plantain, epazote, oxalis, sycamore, pepper grass, hickory, usnea, pines, oaks, amaranth, Chinese elm, Florida elm, Hercules club, smilax, blackberries, wax myrtle, eastern red bud, spurge nettle, sumac, magnolia, tansy mustard, paper mulberry, sow thistles, Florida betony, camphors, ground cherry, red spiderling, podocarpus, Spanish needles, milkweed vine, muscadine grapes, summer grapes, palm, persimmon, beautyberry, dandelion, false hawk’s beard, plum, cherry, hawthorn, and henbit. Because of the distance this class has to have confirmed students ahead of time.

John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk, pavilion 1 parking lot. This is a very nice, small county park on Lake Tarpon with part of the walk being lakeside. We will walk the Peggy Trail backwards, then visit the boat launch area, then an observation tower, then wend along the board walk lakeside. At the end of the boardwalk we will go through the center of the park back to where we started. That’s about a mile walk. Among the edible species there are: beautyberry, bitter gourd, blackberry, dayflower, caesar weed, cattails, chuffa/sedges, crowfoot grass, dahoon holly, false hawks beard, fireweed, Florida betony, Florida elm, grapes, cultivars, grapes, muscadines, groundnuts, heartleaf drymaria, hickories (water and pignut) dwarf ilex vomitoria,  maples, oxalis, palms, panic grass, pennyworts, persimmon, pickerel weed, pines, oaks, reindeer moss, red bay, saw palmetto, smilax, Spanish needles, smart grass, sumac, sycamores, usnea, water hyacinths, wapato, water shields, wax myrtle, and willow.  

Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. The garden has been around for some 80 years through various stages of attention and neglect. It has over 100 edible species on an annual basis. Mead Garden has natives, exotics, now-banned plants, once-common plants, and just plain old weeds (often removed from more-attended gardens.) Among the edible species in Mead are: Amaranth, American Burnweed, American Eelgrass, Beautyberry, Bee Balm, Bitter Gourd, Blackberries, Black Cherry, Black Tupelo, Bulrush, Cabbage Palm, Caesar Weed, Camphor Tree, Cattails, Ceriman, Chickasaw Plum, Chinese Elm, Commelinas, Crowfoot Grass, Creeping cucumber, Dayflowers, Eastern Coral Bean, Elderberry, Epazota, Feijoa Tree, Florida Elm, False Hawks Beard, Florida Betony, Gallberry, Goose Grass, Goto Kola, Grapes, Ground Nuts, Guinea grass, Heartleaf Drymaria, Hibiscus, Hickory, Ilex vomitoria var nana and pendula, Koontie, Lemon Grass, Lantana, Loquat, Magnolia, Maples, Melaleuca, Micromeia brownii, Monkey Puzzle Tree, Nagi Tree, Night-blooming Cereus, Oaks,  Oxalis articulata,  intermedia, stricta, Paper Mulberry,  Pennyworts, Pickerel Weed, Pindo Palm, Pines, Podocarpus macrophylis, Poke Weed, Queen Palm, Red Bays, Red Bud, Red Mulberry, Reindeer Moss, Rubber Plant, Sand spurs, Saw palmetto, Seagrape, Shell Ginger,  Skunk vine, Smartweed, Smilax, Sow Thistle, Spanish Needles, Spiderworts, Surinam Cherry, Swamp lilly, Sweetgum, Sycamore, Tulip Tree, Usnea, Violets, Wapato, Water Bacopa, Wax Myrtle, Wild Pineapple, Willow, Yam, Dioscorea alata.

Red Bug Slough 5200 S. Beneva Road, Sarasota. There are about 12 parking places and a residential street across the street that can be used. Among the edible there are pokeweed, pepper grass, pines, sida, tar vine, Spanish needles, fireweed, amaranth, puslane, bitter gourd, horseweed, sow thistles, plantagos, native and non-native grapes, smilax, sumac, cabbage palms, oaks, magnolias, gallberry, caesar weed, beautyberry, willow, sword ferns, hairy cowpea, wax myrtle, elderberry, pellitory, saw grass, true thistles, blackberries, sweet bay, sweet clover, panic grass, water shield, wapato, black medic, day flowers, dollar weed, dock, bottle brush, epazote, silverthorm, saw palmetto, maypops, ground cherries, porter weed, black nightshade, False Hawk’s Beard, Oxalis, creeping cucumber, and a few toxic ones such as poison ivy, coral bean and rosary pea.

Seminole Wekiva Trail, Sanlando Park, 401 West Highland St. Altamonte Springs, Florida 32714 (at the intersection with Laura Avenue.) We meet in the first parking lot on your right immediately after the entrance. This class involves about two miles of walking over several hours , some of it on an active bike trail. There is parking, drinking water and several bathrooms.  We visit the immediate park area near tennis courts then north through park woods to a softball park. After that we walk the bike trail south back to the park seeing about 60 edible species depending on the time of year. 

Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. GPS: N 20°05’35.4″ W080°58′.26.2″  Entrance is on the west side of southbound Ridgewood Ave (which is also US 1) Northbound traffic will have to make a U-turn. For southbound traffic, after passing Nova Road and the twin bridges the park entrance is 1/2 mile south on your right. The park, not far from Daytona Beach, has 1,637 acres and three miles of “nature” trails. It combines in a small area three different plant environments; a small patch of weeds common to urban areas, coastal hammock growth, and plants tolerant of the salty environment. Most are noticeable four species of hollies including the infamous Ilex vomitoria, the North American equivalent of Yerba Mate. Two common brackish water edibles, Saltwort and Sea Purslane, are also abundant. We will meet at the restrooms (it’s actually it’s a pavilion but the direction sign says restrooms.)

Tide Views Preserve, 1 Begonia Street, Atlantic Beach Fl 32233 (near Jacksonville Fl.) This is a new location still being explored. 

Treaty Park, 1595 Wildwood Drive, St. Augustine, Florida 32086. Go past the dog park, the skate park and the racket ball courts. We’ll meet at the pavilion near the pond.

Turtle Mound: Canaveral National Seashore Park. While there are plenty of plants to look at we will probably have to change locations in the park at least once during the class. Because of parking this may require car pooling. There is also a fee per car to get into the park. For a preview see my video on You Tube entitled Turtle Mound. We will meet at Turtle Mound parking area. Among the edible species growing there are: Ground cherries, saw palmettos, eastern coral bean, wild grapes, seablight, sea purslane, salicornia, searocket, Persea, cabbage palm, smilax, black mangrove, Ilex, feral citrus, spurge nettle, papaya, wild peppers (in season) sea oats (protected) crowfoot grass seaside bean, opuntia, nopalea, toothache tree, seagrapes, purslane, hackberry, sedges, Spanish needles,  sweet bay, and oaks,

Urban Crawl, meet in front of Panera’s, north end, 329 N. Park Avenue, Winter Park. Free parking in the parking garage, levels four and five behind Panera’s. The Urban Crawl is designed to help you identify edibles found in a city environment. We will see edible natives, imports, ornamentals, and neglected landscaping. We’ll also discuss issues with foraging in an urban area. Afterwards we can talk plants over coffee at Panera’s. We will walk approximately 2.5 miles most of it, but not all, on sidewalks. The following edibles can be seen:  Dandelions, Podocarpus macrophyllus, false Hawk’s Beard, cabbage palms, white clover, the bottle brush tree, Bidens pilosa, various Oxalis, pellitory, dollarweed, night blooming cereus, oaks, camphor trees, sword ferns, pepper grass, hairy bittercress, roses, cherries/plums. saw palmetto, dwarf and full grown Ilex vomitoria, pines, skunk vine, Turks cap, two species of sow thistle, Nandina, beautyberry, smilax, cattails, koontie, pickerel weed, dock, Micromeria brownii, bulrush, yellow pond lilly, water shield, shell ginger, Chinese elm, natal plum, Stachyis floridana, pansies, canna, lantana, purslane, wax begonia, sedges, pindo palm, American holly, spiderwort, goose grass, mulberry, chickweed, and tansy mustard. Non-edibles worthy of mention: Rosary pea, the most toxic seed on earth, dog fennel and mexican poppies.

 Venetian Gardens, 201 E. Dixie Ave, Leesburg, FL 34748. What do you do with low islands that flood regularly? Add some bridges and call the park Venetian Gardens, which is about a half mile west of Leesburg Regional Medical Center. It’s a 100-acre park on Lake Harris and is also adjacent to a ball park. The flat landscape lends itself to easy walking but we’ll cover about three miles during the class walking about the park. As it is lake side the list of foragables leans towards the aquatic and we might get our feet wet. There are also many freeloading birds and squirrels in attendance… will beg for photo opt. 

Wekiva State Park, 1800 Wekiwa Circle, Apopka, Florida 32712. There is a park admission Fee: $6 per vehicle. Limit 8 people per vehicle, $4 for a single occupant vehicle, $2 pedestrians or bicyclists. Meet at the Sand Lake parking lot. Unlike city parks or the urban area, Wekiva Park is “wild” Florida. There are very few weeds of urbanization. The edibles are mostly native plants and far between. This class is recommended for anyone interested in what the natives used. We will walk about four miles roundtrip. The plants are sporadically located. We will visit upland scrub and river bottom ecological zones, and then we will retrace our path and ”test” everyone. The walking is on trails and depending on the weather, at times it can be taxing. Bring water, appropriate clothes, and hiking equipment.

Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park (turn right after entrance, go 1/4 mile, dog run on right, parking at run or on previous left.) This park is a recreational area more than a wildlife habitat, Wickham Park still offers several dozen edible species in two distinct habitats. We will walk about 1.5 miles. Among the edible species are Oaks, Cabbage palm, Crowfoot grass, Pines, Centella erecta (Asian Dollar Weed) Pennywort, Dollarweed, Plantains, Bidens pilosa (Spanish needles) Saw palmetto, Caesar weed, Grapes, ( native and hybrids) Smilax, Yucca filamentosa, Gopher apples, Wax myrtles, American Beauty Berry, Poke weed, Sumac, Saw grass, Elderberry, False hawks beard, Pellitory, Creeping cucumber, Oxalis, Bitter gourd, Cattails, smooth-leaf bacopa, Gallberry, Wapato, or wapati, Bull thistle, Ground cherry, and Purslane.

The striking blossom of the Pineapple guave is edible. Photo by Green Deane

While ripe and unripe pineapple guava look the same, ripe is softer. Photo by Green Deane

Where do you find pineapple guava? Answer: In public parks. Although the species was highly publicised for home use it never caught on. As a moderate sized tree, it is a prime inoffensive candidate for city parks and that is where you will find it. I knew of three, one in Winter Park, one in Ocala and one in Jacksonville. The one in Ocala has since been removed along with a pomegranate beside it. Maybe the city thought fruiting trees on public property was too much of a legal liability. 

Pineapple guava has edible blossoms, fruit and leaves that can be made into tea. It is not however showy. The blossoms are attractive though they hide well. The entire blossom is edible but most folks prefer the white petals to the rest of the flower.

Fruit and leaves of the creeping cucumber are edible. Photo by Green Deane

Also seen this week were many creeping cucumbers. May is either the last of its season or the beginning of a new season. Usually if thee hasn’t been a frost or a freeze they just keep on producing. This little greenery will crawl over ground or climb, given the opportunity. Tall ornamental  grass seems to be a preferred scaffolding. They are tasty when light to medium green, and a laxative when dark green and black.You can read about them here

The controversial two-leaf nightshade. Photo by Green Deane

Between seasons is the two-leaf nightshade, solanum diphyllum. An easy-to-identify controversial plant the two-leaf is heavy with blossoms now. They turn into small green fruit that ripen to yellow. A member of the night shade family it is widely reported as toxic and is also widely eaten. The effects of solanum glycocides are usually dose-related. The plant’s solanin has been implicated in cattle poisoning but cattle also eat leaves and twigs besides fruit. And kids have been sickened by the fruit, which they tend to eat in excess and they are small humans. Symptons can include anorexia, nausea, and vomiting. Adults seem to nibble on the fruit without significant repercussions. Then again, that is eating just a few at a time, not a jam or pie made from them. I think they have a pleasant taste and I only eat a few at a time as that is all I ever find ripe at one time. As vinegar removes solanin, perhaps pickling them might be a solution. Heating to over 392 F also destroys solanin. All of the two-leaf nightshade I have seen have had yellow fruit. Most botanical references say the ripe fruit is orange. 

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

Foraging Classes: We visit two coastal location this weekend, Largo and Melbourne. 

April 29th, Eagle Lake Park, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 a.m.

April 30th Wickham Park, 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park , 9 a.m.

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

No plant produces more starch per acre than cattails.

If you were starving and came upon a patch of cattails (blossoming now) you would have great cause for celebration. You have found food and water. You will survive. But if you are not starving and do not have all the time in the inter-connected world you just might find cattails highly overrated. It is true that no plant can produce more starch per acre than cattails, about 3.5 tons under cultivation. And it can produce a lot of starch economically if you can mechanize the extraction. But hand extraction is time- consuming and labor intensive. It is also wet, smelly work all of which can be worsened significantly by harvesting in cold weather. So yes, cattails are food but the time demand is such that harvesting food has to be your prime occupation. A similar argument can be made for kudzu. The roots do have edible starch but it takes a gargantuan amount of work to get the starch out, literally hours of steady pounding. It is not a calorie positive activity. It moves you closer to starvation. But, mechanize the process with some hammers run by falling water — or hammers run by a horse fed on an endless supply of grass — and kudzo becomes a reliable calorie-positive food. You can see my video on cattails here. pounding. I also have an article on Finding Caloric Staples with links to relevant videos. 

Candyroot and be yellow or orange, tall and short.

In the realm of plant populations there is endangered, threatened then rare. But there is a huge distance between rare and common. The yellow bloomer to the right — Candyroot — is not on any about-to-disappear list but one doesn’t see them that often. You have to be at the right place — seasonally damp pine scrub — and the right season, May in Florida but it can be found later in the year.  Candyroot comes in two colors, yellow that can sometimes make it to orange. Native Americans and early Europeans would chew the roots, which have a spearmint-esque flavor, or wintergreen, and to some palates licorice. The tap root is also rather small, so it’s not much of a chew. Kind of like a woodland breath mint. To read more about Candyroot you can click here. 

You get the USB, not the key.

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

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

This is my weekly newsletter #555. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

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