# Which wild plants do you commonly use?



## outskirts

I'm curious as to what wild plants do many of us here utilize.
I've been using and researching wild plants for years, it really is a
passion of mine. There are so many that I use for all kinds of purposes,
food, medicine, intoxication, tools, bug repellent, basket materials, etc.
I'm always trying to learn about new plants from people, or new uses
for plants I'm already familiar with.
So tell me which ones do you commonly use and for what do you use them?


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## EastCoast315

Oh god, I use so many. I've done a few treks where half of my sustenance came from what was around me. I'll name a few.

The most obvious friend of mine is Dandelion, I boil up mass quantities of the leaves, for greens. Then I fry up the rhizomes with bacon/other meat, or fish. You can dry the roots and use it to cut coffee with, and make it last longer. You can also use roots in a greater quantity to make a good cough medicine/stomach settler. Also, the flowers make a great wine. You can use every part, and it grows almost everywhere in North America. 
Another particularly prominent one is the plantain leaf. You can boil it as a green. You can eat the seedstalks to get some fiber in your diet, not to mention if you eat 3 or 4 a day, you repel mosquitoes, as it makes your blood taste badly. You can take the bigger, broader leaves, and crush them on wounds and abrasions, and it helps them heal immensely. Make a compress on wounds (with Aloe Vera if you've got it) and it'll heal em in no time.
Clover is a great one in farm country. Grows everywhere, and eat enough of the flowers, with a cracker or two and some jerky, you've got yourself a great meal, and you can keep walking as you eat it! Just pick the flowers off the roadside as you walk and eat! The leaves are delicious as well. And you can use the flowers for an eye wash if your allergies are acting up.
Mint is a favorite of mine for seasoning foods, particularly fish. It's a SUPERB cough medicine, and also is great for belly ailments. If I had to pick one herb to have with me, and one herb only, it'd be mint. I've even eaten it as a green (mixed with others).
Cattail is my all-time favorite. It yields food ALL year. In the spring, the fresh young shoots are delicious eating, great fried with bacon or squirrel. Once they are tough, the roots/rhizomes are good eating too, but tougher to deal with, Gotta macerate them, dry them, and make a flour out of them. They can also be eaten like a starchy potato, if peeled well. Then, late summer, the pollen that gathers on the flowers is great mixed with flour for a delicious bannock. The roots can be dug all year, too, even in winter if your really going hungry. I've also heard of people boiling the brown flower heads like corn and eating them, never tried it though. Oh, and the sappy goop between the leaves at the base of the plant is great on wounds, it really heals them up nice. Put it on your face as a cleanser. And the leaves are great for weaving mats, I've also used the stem as a pipe reed on my corn cob pipe. You can build shelter with them, too. The local indians here in upstate new york revered this plant as a staple food, and used it for everything!
Burdock is good too, you can pull it up from the ground (it's tough to do, use a knife or a shovel) and the roots can be peeled and boiled. Sorta bland though.
Obviously wild berries/apples are awesome. Blackberry leaves can be used as a wash for wounds.
Less wild plants that I use: Oregano (a great disinfectant for wounds) Lavender (awesome for washing with, add some animal fat and some lavender to warm water if you don't have soap, smells good and keeps you clean) Bilberry (I grab them in pill form from grocery stores, and take them to aid night vision. It really works, I've got the eyes of a pilot)

If I think of more I'll post them! I've studied wild edibles and medicinals since I could read, I've always had a love for plants.


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## venusinpisces

I am lucky to have several huge bushes of mugwort fairly close my house and during the spring I always harvest some to use throughout the year. It is a bitter that can be used as a general tonic, much like dandelion, to purge the body of excess. But what I really love about mugwort is that it gives me *intense* vivid dreams. I try not to use it too much because that effect wears off if you use it all the time.

Other than that, the only wild plant I've used is dandelion. But one of my friend regularly collected nettles and so I've eaten it on a number of occasions. They taste wonderful and are especially good for the kidneys. Nettles are very common but you have to cook them to remove the sting from their spines.


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## outskirts

Hey man thanks for responding to this thread, I see you know your plants too!
I've eaten dandelion greens before, but have never tried the the whole roots for coffee thing.
You can use chicory root for coffee too. I just like the real thing to much when it comes to coffee.
The dandelion blossoms make some good wine though! I did not know that about plantain repelling mosquitoes, I gotta
try that one. As far as wild greens go I really like amaranth, purslane, black mustard and green briar tips.
Wild greens that you have to cook in any changes of water (milkweed, poke weed, wild lettuce, etc) just ain't
worth it to me.
Yeah mint is good stuff, sometimes there's nothing better than some fresh hot mint tea around a campfire, with or
without the whiskey in it, lol.
I used to eat a lot of cattails, till I found out how pollution tolerant they are, they can absorb insane amounts of
pollutants and not be effected. Still a very useful plant though. Slick use with the pipe stem, I gotta remember
that one. You'll have to try some spice bush twigs cooked with those burdock roots. Spice bush is great stuff, it's
leaves can be used as a tea or rubbed on the body as a mosquito repellent. The twig bark is excellent to spice up
fish and wild game, and the red berries it gets in September can be used as a seasoning too. 
Lavender and oregano, though not wild, are great stuff also. But I find them more potent when you get them in pure
essential oil form. Oregano oil can clear up some really nasty shit like staff and strep. And lavender oil is stronger
than most people know, it is one of the best things for healing burns and it's bonus... it has the tendency to make
opiates work a little stronger


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## outskirts

venusinpisces said:


> I am lucky to have several huge bushes of mugwort fairly close my house and during the spring I always harvest some to use throughout the year. It is a bitter that can be used as a general tonic, much like dandelion, to purge the body of excess. But what I really love about mugwort is that it gives me *intense* vivid dreams. I try not to use it too much because that effect wears off if you use it all the time.



Fuck yeah! Mugwort dreams! That shit always makes me sleep like a log.


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## Dishka8643

I use a lot of the common ones already mentioned. Dandelion, Plantain, Chicory, Nettle. 

@ EastCoast315: Yeah man, Plantain really is great for wounds. I applied a crushed leaf to a burn once, and the pain subsided after about 30 seconds. 

One of my favorite plants is the Pitch Pine. The needles make a delicious tea that has 6x more vitamin C than a lemon. In the spring, the flowers can be picked and eaten raw. They are high in fat and full of calories. The inner bark is high in carbohydrates and can be peeled and fried in lard. ( Haven't tried this yet, since I would have to peel the bark from a living tree. I'm waiting to find a fresh windblown) The pine nuts can also be roasted and eaten. 

Besides food, The pitch pine is also great for starting fires. The sap, mixed with cotton balls or a similar flammable material makes a great fire starter. A golfball sized glob will burn for about 10 minutes. I've boiled water using dried sap, alone. The roots are full of resin and also make excellent fire starters. This is commonly known as "fatwood". I look for knocked over trees that have the roots exposed to harvest. You can also find pine knots lying on the ground. These are the remains of a long decomposed tree. The resin preserves the wood long after the rest of the tree has rotted away. If you can't find dry tinder, scrape fine fatwood shavings into a pile and ignite. 

The Resin also makes a decent glue. You heat up a large glob until it becomes liquid, then add in finely crushed charcoal powder and mix it up until the two substances become a homogeneous mixture. The glue can be reused again and again simply by re-heating it.


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## Deleted member 2626

Sassafras is good for tea. Leaves can be dried and used as seasoning. The roots dried are what is best known for tea but I've made it with
Leaves too. Maple seed pods peel the outside and eat the seed. Leaves I wipe my ass with a lot, that and oak. Boil acorns, A BUNCH of times, to get rid of the nasty ass Tanninc taste. Also rose buds and leaves can be eaten and made into tea. Milkweed you can make cordage. Maples are tapped hard in northern pa and if ya know how to do it, natural maple syrup is damn good, no high fructose


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## Deleted member 2626

Real nice thread by the way, I've been studying bush skills and edibles since i was in middle school and read my side of the mountain, ha


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## outskirts

I've always noticed how wild plants vary from one location to another. The further I get from Jersey, the less
plants I'm familiar with and can identify. I often take notice to the most mundane plant habits, like that I can
find Red Cedar on both sides of the Appalachians, but I have yet to find it in that mountain range. Or that
stuff like May Apple and Blood Root prefer clay soils but are not so fond of South Jersey's more acidic soil.
I remember the first time I went to California, I was going nuts just identifying all the plants I had only seen
in guide books, Hoarhound, Yerba Santa, Ephedra, Eucalyptus, Passion Flower, California Poppy and Various Sages.
I only got to scratch the surface the half dozen times I've been there.
When I went to Honduras... I couldn't identify shit! (except for the Mango and Cashew trees). Botanically
speaking it was like I got dropped on Mars! I did learn to identify Noni trees while there. Oh man does Noni
fruit smell really bad!


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## Linda/Ziggy

Hi,

Well I'm in Northern California and I am studying local/native plants.

Some stuff will appear in a all areas across the country, while other things won't.
Banana trees in LA but not up her ...bummer!!

My faves at the moment & in season:
Miners Lettuce - vit C powerhouse !!
Acorns
Chickweed
Soap root/Amole : awesome all purpose plant: 
you can eat it, clean with it, use it for glue, and make brushes out of the root hairs.
Plantain

We are having a false/early spring which is playing havoc on everything, which will die
from late frosts like last year, even the Manzanita flowers are out already :>(.

Wish I could find 'Indian' potato, Cammas, Wapato ....but had no luck so far.

Also looking for a body of water for cattail...........


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## Dmac

anyone else like cattails? they can be found most anywhere.


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## EastCoast315

fuck yeah dmac, cattails are the best. They thicken any stew quick, and it makes your soup feel like it's more filling!
about 8903249243 uses for them, from shelter to food to firemaking to facial cleanser, no joke.

Does anyone know about wild tobacco? Called pukeweed usually, I've been trying to find a large patch of it, not sure where it'd grow though?


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## outskirts

EastCoast315 said:


> fuck yeah dmac, cattails are the best. They thicken any stew quick, and it makes your soup feel like it's more filling!
> about 8903249243 uses for them, from shelter to food to firemaking to facial cleanser, no joke.



If your using them for food just watch were you pick them. Cattails have an extremely high tolerance for pollutants,
they can even thrive in some of the most polluted waters. The entire plant can actually store up at a lot of nasty
stuff(lead, PCB's, hydro carbons, DDT, etc.). I used to eat the inner part of the young shoots a lot, now I don't
eat them as often. I'm now just a bit picky about where I pick them from. The younger plants are probably the
safest when dealing with contaminated areas since they have had less time to acquire as many toxins as the
older plants. I'm not trying to scare anyone off of cattails, just saying be careful if your eating lots of them.
I often use the same rule with fish in questionable waters, the larger older fish have been around longer than the 
younger smaller fish, they have had less time to acquire the same amount of toxins.


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## outskirts

EastCoast315 said:


> Does anyone know about wild tobacco? Called pukeweed usually, I've been trying to find a large patch of it, not sure where it'd grow though?


I'm not as familiar with the "wild tobacco" aka pukeweed that your looking for. That particular plant, Lobelia inflata I have
never identified. However I have seen large marshy areas along creeks where a close relative of it's was growing,
Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), it's also a Lobelia but I'm not sure if it's used the same. Around the end of summer
it's easy to find Cardinal Flower, the marshes will have little blazes of red spotting them. It's flowers are really that
brightly colored!
I have found Wild Tobacco(Nicotiana rustica) growing in PA before. It was in a patch outside of an old farmstead that
the owners were obviously ignoring. Mixed in was a lot of Brazil Tobacco(Nicotiana Tabacum), the cultivated kind that's
in your smokes. Man did I have a lot of tobacco for my pipe that summer!
There is also another tobacco that grows wild, this one in in California, it's from Argentina and looks like a cross between 
a small shrubby tree and Nicotiana rustica. From what I remember reading this "tree tobacco" is poisonous and supposed to
cause seizures, strokes and death. Of coarse I read this after I had sampled some! Obviously I did not die, but that shit
did make me feel a little funny, and not the good kind of feeling funny. That wasn't the first time I've accidentally poisoned
myself... and probably won't be the last!


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## Unslap

I made stew with fish, dandelion leaf, and plantain. It tasted good and made me feel cool.
The best tasting wild food I've eaten is the wild onion, which are all over the place in PA right now. Eating enough of this would repel insects.
I've chewed on tasty wild (invasive) carrot roots also, but this was in late summer and they were tough and very sinuous. They seemed to have a high amount of calories, and I'm going to get some this spring while they're nice and tender :]. Don't mistake the deadly poison hemlock for wild carrot.
I'm going to look for some nettles this spring also and try them boiled and raw. Watch this:
I'm really just building skills that may come in handy sometime.


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## Unslap

And Tatanka I also read "My Side of the Mountain" in middle school, haha, good read.


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## Deleted member 2626

Good info. I still read it sometimes


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## outskirts

In case anyone is wondering I will often use those fancy Latin botanical names for plants in these posts.
However I generally don't use them when I'm talking to someone about wild plants. I use them here so it's
easier to find pictures and plant info on the net. Just trying to make it easier for anyone who wants to do
they're own research.


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## nadaynadie

There are so many, and I enjoy the taste of wild food. Seems like everyone likes Oxalis, and you just pick it and eat. (Oxalis looks similar to clover, but its leaves are shaped like hearts, very easy to spot.) Other plants you can eat raw: chickweed, violets, henbit, purslane, lambs quarters. Purslane grows feral in the Phoenix area, and it's great because if you're hot, it'll cool you off. EastCoast315 mentioned clover flowers, but you can also eat the leaves.

I've made tea out of sumac as well as eating the berries. Don't eat poison sumac (if the berries are red, you're safe-poison sumac has white berries). I've also had pine needle tea. Just don't boil the water when you make it, because you'll end up drinking turpentine. Wild fruits and nuts are great - blackberries, plums, persimmons, passion fruits, blueberries, strawberries, hickories nuts (includes pecans), walnuts, pine nuts. It can be work getting the meat out of wild hickory nuts, but it's worth it. If there are palms nearby, check to see if they are date palms. The Mexican Fan Palm gets huge bunches of berries which I think are delicious. Also, you can eat the berries from Lantana; they're not meaty, but they taste good. The flowers of the redbud tree are also edible.

In the desert, you can eat any cactus flower or fruit safely. Also, the pads of the prickly pears can be eaten raw or cooked. Of course they have to be handled carefully. The leaves of the beautiful ocotillo can be eaten raw. Yucca roots can be cooked and are quite tasty, and they can be mashed for soap. I have a lot of strong rope that I've made from the leaves. If you look at a yucca leaf, you'll see the fibers running from tip to base. You get them by pounding or by scraping carefully with a knife. Hard to explain how to twist a rope though-easier to show someone. You can also make a needle and thread with the yucca leaves because of the pointed tips. Same with the leaves of agave. If you've never had mesquite pods and you get a chance, gather them up. They are sweet and have a wonderful flavor. You can pound them into a flour, but you can also just chew them.

If you think back to your childhood, you might be able to think of some plants you used to eat. Most people I talk to can remember eating plants when they were kids.


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## LeeevinKansas

dandelions are good yea. morning glory and mugworth for trips. kansas prickly pear u can cook and pull of the thorns. make sure u get em all. some are real fine.


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## face

My yard is already cranking out food. I've been eating violets, dandelion, cress, wild mustard, miners lettuce; pokeweed shoots are coming up, and mulberries are starting to ripen. I must have eaten 30 different wild foods last year, and this year I'll be spending more time out in the woods! 

Do any of y'all live in or near Asheville, NC?


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## Nelco

some flowers are straight bitter..i assume they're meant not to be eaten.


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## outskirts

Japanese Knotweed shoots are coming up... NOW! Fallopia japonica (Polygonum cuspidatum) (Japanese Knotweed): white Minnesota wildflowers 
You can steam them for about 5 minutes, it's like rhubarb tasting asparagus. 
Japanese Knotweed


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## venusinpisces

I'm practically jumping for joy right now because I just now discovered that my almost completely untended back yard is teeming with huge patches of cleavers(galium aparine). These were definitely not here when I moved in nearly 4 years ago and no doubt it's because of letting things run wild. This is another plant I've used and even bought as a tincture in the past, so how convenient it's growing not ten feet from my back door! Herbalists use it as a diuretic and for cleansing the lymph glands as well as the blood. This is perfect timing as I just quit smoking with the use of a vaporizer and my glands have been a tiny bit swollen
for awhile now. I didn't know that vaporizers are used for breaking up congestion--well only a couple days after I switched I got my first cold/flu in over 2 years, and it was severe. It's 2 weeks later and I'm better now but *still* hacking stuff up in the morning, which never happens otherwise. How perfect that cleavers are used as a cold remedy as well! After going through this I am *never* taking up smoking again. Going to change my profile now.  and I still need to drop the 420 altogether but one thing at a time I suppose..
oh and the best method of preparation is to steam them for a minute or two because they have spines that make them unpalatable as a raw vegetable. They can also be made into a tincture with grain alcohol or even vodka if it's all you have. Just rinse the leaves, stuff them tightly into a jar and cover, then leave for a month or so.


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## trotsky

I don't know about the pitch pine, but I know you can also eat the inner bark of white pines by drying it out and grinding it up for flour, or just boiling it. The needles can also be used for tea. Apparently if you peel and boil the shoots, then boil them in a 50/50 mixture of sugarwater, then roll them in granulated sugar, you can make a decent sort of candy.

You can also use sassafras twigs to clean your teeth if you sort of fray the ends.

And I'm surprised nobody's mentioned frying up some fiddleheads!


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## RnJ

I make roasted dandelion root tea (/coffee) and also a tea out of pineapple weed. Blackberries are an easy snack too. Tried red clover tea one time and it was a bit of a joke (pretty tasteless!). Rose petal tea is decent but takes quite some picking.


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## outskirts

venusinpisces said:


> and I still need to drop the 420 altogether but one thing at a time I suppose..


Hey you can always cook and eat the 420 instead of smoking it 
I know... that's the start of a whole other thread. lol


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## outskirts

RnJ said:


> and also a tea out of pineapple weed.


Oh that stuff is so good! I have not drank that in years, I can't seem to find it anywhere around here.


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## venusinpisces

So I'm learning that it's a lot more efficient to just make an infusion out of the cleavers instead of eating them since harvesting the leaves is a very labor intensive method. Since I have so many of them, infusion means cramming as many as I can fit in the pot and then covering with boiling water. I was researching the effectiveness of cleavers tea and came across an article about how it is traditionally used in cancer treatment. Holistic therapies can result in a huge die off of toxins which really overburdens elimination, particularly of the lymph glands. Again, this is perfect because I've been using high potency homeopathy which is resulting in some profound physiological/mental changes. This is obviously a good thing but the cleavers should help to even out the bumps, so to speak. The tea tastes wonderful!



outskirts said:


> Hey you can always cook and eat the 420 instead of smoking it
> I know... that's the start of a whole other thread. lol


 I've been using the vaporizer for consumption until I quit for good. It's better than edibles since, with them, the physical effect is so strong that I'd be crashing my bike into things all the time. Been there, done that. :blush: It's hard to control how much you're doing and really easy to get *far* too intoxicated that way. Edibles are definitely healthier than smoking for those who don't have a vaporizer, though. But yeah, that's a whole other subject..


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## outskirts

I once crashed my bike too! lol
But that was from eating a handful of Jimson Weed(stramonium datura) leaves. 
That stuff is brutal and dangerous, is best left for medicinal uses. There are much better wild intoxicants growing anyway.


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## venusinpisces

yes it is extremely dangerous--I was once at a Rainbow Gathering when someone on Datura died after walking into a lake and forgetting how to swim. It's in the "worst traveler freak out" thread. You were lucky to have only crashed your bike!


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## Ithyphallic

I use Dandelions alot, the root for detoxifying tea, the leaves and flowers for salads. Wild Ginseng for all the things ordinary ginseng is for, yet harvested in my own woods instead of the plantations in china. Morrel, chantrelle and of course psilocybin mushrooms, but usually only when I'm on the west coast because I have alot of friends that are insanely good at mushrooms hunting..
Stinging nettle makes an awesome tea, or you can cook it up like spinach, very good for you.

I'm adding more as the spring moves along, more that I can identify safely.


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## outskirts

I gather mushrooms from time to time, but I usually just stick to oyster mushrooms since I don't need to double check a guide
book to gather them. They are really tasty and hard to mistake for any other kind. I've always found plants to be easier to identify than fungus, once I learn a plant I don't need a book to identify it again. I have gathered Fly Agarics(Amanita muscaria) in the past, but I do not recomend them. I don't think the side effects are worth the trip with them. If your after the funny mushrooms stick
with the psilocybins.


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## outskirts

Ithyphallic said:


> Wild Ginseng for all the things ordinary ginseng is for, yet harvested in my own woods instead of the plantations in china.


If your sitting on land with wild ginseng then your sitting on serious $$$! If I'm not mistaken most states with decent amounts of
wild ginseng growing in them have laws on the books pertaining to their harvest and sale. So you may have to look into that in certain states if your digging a lot of it. If it's not on your land and your gonna poach some... Be careful! In some places that's like stealing chickens, you could get shot at, yes even if they are wild plants. Wild ginseng is much more valuable than either woods grown or shade grown ginseng.


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## Unslap

I think burdock was mentioned. I want to recommend the large roots of this large-leafed invasive plant. I just ate some of the roots raw and they're like mild carrots. The leaf stalks were fine, but I disliked the leaves.





These apparently live in all of the US and most of Canada


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## crow

Aloe. hands down.


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## flashinglights

I like to gather Mugwort (I dreamed about flying in a UFO last night after smoking a mugwort joint), pennyroyal for sun tea, apples and blackberries, plantain on the rare occasion it's not trampled and dirty, fennel also for tea, wild onions.

Need to start using cattails. I'm blown away by how much you can do with them.


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## BobbinGoblin

Herbal First Aid - this is a great zine from Microcosm that includes loads of plant uses and natural remedies and is conveniently travel-sized.
It is the first section of this book: Make Your Place: Affordable, Sustainable Nesting Skills.

My most-used wild plant is Mullein.


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## face

I'm headed out to harvest some Rabbit Tobacco today. Its an excellent smokeable lung expectorant. It combines so well with mullein, as either a tea, tincture, or smoking blend. 

I used to harvest plants along the traintracks until I saw the railroad spraying herbicides 20-feet in each direction along some tracks. Has anyone else seen this? When harvesting plants hear tracks, how close is too close?


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## Monterey

Rosemary is all over the place in America. In cities and in the wild. I always grab a sprig when I am walking. They have camphor in them and chewing on them keeps your breath from getting sour. Mmmm, tasty antiseptic.

My side of the mountain! I have never met anyone else who read it. It should be required reading in elementary school.

- Monterey


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## Ekstasis

I love that book, it was required in my elementary school.


Rose hips? Has anyone mentioned them? Watch out for the prickly hair inside.


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## face

nikggernogin said:


> I've used stinging nettle to slow down police dogs before. Slows em down for a clean get-away!


You just run through the patch?


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## kecleon

face said:


> You just run through the patch?


 unless its some kind of king nettle I doubt that works. If you've got police chase dogs anywhere near you you're probably fucked. They're fast as hell and I think they'd run through fire to get you. I used to watch them in training.

You could make nettle tea good for all kinds of things. I use rosemary and wild garlic for cooking lavender to make thing s or people smell good, relaxes you as well works on dogs too ( not police ones). Mint, again tea or cooking. Dock leaves for nettle stings.

I'd love to learn all the mushrooms but need to get a book or something to take with me


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## Deleted member 2626

Plantain which is edible and so are the stem seeds and they supposively help stop bleeding and help heal, dandelion, sassafras, chicory, wild onion and garlic as well


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## Ridire

In Central Florida, I can usually get fresh citrus in some form or another just about anywhere. Oranges, tangerines, loquats and blackberries are common and taste fine as is, if a bit sour for the wild ones. Lots of people grow cabbage and taro, so I nick a few leaves every now and then to boil and eat. Up north, I rely more on roots, mushrooms, and barks like White Pine/Oak, orange jelly, chanterelle, and sassafras. You can nick apples from the orchards pretty easily, or just find them growing in semirural areas. Wrinkled Roses are edible too, you can eat them fresh or candy the flowers. Wild Grape grows in the swamps near Kingston, and there's all sorts of edible stuff around Swansea and Seekonk in Mass.


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## Rob Nothing

Apparently the weed Lady's Wort is supposed to act as contraceptive. But I've never tried it, personally.

Also, My Side of the Mountain was required reading in my elementary school. And it was one of the few I read all the way.


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## Deleted member 9462

great thread! thanks for posting!


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## stryk3

Sweet topic i'm excited to get into different ecosystems and become more familiar with the local flora.

Up in Alaska there's tons of stuff to munch on during our short summers.

Fireweed is a great plant, the shoots are edible in the spring as well as the young leaves. You can eat the flowers as well and it produces this cottony shit in the fall that makes for a great firestarter. I've heard mixed things about if the roots are edible or not, I suspect they are but maybe not choice, i'll have to try it come summertime. I love it because they're so abundant you hardly ever have to worry about over harvesting.

I really enjoy eating the Devils Club buds in the spring, very energizing and tasty, goes great with eggs. You can also use the bark/roots as powerful medicine but i haven't played around with it too much, definitely a plant to be respected. I have a pain relieving salve that I bought from an indigenous lady up here that really helps with aches/pains from hiking/working.

Spruce tips are really yummy, great source of vit C during the few weeks they're available.

Cow Parnips are edible whole when they're tiny and you can trim/peel and cook the stalk to eat when they're more mature. Gotta be careful with this one though some, it will make you extremely photosensitive and should not be handled with bare skin, I've known people who have gotten rashes that will come back the next sunny season even without another exposure.

There's also a shitton of berries out and about, great to snack on when you're on the move.

I guess you can eat the inner bark of birch/spruce and certain lichens. Haven't tried either but I might just to see how it is. I heard it's a decent survival meal if you can bag a squirrel and make a lil stew. Definitely not choice eating but good to know just in case you gotta fill your belly.


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## Preacher

It's not really wild, but many people plant the Japanese Kousa Dogwood as an ornamental tree since it doesn't grow too tall. Very few people I've run into know the fruit is very edible and very good.


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## LawrenceofSuburbia

Plantain and Dandelion heads go great with rice, and are pretty nutritious. Plantain is also an excellent swelling/itch reducing salve. I personally love Sumac, but there is one poisonous variety you need to watch out for. Pine/Cedar tea is easy and excellent (or you could just chew the buds), as is anything you can do with Cattails.

Obviously berries of all kinds (there's one hop out spot up in northern Ontario that's a little grove abundant in blueberries. Probably one of my favorite places.)

Wild Asparagus is great assuming you trust the water near where it's growing. Rhubarb, though technically a non-native invasive plant so not really "wild", can spread pretty widely from any cultivated patch and tastes great imo.

Bears Head/Lions Mane and Chaga are the only fungi I mess with for now but the former is great, tastes exactly like crab and is very easily identifiable.


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## stryk3

I also mainly fuck with chaga because it's so easy to identify and easy to work with, it's really blown up here in Alaska, makes me sad that it's become a commodity. Not much caloric value but you get a ton of nutrition out of it and could potentially sell/trade if you have extras.

I've found wild Lions Maine in Michigan and I will vouch that it does taste like crab, I threw it in an omlette with some pesto and it was prime. Supposedly it grows up in AK but i've never seen it. This local plant ID book has a story about some guy who found 50+ pounds of it growing and a couple of logs out in the bush. 

I wanna get more into mushrooms but all my plant knowledge is from books/internet and I feel like i'd really want a live mentor for mushrooms. There's a forest fire from last year that I wanna check for morels if I get the chance during the season. 

Foraging culture is really weird because people are so closed off and covetous of their spots until they really trust you. Like people will be really friendly till I start to ask what's a good reigon to look for so and so mushroom/plant and they instantly are closed off. I mean I totally get the sentiment because no one wants their spot to get blown up and it's really a shame when something becomes hot and gets over harvested but it's kinda annoying because it's something i'm really into and want to learn more about. Once people get to know you and trust you they're generally far more willing to point you in the right direction. I've been hitting up these people who forage shit to bring to the farmers market for nearly 2 years and only recently have they started to really be open with me and kick down knowledge of local plant/shroom lore.


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## BobbinGoblin

stryk3 said:


> Spruce tips are really yummy, great source of vit C during the few weeks they're available.


Hell yeah! My friends pack jars with spruce tips and cover with vinegar to make them useful year-round. They also freeze them. So good baked into biscuits!
Also, I love lion's mane. Yum!



LawrenceofSuburbia said:


> Pine/Cedar tea is easy and excellent (or you could just chew the buds), as is anything you can do with Cattails.


Have you ever made flour from cattails? I would like to try this one of these days. What else do you do with them? I have only used them for natural dyeing.
Rhubarb leaves are also useful in natural dyeing - the oxalic acid acts as a mordant for helping colors to stick.


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## LawrenceofSuburbia

I've never even thought to jar them, that's so smart. And cookies! Wow I gotta try that.

as for cattails, I haven't had the opportunity to use their flour yet but I have eaten the young shoots, core, and roots. They are absolutely full of starch, which is great nutrition wise.

you can also use the head for tinder/torches/bedding, and the stems/leaves for weaving. they're such a useful plant.



stryk3 said:


> Foraging culture is really weird because people are so closed off and covetous of their spots until they really trust you. Like people will be really friendly till I start to ask what's a good reigon to look for so and so mushroom/plant and they instantly are closed off.



I know right, people get crazily protective of things like this. I sometimes, sorta, get it, but sometimes it's way too much. People need to chill.


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## drode

LawrenceofSuburbia said:


> I personally love Sumac, but there is one poisonous variety you need to watch out for.


Except poison sumac definitely doesn't bear any real resemblance to Staghorn sumac. Leaves are different, doesn't produce fur on the bark, and definitely doesn't produce the same seeds.


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## LawrenceofSuburbia

the leaves and leave distribution are close enough that any casual forager could possibly get confused (say if they were looking for just the leaves for their tobacco additive/replacement use)

you're right tho, I just always feel any sort of dangers are worth mentioning


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## ottawafm

I like to forage for plants that I recognize instantly. One that comes to mind are called "ramps", or "wild onions". They can be found in open fields and regularly mowed areas.
Another is "dandelions". You can make a coffee-like drink from them. The roots can be roasted on the campfire till dark brown-black. Then ground and added to hot water.


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## Jaguwar

Mmmmm I love wild onions, my ex husband and I used to go find them every spring. The season isn't very long, but they're SO good and can be picked, too. I've heard the Quebec government has made it illegal to get them now because they've grown scarce.


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## AlwaysLost

Rubbing yarrow over your skin keeps the bugs away and you can rub burdock or sweet gum leaves on your skin to relieve the sting of nettles or even hornets.

Pine needle tea keeps the scurvy away.


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## AlwaysLost

AlmostAlwaysLost said:


> Rubbing yarrow over your skin keeps the bugs away and you can rub burdock or sweet gum leaves on your skin to relieve the sting of nettles or even hornets.
> 
> Pine needle tea keeps the scurvy away.



Pokeberry compote is delicious just make sure those berries are fully cooked or they will kill you...

Wild Garlic but make sure it smells like garlic as death Camus likes to grow among the garlic.

Mulberries have no poisonous lookalikes nor does sorrel. Nor do wild strawberries. Too much sorrel is bad though so don't overdue it.

Acorns make really good flour just need to soak them in water for a half hour to help alleviate the tannens before grinding.

If you live in the south you can chow down on kudzu just don't eat the vines.


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## Deleted member 2626

just started eating burdock last week. I dug a root and peeled it was about the size of two thumbs. boil the shit out of it but I had no bowel issues. new go to. also discovered by chance walking back to my land from town live forver-orphine ate the leaves in a stew with dandy leaves and crowns And lentils And rice. I now have a trowel in my pack from Grammy for foraging. Damn do I now finally love it and enjoy doing so


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## Deleted member 2626

right on almost always lost. I read about kudzu edibility recently. believe its up her in pa. chicory should be popping up here but I'll be in the west in a handful of days. I'm reading breadroot is big out in eastern or. I want to find it. anybody know of it


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## AlwaysLost

Tatanka said:


> right on almost always lost. I read about kudzu edibility recently. believe its up her in pa. chicory should be popping up here but I'll be in the west in a handful of days. I'm reading breadroot is big out in eastern or. I want to find it. anybody know of it



I've got a big old burdock plant I'm getting ready to harvest any advice on making it taste good?


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## Deleted member 2626

well my book says you want early 1st year plants. Even they were tough. But if its green and alive go for it. Boil through a few changes of water for sure in salt and pepper, good to mix with other stuff . Mine still had crunch but it was still decent. It has a nippy taste to it.


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## AlwaysLost

Tatanka said:


> well my book says you want early 1st year plants. Even they were tough. But if its green and alive go for it. Boil through a few changes of water for sure in salt and pepper, good to mix with other stuff . Mine still had crunch but it was still decent. It has a nippy taste to it.



Thanks man, this plant is at least 3 years old but I'm short on nutrients and tired of dandelion lol. Sorry for the meh rating i accidentally bump stuff on my phone.


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## Deleted member 2626

I'm interested to know the size of the root mine was like a few leaves first growth plant and had a shockingly large root. pretty wild


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## AlwaysLost

Tatanka said:


> I'm interested to know the size of the root mine was like a few leaves first growth plant and had a shockingly large root. pretty wild



From my understanding their root structure can get quite massive.


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## outskirts

oops, accidentally quoted my own post.


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## outskirts

Now's a good time to be out foraging. Just a few weeks ago I harvested a few quarts of dandelion blossoms and am now making wine from them.


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## dumpster harpy

This is Mullein. A friend of mine from NC referred to it as Rabbit Tobacco. It grows in disturbed soil throughout North America. American Indians used the leaves as baby wipes and papoose liners, and they used the seeds as a fish poison.

What I really like is that you can smoke the leaves to soothe a cough or sore throat. You can mix it with weed or tobacco, or just smoke it by itself. You can also make a tea out it, but that's not as much fun.


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## outskirts

That mullein sure makes great toilet paper!


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## PatchTwist

One I don't think I have seen here is the awesome Jewel Weed (aka Touch-Me-Nots). It grows in moist areas/wetlands and is great for skin irritations. Bug bites, poison ivy, etc... It is just starting to come up right now and grows throughout the summer. You just slice down the stem and apply the inside of the stem to the affected area.


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## outskirts

PatchTwist said:


> One I don't think I have seen here is the awesome Jewel Weed (aka Touch-Me-Nots). It grows in moist areas/wetlands and is great for skin irritations. Bug bites, poison ivy, etc... It is just starting to come up right now and grows throughout the summer. You just slice down the stem and apply the inside of the stem to the affected area.



It's great for burns too, including sun burn.


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## Jone

Raspberry leaf tea is one i haven't seen mentioned yet. Its good for ladies. I found a bunch of rag weed or squaw weed this spring (blooms early) but didn't need it b/c i didn't get preggo this spring. Cover the whole plant in boiling water, make tea, drink twice a day till you start bleeding. Mugwort is not abortificant but can help get your period flowing. I collect mullen, USNEA, red rasberry leaf, and yarrow as like, must haves. And i guess whats called wildmugwort/white sage. Sage vareies alot in different locations. South dakota sage is really different from southern colorado sage.

Usnea is magical and hasnreally helped my friend, when they had a sick stomach, throwing up from old bad food, tea tastes like medicine but helps. Also if u get it wet it can be a wound dressing it's antiviral/antifungal. 
Yarrow is the amazing. When i have a cold hard withdrawn feeling in my stomach, from not eating, yarrow tea like relaxes and warms me. Basically it increases circulation and will stop bleeding when applied externally. Use the leaves, or leaves and flowers grows everywhere. There are some plants i dunno by name but my look only. Oh no its called wild bergamont, bit you should only drink it if yr sick, or it will make you sick, purple flowers and is related to.mint. 
Mullen is great.


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## Deleted member 2626

Anyone gonna collect some walnuts? Holy shit trees are exploding with em this year. Great year for fruiting trees and berries.


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## Sk8punk16

outskirts said:


> I'm curious as to what wild plants do many of us here utilize.
> I've been using and researching wild plants for years, it really is a
> passion of mine. There are so many that I use for all kinds of purposes,
> food, medicine, intoxication, tools, bug repellent, basket materials, etc.
> I'm always trying to learn about new plants from people, or new uses
> for plants I'm already familiar with.
> So tell me which ones do you commonly use and for what do you use them?


I eat whole dandelions raw


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## AlwaysLost

Sk8punk16 said:


> I eat whole dandelions raw



The flowers make good fritters and you can roast the roots to make coffee. Wally world even sells dandelion root tea for the off season now.


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## muff cabbage

Some useful allies in the southwest: 
Yarrow/ my favorite to keep on hand- good as tea for cold/flu + circulation n the leaves can be used externally to instantly stop bleeding. 
Oat tops/ tea for nervous system
Mugwort/ excellent for breaking up stagnant energy shouldnt be taken during moontime cuz it can make cramps worse. Powerful dream medicine as folx mentioned- has stimulating effects bc it moves energy.. 
Passionflower/ subtle but the flower essence made me have some pretty vivid dreams / you can make an essence out of the flowers n the fruit is bomb
Palm tree/ the orange fruits are edible
Paddle cactus/ grilled or raw. You can leave pieces of it in your water bottle for more hydration. Edible fruit but burn off the invisible stinging hairs
Aloe vera/ good for skin bugs n hydration ***theres a clear layer just beneath the skin that shouldnt be eaten (poisonous to dogs/ n can cause some intestinal stuff w humans) 
Nasturtiums /orange flower, big round leaves both edible. Kinda bitter
Fennel / edible / grows in all kinds of places
Mustard / the greens n the flowers r edible
Rosemary, chamomile lavender, are really helpful n can be found in a lot of places
Mallow / edible flowers
Elderberry / can be cooked / made into syrup or jam but ***cant be eaten raw***
Pepper tree/ peppers and pepper leaves


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## Deleted member 2626

Right on loneur. I'm here on the central Oregon coast and there still are evergreen huckleberries, even still budding from what's been picked and I believe a few Alaskan blueberries if I'm correct. Hairy cats paw? I've eaten some leaves of young. Theres spruce and hemlock and pine for tea. Still some blackberry as well and its amazing their heighth here. The thick brush here is mostly all edible.


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## iamwhatiam

loneur said:


> Some useful allies in the southwest:
> Yarrow/ my favorite to keep on hand- good as tea for cold/flu + circulation n the leaves can be used externally to instantly stop bleeding.
> 
> Aloe vera/ good for skin bugs n hydration ***theres a clear layer just beneath the skin that shouldnt be eaten (poisonous to dogs/ n can cause some intestinal stuff w humans)



I've used yarrow before as a tea. I think I remember it can make you sweat a little, which would be good for helping remove toxins from the body. As far as cold/cough medicine in the pacific northwest tho, my favorite I've tried so far is the root of Goat's beard (Aruncus dioicus).

With aloe, I know you can make an extremely potent laxative called bitter aloes where you take yellow sap that leaks from cut leaves, dry it and scrape up the powder. I haven't tried it per se, but I know that when I drink enough aloe vera juice it makes me pretty loose


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## iamwhatiam

-I love eating Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) whenever I find it.

-Wester Dock (Rumex occidentalis) is good either wilted in a pan (spinach like consistency), or baked till crispy. Better to cook it somehow because of the concentration of oxalic acid in it.

-peeled Horsetail shoots (Equisetum arvense) ----MAKE SURE YOU PEEL THEM ---when they first comes up in spring are okay eating raw....a little slimy but good.

-Next year I'm going to make salal+oregon grape jam which i've read is an excellent combo.

-I occasionally munch on wild plantain or add it to salads. and of course other commons weeds like shotweed and purple dead nettles I either throw in salads or toss into smoothies/juice the leaves if i can get to em before the chickens do


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