The link to the university’s site to buy the book — I do not get a cut — is here.
The list of known edibles in the book is below. Many of them are covered in separate articles on site. Click on the common name.
Page 10: Commelina diffusa, young tips boiled in ample water, blossoms raw. Dayflowers.
Page 11: Murdannia nudiflora, same as above. Doveweed.
Page 14: Cyperus esculentus, tubers, raw, boiled, roasted or candied, oil from tubers, seeds roasted as a coffee substitute. Chufa
Page 19: Cyperus rotundus, edible after drying, fresh are an insect repellant. See above.
Page 26: Anthoxanthum odoratum, dry leaves as tea, grain, caution as it is a blood thinner.
Page 31: Cenchrus echinatus, use as grain after burning off spines, or winnowing between leather pads. Sandspurs.
Page 32: Cenchrus incertus, same as above.
Page 34: Dactyloctenium aegyptium, dry seeds to make a flour, or mush, beer et cetera. Crowfoot Grass. Page 65: Allium vineale, wild garlic, use like said. Wild Onion, Wild Garlic.
Page 67: Mollugo verticillata, leaves as potherb.
Page 71: Amaranthus blitum, Livid Amaranth, use cooked like spinach.
Page 72: Amaranthus hybridus, Smooth Pigweed, use cooked like spinach.
Page 73: Amaranthus verdis, Slender Amaranth, use cooked like spinach.
Page 88: Cirsium horridulum, all true thistles are edible, first year root raw or cooked, second year stalk peeled raw or cooked, leaves anytime peeled of spines, raw or cooked. Bull Thistle Page 89: Conyza canadensis, barely edible as a spice, significant medicinal. Horseweed.
Page 90: Eclipta prostrata, young leaves and shoots cooked.
Page 91: Emilia fosbergii, from non-flowering plant, young leaves raw, or cooked, occasional use, long-term use can cause liver tumors.
Page 92: Erechtites hieraciifolia, raw or cooked, an acquired taste. Fireweed.
Page 103: Hypochoeris radicata, young leaves cooked (usually boiled.) False Dandelions
Page 105: Lactuca canadensis, young leaves cooked (usually boiled.) Lettuce Labyrinth Page 107: Pyrrhopappus carolinianus, young leaves cooked (usually boiled.) False dandelions.
Page 109: Sonchus asper, young leaves cooked (usually boiled.) Sow Thistle.
Page 110: Taraxacum officinale, young leaves cooked, blossoms as tea or to flavor wine, panckakes, roasted roots. Dandelions.
Page 113: Youngia japonica, young leaves raw or cooked. False Hawksbeard.
Page 115: Capsella bursa-pastoris, young leaves for seasoning or greens after boiling, seeds as pepper, grind root add to salt and vinegar for horseradish substitute. Peppergrass.
Page 116: Cardamine hirsuta, leaves and seed pods for seasoning. The Little Mustards.
Page 117: Coronopus didymus, leaves and seed pods for seasoning. The Little Mustards.
Page 118: Descurainia pinnata, leaves and seed pods for seasoning. The Little Mustards.
Page 119: Lepidium virginicum, same as Capsella bursa-pasatopris. Peppergrass.
Page 120: Sibara virginica, young leaves and seed pods as seasoning. The Little Mustards.
Page 128: Erodium circutarium, young leaves boiled. Stork’s Bill
Page 129: Geranium carolinianum, young leaves boiled, very bitter, more a medicinal. Stork’s Bill
Page 130: Glechoma hederacea, young leaves cooked, much written about this plant. Henbit
Page 131: Lamium amplexicaule, young leaves raw or cooked. Henbit.
Page 132: Lamium purpureum, young leaves raw or cooked. Henbit.
Page 133: Prunella vulgaris, young leaves raw or cooked, tends to be bitter raw.
Page 134: Stachys floridana, root edible raw or cooked, leaves dried for tea, leaves boiled as famine food, musty flavored. Florida Betony
Page 137: Desmodium triflorum, threeflower ticktrefoil, in India traditionally boiled then mixed with dry fish. Yum. Tick Clover Page 141: Medicago lupulina, seeds edible, leaves edible cooked but implicated in auto-immune diseases. Iffy. Black Medic
Page 146: Trifolium compestre, leave edible raw or cooked, blossoms, too. Family does not digest well.
Page 147: Trifolium dubium, leaves edible raw or cooked, blossoms too. See above.
Page 148: Trifolium repens, leaves edible raw or cooked, blossoms too. Clover.
Page 150: Vicia sativa, seeds cooked, leaves cooked, but some reports of toxicity in the lab, not in the field.
Page 152: Modiola caroliniana, leaves used to make a drink. Carolina Bristle Mallow Page 154: Boerhavia diffusa, tender young leaves and shoots – cooked and used as a vegetable, root – baked, rich in carbohydrate and protein, though the flavor is bland and the texture sometimes woody. Seeds – cooked. It can be ground into a powder and added to cereals when making bread, cakes et cetera. If the root chemically burns mouth after cooking do not eat. Red Spiderling.
Page 157: Oxalis intermedia, leaves raw or cooked, entire plant edible. Sorrels Page 158: Oxalis stricta, leaves raw or cooked. See above. Page 159: Plantago aristata, young leaves raw or cooked, young seed spike raw or cooked, seeds raw or cooked. Plantains Page 160: Plantago lanceolata, same as above
Page 161: Plantago major, same as above
Page 162: Plantago virginica, same as above
Page 163: Polygonum aviculare, young leaves, seeds, and blossoms, raw or cooked (probably P. caespitosum, too.) Blossom the hottest but also bitter. Large raw amounts can raise blood pressure..
Page 165: Rumex acetosella, young leaves raw or cooked (makes a nice tartlet with sour cream.) Root – cooked. It can be dried, ground into a powder and made into noodles. Seed – raw or cooked. Easy to harvest, but the seed is rather small. A drink similar to lemonade is made by boiling the leaves. Sheep Sorrel Page 166: Rumex crispus, young leaves and seeds, raw or cooked, similar to above.
Page 168: Portulaca oleracea, entire plant above ground raw or cooked. Purslane. Page 172: Duchesnea indica, berries raw, leaves cooked. Reports of it being poisonous are simply wrong. Indian strawberry Page 176: Galium aparine, young shoots and leaves raw or cooked, seed roasted make an excellent coffee substitute. Old leaves toxic with silica. When the plant is young it stimulates the immune system and is good for the lymph system. Goosegrass.
Page 190: Centella asiatica, Gotu Kola, leaves edible raw or cooked, better cooked. Pennyworts.
Page 191: Daucus carota, root cooked, thin and stringy, flower clusters can be french-fried to produce a carrot-flavoured gourmet’s delight, the aromatic seed is used as a flavouring in stews et cetera, the dried roasted roots are ground into a powder and are used for making coffee substitute. Wild Carrots.
Page 192: Hydrocotyles, young leaves raw or cooked, better cooked, too many leaves raw will lower your blood pressure. Pennyworts. Page 193: Parietaria floridana, young leaves, stems, flowers raw or cooked, diuretic, can make some itch, try sparingly at first. (In more than 20 years I have not met anyone who gets the itch.) Pellitory.
Page 196: Viola, above ground parts edible raw or cooked. Romans made blossoms into wine. Root is toxic. Violet Virtues.
Page 197: Viola arvensis, same as above
Page 198: Viola rafinesquii, same as above
I did not list many of the grass seeds as edible, but probably they are as I do not know of any native toxic grasses in North America.
♣ If you visit the home page of https://www.eattheweeds.com/ you will see, as they say, a new and improved website. And with that comes an improved and new newsletter: now shorter and weekly, rather than longer and monthly. My original website was a hijacked blog program never intended to hold data on 1,000 plants. All the information on the old site — which MAC will phase out by June 2012 — is on the new site. There have been many changes and we plan to add a lot of features soon including a Foraging Forum, an archive page, podcasts, resources, more videos and some one-on-one time with yours truly. I’m also adding new edibles all the time. The web team has been working very hard to make all this happen and have done a great job so far. I also think we’ll tweak the search function and the home page graphics a bit in the weeks to come. On the home page you will also notice feed buttons and a category filter. If you have any refinements to the categories please let me know. There is also my upcoming class schedule and links to all my 133 videos. Please visit the new site and look around.
False Hawksbeard
♣ Locally we are just starting our fall foraging season, which means many of the plants found in the summertime in northern climes are beginning to emerge as they prefer our winter. I’ve just started seeing Crepis japonica aka Crepis youngia, False Hawksbeard, and an occasional sow thistle, Sonchus asper. Expect to see them increase in population as warm fall turns to temperate winter. Both make excellent potherbs or when young and tender — at the meristem stage… there will be a vocabulary test later — both can also be added to salads. One way to do that is to learn how to identify them as seedlings and juveniles. More on that later in season, part of my subscribers’ continuing education program. The read more about False Hawksbeardclick here or sow thistlesclick here.
Winged Sumac
♣ Across most of the northern hemisphere Sumac berries are now available. Soaked in warm or cold water the malic acid on hairs on the berries can make a lemonade-like drink. Soaking them in hot water or boiling them brings out tannins and makes a passable tea. Once soaked the berries can be dried then ground into a powder to make a lemony spice. Our local sumac, Rhus copallina or Winged Sumac, is in high season fruiting significantly. However teaching in Tampa recently at Highland Preserve I noticed not a single Sumac had berries. Every terminal cluster was naked or chewed off and carried away. Woodland creatures have to eat something. To read more about Sumacs click here.
Baby and mom
Two other events made the Tampa outing special. First, we saw a young alligator in a small residential retention pond with no suggestion of a large lake nearby. Cute at that age, we were more concerned where Mom or Dad might be. One of the odd things about alligators is that adults, male and female, will respond to the distress cries of young alligators. You might be able to catch a baby alligator but you can easily find yourself confronting a reptile first responder… and over a short distance they can run as fast as a horse. Can you? If you find yourself in that carnivore situation do not run in a straight line, say the experts. Zig and zag. Your pursuer can’t zig or zag too well and you have a good chance of getting out of dinner range. To read about alligators as food, click here.
Yellow Commelina
Also during this class one of my long-time students, Maryann Pugliesi, happened to spot a Commelina I had not seen in my several decades of traipsing around America. Three-petaled Dayflowers are usually blue, or blue and white. This was mustard, or yellow. A bit of research showed that it is the Yellow Commelina, Commelina africana, from South Africa and once imported as a ground cover. Edible cooked. (I am now of the opinion all edible Commelinas need to be cooked, save for the blossoms). How it got to be in Tampa seems to be a mystery. To read about the Dayflowers click here.
80% of packaged food is already genetically modified
♣ As foragers we side step the issue of Genetically Modified Foods. That is one reason why some people forage, to avoid GMFs but for others GMFs are not a significant issue, or is it? According to a recent CBS poll 87% of Americans want genetically modified ingredients mentioned on the label. That means only 13% don’t care. More so it was the poll’s other question that turned heads. Fifty-three percent of the people polled say they would not buy GMFs. There’s the rub because some 80% of packaged food in the United States already contains GMFs as ingredients. Those GMF ingredients usually are soy (93% of soy in the United States is genetically modified), cotton (93% usually in the form of oil), corn (86%), and Canola oil (90% modified). Chances are you are already eating GMFs, or GMFs used as ingredients. The disparity between manufacturing practices and what people want is significant and sure to be a contentious issue. Foraging can reduce your consumption of GMFs and those unlabeled GMF ingredients. I have one student and his family who get a third of their food from foraging.
Hull proposes pedestrian and bicycle ban
♣Did you know? The Town of Hull, Wisconsin, is considering banning bicycle and foot traffic. The 31.8-square mile town has experienced five pedestrian-vehicle accidents and one bicycle-vehicle accident since 2002, none since 2008. The ordinance would either ban pedestrians, runners and bicyclists within the town or require pedestrians, runners or bicyclists to register their travel plans with town officials. While there has not been a significant safety issue in Hull, apparently there have been a lot of complaints from vehicle drivers about runners running in the road and bicyclists going the wrong way. The town has some 2,000 plus households of which 40 percent or more have kids.
According to Town of Hull Chairman John Holdridge: “A formal notification system is established which provides contact with known groups who walk, run or bike in the Town of Hull. Groups will be informed of the state law and the Hull ordinance to control their operation on Hull roads. Groups operating on Hull roads shall be required to have a permit based on an application which details travel plans (time, date, roads used, and numbers) prior to operating on Hull roads. They will need to certify to following all applicable laws and ordinances.”
Holdridge added, “The way I see this working is, we’ve got the names of the athletic directors and we’ve got the names of the cross country track coaches so once we get this, maybe even before we can approve that particular provision, the Town will invite them in and have a discussion.”
Critics say the proposed ordinance is not enforceable and is unconstitutional. Winter may put off arguments until spring.
♣ In the “for what it’s worth” department my second case of poison ivy in 20 years is slowly clearing up after three weeks. As I say it’s proof I get out in the field. I avoid poison ivy very well and wash immediately on contact with Fels Naptha soap. Somehow I missed this contact — yes I do have an excu…ah…. explaination. That meant no washing which has led to three weeks and a day of itching. I’m now down to a pink rash, right knee. Could have been worse. I sat on a patch of Stinging Nettles. Once. To learn more about poison ivy, click here.
To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter clickhere.
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…
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…
The Annonas Four: Sugar, Sour, Custard, Pond
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Antikythera Mechanism
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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.
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…
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…
Armadillo Cuisine: Cooking a Hoover Hog
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Casuarina equisetifolia: Dreaded Edible
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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.
Bananas Trees: Survival Food
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Barnyard Grass(8)
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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,…
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,…
Waxing about Edible Begonias
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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.
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.
Bitter Melon, Bitter Gourd, Balsam Pear: Momordica Charantia
If the Balsam Pear did not exist a pharmaceutical company would invent it. In fact, there…
Think of the Black Cherry as a chokecherry with some of the choke removed.
Not a 100 feet from the…
Black Ironwood, Leadwood
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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…
Blackberries: Robust Rubus, Food & Weed
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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…
Stachytarpheta jamaicensis: Near Beer
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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.…
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.
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…
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…
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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, 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”…
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…
How To Make Hard Cider
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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…
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…
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…
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…
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
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Coral Bean: Humming Bird Fast Food
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Antigonon leptopus: Creeping Cuisine
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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.
Forage, Grain, Flour, Manna, Pest
Americans did two interesting things when they moved from the farm to suburbia: They surrounded their homes with toxic…
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…
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: 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…
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…
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: Kissing cousin chickweed
Drymaria cordata is one of those plants that confounds the mind. You know what it resembles: Chickweed. It has one…
Cooking with Earthworms
The cartoon strip BC once had its peg-leg poet write: “The bravest man I ever saw was the first one to eat an oyster raw.”
Eastern Gamma Grass: Someone who supposedly knew their grasses wrote there are no toxic native North American grasses.
Eastern Red Bud: Pea Pods Tree(5)
Cercis canadensis: In The Bud of TimeIt’s one of those trees that if you don’t see it at the right time you’re not looking for it the rest of the year.…
Eating In Season(1)
There is little doubt that eating certain fiddlehead greens can significantly increase ones chances of cancer. In fact, science says they cause cancer. On…
Edible Flowers: Part One (1)Nasturtium, Calendula, Spanish Needles, Arugula, Squash, Cilanto, Bee Balm, Carnation, Dandelion, Lilac
Which blossom will be your favorite edible…
Edible Flowers: Part Two (9)Tulips, Yucca, Begonias, Blue Porterweed, Queen Ann’s Lace, Dill, Gladiolas, Wapato, Impatiens, CitrusTulips are one of those wonderful flowers you…
Edible Flowers: Part Three (2)Mayflower, Chrysanthemum, Cornflower, Rose, Daylily, Elderberry, Chicory, Johnny-Jump-Ups, Linden, BananaA rite of spring in the frozen north, or at…
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 Fourteen (2)
Manzanita, Rose of Sharon, Tea, Campanula, Artichoke, Saffron, Samphire, Sage, Parsley, Common MallowWestern states often seem to get short-changed in…
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…
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…
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…
Pyrrhopappus, Hypochoeris: Dandelion Impostors
Most people don’t notice False Dandelions because they have the real thing. But here in the South where…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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.…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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: 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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: 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…
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 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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
Arisaema triphyllum: Jack and Jill and No Hill
For a little plant there’s a lot to write about with the Jack-In-The-Pulpit. Where does one start? What does…
Jambul(1)Syzygium: A Jumble of Jambul
The Jambul tree makes you wonder what people were thinking.For a half a century or so the United States Department of…
Japanese Knotweed: Dreadable Edible(9)Japanese Knotweed gets no respect. Nearly everywhere it grows it’s listed as a prolific, noxious, invasive, dangerous bad-for-the-world,…
Stomolophus meleagris: Edible Jellyfish
“Music to the teeth” is what the Malaysians call them.Americans may not eat jellyfish, but the…
Jerusalem Artichoke: Root Them Out(5)
There used to be a huge patch of Jerusalem Artichokes here in Central Florida beside the Interstate. Now they’re under a new exit ramp, and that was the…
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…
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 — 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.
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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: 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
There are less Christmas parties this year than in the past, with economic conditions reducing the usual yuletide cheer. Still, there are some traditions.…
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…
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.
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.
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.
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…
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,…
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…
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.)
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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. 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.
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…
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, 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…
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 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, 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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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.
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: 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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: 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.
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,…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
If you could choose one wild plant to become a commercial product, what would it be?
Many people have tried to make poke weed (Phytolacca americana) a green…
Yucca’s Not Yucky(5)Yucca, Yuca: Which is Edible?
When isn’t a yucca a yucca? When it is spelt with one “C” as in yuca.What’s the difference? A belly ache, maybe…
While these videos are still on You Tube and will soon be on DVDs, these links below do not work. In creating the page one character was dropped from every link so they have to be reloaded, one by one.
Green Deane leading a foraging plant walk at Florida Earth Skills gathering. Photo by Ralph Giunta
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.
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 Winter Park, a three-mile walk.
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, Melbourne
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
Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. Part of the original Port Charlotte Harbor this long and narrow park still sports many edible wild plants and ornamentals. There are numerous parking lots and facilities. We will meet at the parking lot east of the last fishing pier. Among the interesting plants we will study are elderberry, caesar weed, palms, sea grapes, Spanish needles, sea purslane, wild cow peas, red and black mangroves, oaks, railroad vine, saw palmettos, firebush, epazote, sida, Ilexes, Canaveral Rose, fig, smilax, crowfoot grass, loquats, coco plums, wild grapes, opuntia, Cereus, pines, horseweed, bitter gourd, and a few toxic plants. There are bathrooms and water at the park. Because of the distance this class has to have 10 confirmed students ahead of time.
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.
Cassadaga Class Path
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.
LaStrange is a primitive area to forage.
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.
Class path John Chestnut Park
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.
We walk two miles over four hours.
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 Winter Park, a three-mile walk.
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, Melbourne
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.
