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The Official U.S. Army Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants

The Official U.S. Army Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants

In a situation where survival is at stake, plants can provide crucial food and medicine. Their safe usage requires absolutely positive identification, knowing how to prepare them for eating, and a solid awareness of any dangerous properties they might have. Familiarity with the botanical structures of plants and information on where they grow will make them easier to locate and identify.

The Illustrated Guide to Wild Edible Plants describes the physical characteristics, habitat and distribution, and edible parts of wild plants. With color photography throughout, this guide facilitates the identification of these plants.

Originally intended for Army use, this book serves as a survival aid for civilians as well. Anyone interested in the outdoors, botany, or even in unusual sources of nutrition will find this an indispensable resource.

Part 1. Edible Plants

Plant Identification

Universal Edibility Test

Edible Plants

Abal

Acacia

Agave

Almond

Amaranth

Arctic willow

Arrowroot

Asparagus

Bael fruit

Bamboo

Banana and plantain

Baobab

Batoko plum

Bearberry or kinnikinnick

Beech

Bignay

Blackberry, raspberry, and dewberry

Blueberry and huckleberry

Breadfruit

Burdock

Burl Palm

Canna lily

Carob tree

Cashew nut

Cattail

Cereus cactus

Chestnut

Chicory

Chufa

Coconut

Common jujube

Cranberry

Crowberry

Cuipo tree

Dandelion

Date Palm

Daylily

Duchesnea or Indian strawberry

Elderberry

Fireweed

Fishtail palm

Foxtail grass

Goa Bean

Hackberry

Hazelnut or wild filbert

Horseradish tree

Iceland moss

Indian potato or Eskimo potato

Juniper

Lotus

Malanga

Mango

Manioc

Marsh marigold

Mulberry

Nettle

Nipa palm

Oak

Orach

Palmetto palm

Papaya or pawpaww

Persimmon

Pincushion cactus

Pine

Plantain, broad and narrow leaf

Pokeweed

Prickly pear cactus

Purslane

Rattan palm

Reed

Reindeer moss

Rock tripe

Rose apple

Sago palm

Sassafras

Saxual

Screw pine

Sea orach

Sheep sorrel

Sorghum

Spatterdock or yellow water lily

Sterculia

Strawberry

Sugarcane

Sugar palm

Sweetsop

Tamarind

Taro, cocoyam, elephant ears, eddo, dasheen

Thistle

Ti

Tree fern

Tropical Almond

Walnut

Water chestnut

Water lettuce

Water lily

Water plantain

Wild caper

Wild crab apple or wild apple

Wild desert gourd or colocynth

Wild dock and wild sorrel

Wild fig

Wild gourd or luffa sponge

Wild grape vine

Wild onion and garlic

Wild pistachio

Wild rice

Wild rose

Wood sorrel

Yam

Yam bean

Part 2. Poisonous Plants

Rules for Avoiding Poisonous Plants

Contact Dermatitis

Ingestion Poisoning

Poisonous Plants

Castor bean, castor-oil plant, palma Christi

Chinaberry

Cowhage, cowage, cowitch

Death camas, death lily

Lantana

Manchineel

Oleander

Pangi

Physic nut

Poison hemlock, fool’s parsley

Poison ivy and poison oak

Poison sumac

Renghas tree, rengas tree, marking nut, black-varnish tree

Rosary pea or crab’s eyes

Strychnine tree

Trumpet vine or trumpet creeper

Water hemlock or spotted cowbane

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