Common Edible Plants that Could Help

Save Your Life – Plus Some to Avoid!

A major part of achieving optimal health is living in partnership with nature.

Growing your own food is a great way to rekindle this connection with nature.

But have you thought about eating plants that grow wild—perhaps in your own
backyard?

Some “weeds” can be delicious if prepared properly, and they are absolutely free.

For example, one of the best solutions for dealing with pain is using wild lettuce, while it
is not as known as it should be, it is most likely already growing in your backyard. Wild
lettuce has been famous for a long time in the ‘natural remedy’ or ‘alternative treatment’
world. It is often referred to as “poor man’s Opium.

If you’ve suffered anxiety, headaches, or muscle or joint pain, you might already be
familiar with wild lettuce. It’s also effective at calming restlessness and reducing anxiety,
and may even quell restless legs syndrome. When using a wild-lettuce supplement, take
30 to 120 milligrams before bed.
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Wild lettuce has proven to be effective in treating a wide range of things. It can work for
everything from muscle or joint pain to whooping cough. In the book A Modern Herbal,
Volume 2 it is even mentioned how Dr. Collins “stated that 23 out of 24 cases of dropsy
were cured by taking doses of 18 grains to 3 drachms of extract in 24 hours.” Many
people use it as a means to get rid of or help with insomnia as well.

In an article published earlier this summer, Live Science collected some easy-to-identify
healthful weeds, including:

 Dandelion: The entire plant is edible, and the leaves contain vitamins A, C and K,
along with calcium, iron, manganese, and potassium.
 Purslane: Purslane tops the list of plants with omega-3 fats.
 Lamb’s-quarters: Lamb’s-quarters are like spinach, except healthier, tastier and
easier to grow.
 Plantain: Not the better-known banana-like plant with the same name. It has a
nutritional profile similar to dandelion.
 Stinging Nettles: If you handle them so that you don’t get a painful rash from the
tiny, acid-filled needles, these are delicious and nutritious cooked or prepared as a
tea.

This is of course how our ancestors ate. They hunted and gathered, and ALL of it was
wild. And by all accounts, they were far healthier than we are.

Of course, like anything else, identification and use of wild plants requires spending
some time educating yourself, lest you eat something inedible or even poisonous. But
with some attention to learning what to look for, you can avail yourself of some of the
most highly nutritious, health-promoting plants for FREE—and have a lot of fun doing it.
With the availability of the Internet, in addition to a number of excellent printed books
and even wild-food foraging classes, this information is now easy to access.

So, grab your favorite weeding tool and a basket, and step outside to see what little gems
you can find in your own backyard!

Major Groupings of Wild Edible Plants

Plants are classified into groups based on their botanical family, and there are hundreds
of families within the plant kingdom. For the purpose of this article, we will focus on a
few select members of the following five families:
Purslane family (Portulacaceae), Sunflower family (Asteraceae), Goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae),
includes miner’s lettuce, red includes dandelions, daisies, and thistle includes spinach, Swiss chard, beets,
maids, rose moss and purslane (largest plant family with more than quinoa, and lamb’s quarter
22,000 species)
Plantain family (Plantaginaceae), includes common Nettle family (Urticaceae), includes stinging nettle, wood
plantain, water plantain, and Northern plantain nettle, and clearweed

Purslane
First, let’s take a look at the rock star of wild edibles: purslane—from the Purslane
family, of course.

Purslane, or Portulaca oleracea (also

called duckweed, fatweed, pigweed, pusley, verdolaga, ma chi xian in Chinese,
munyeroo, or wild portulaca) is the omega-3 powerhouse of the vegetation kingdom, and
there’s a high probability it’s growing in your yard right now. According to Mother Earth
News, it’s the most reported “weed” species in the world.

Purslane looks very much like a miniature jade plant, with fleshy succulent leaves and
reddish stems. The stems grow flat to the ground and radiate outward from a single
taproot, sometimes forming large, flat circular mats up to 16 inches across. In about mid-
July, purslane develops tiny yellow flowers about one quarter inch in diameter. Seeds of
purslane are extremely tough, some remaining viable in the soil for 40 years. A single
purslane plant can produce up to 200,000 seeds! And purslane can grow in almost
anything, from fertile garden loam to the most arid desert soil, and even in your rock
driveway.

Be careful not to confuse purslane with spurge, because they can look similar, and spurge
will make you sick. This video shows you how to tell them apart. In the plant kingdom,
similar appearing plants often grow next to each other—and often one is poisonous!
 Purslane has a stellar omega-3 fatty acid profile, compared to other vegetables. As you
can see from the chart below, purslane beats all of the other veggies for omega-3s.

Omega-3 Levels in Common Foods

Romaine lettuce, 1 cup, 53 mg Purslane, 1 cup, 300-400 mg
Flaxseed oil, 1 Tbsp., 7196 mg Broccoli, raw, 1 stalk, 147 mg
Chia seeds, 1 ounce, 4915 mg Cauliflower, ½ cup, 104 mg
Walnuts, 1 ounce, 2542 mg Spinach, 1 cup, 41 mg
Walnut Oil, 1 Tbsp., 1404 mg

In addition to its bounty of omega-3 fatty acids, purslane has other nutritional benefits:

 SIX times more vitamin E than spinach

 SEVEN times more beta carotene than carrots, providing 1320 IU/100g of
vitamin A (44 percent of the RDA), which is one of the highest among green leafy
vegetables
 25 mg of vitamin C per cup (20 percent of the RDA)
 Rich in magnesium, calcium, iron, riboflavin, potassium, phosphorous and
manganese

Purslane is reportedly beneficial if you have urinary or digestive problems, and has
antifungal and antimicrobial effects. It has also been found useful for skin conditions
such as acne, psoriasis, and sunburn. Some people compare purslane’s taste to spinach or
watercress, with a “crunchy lemony” flavor. Look for tender young leaves and stems,
which are good in salads or sandwiches. Purslane is also rich in pectin, so it can be used
to thicken soups and stews. According to Weston A. Price Foundation, the ancient Greeks
made a bread flour from Purslane seeds and pickled its fleshy stems; the Mexicans enjoy
it with eggs and pork, and the Chinese toss it with noodles.

If you need a little culinary advice, there are quite a few purslane recipes out there—
check out Prairieland CSA, Weston A. Price, Sunset Part CSA, and Epicurious.

Dandelion
 You are probably already familiar with
dandelions. There isn’t a yard in America that hasn’t sprouted a dandelion or two, usually
greeted with vitriol by gardeners everywhere. But, in the words of The Daily Green,

“If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em!”

Every part of the dandelion is edible and full of nutrition. Dandelion, or Taraxacum
officinale, is part of the Sunflower Family (Asteraceae). It also goes by other common
names, including priest’s crown, Irish daisy, monk’s head, blowball and lion’s tooth.
Dandelions have antioxidant properties and contain bitter crystalline compounds called
Taraxacin and Taracerin, along with inulin and levulin, compounds thought to explain
some of its therapeutic properties. Dandelions offer you a wealth of nutrition!

They contain:

One of the richest sources of beta Numerous flavonoids, including Possibly the HIGHEST
carotene of all herbs (10161 IU per FOUR times the beta carotene of herbal source of vitamin K 1,
100g, which is 338 percent of the broccoli; also lutein, cryptoxanthin and providing 650 percent of the
RDA) zeaxanthin RDA
Vitamins, including folic acid, Great source of minerals, including Leaves rich in dietary fiber,
riboflavin, pyroxidine, niacin, and magnesium, calcium, potassium, as well as a good laxative
vitamins E and C manganese, and iron

Dandelions are found abundantly in fields, lawns and meadows. They have a long, stout
taproot from which long, jagged dark green leaves radiate. The yellow flower rises
straight up from the root, which matures into the fluffy white puffball you remember
blowing away as a child. All parts of the plant exude a milky white “latex” fluid, if
broken. The root is filled with a somewhat “yam-like” white pulp and can be harvested in
summer for medicinal purposes. The Japanese actually use the root in cooking.

Dandelion leaves can be used in salads, soups, juiced, cooked the same way as spinach,
or dried (with flowers) to make dandelion tea. The root can be dried and roasted and used
as a coffee substitute, and the flowers can be used to make dandelion wine.

Dandelions are known for the following therapeutic properties:

 Laxative and diuretic; useful for premenstrual bloating and edema

 Normalizing blood sugar and cholesterol (dandelion root)
 Tonic; appetite stimulant and a good general stomach remedy
 Liver cleanser; remedy for liver and gall bladder problems
 Agent for treating burns and stings (inside surface of flower stems)

Dandelions also have antiviral effects so may be useful in combating herpes and AIDS.
For more information on the nutritional and medicinal properties of dandelions, go to this
article by Leaf Lady. Be careful not to confuse dandelion plants with Hawksbeard, which
can look very similar. Hawksbeard won’t kill you, but it certainly doesn’t offer the great
nutritional benefits of dandelion. Here is a video showing how to tell them apart.

Lamb’s Quarter
The third weed-gem is called Lamb’s quarter (or Chenopodium album), also called
goosefoot, wild spinach, pigsweed or fat-hen. Lamb’s quarter is a European relative of
spinach and beets. It can be found along roadsides, in overgrown fields, on vacant lots, in
disturbed soil, and is probably growing in your own backyard. The plants get to be quite
tall, reaching up to 6 feet or even taller. But after flowering, they are usually found lying
down if not supported by neighboring plants.

Lamb’s quarter has diamond shaped leaves with shallow “teeth” and a telltale white,
waxy powder on the undersides of its leaves, which makes identification relatively easy.
This powdery substance gives it a dusty appearance at a distance, which is why lamb’s
quarter is sometimes called “white goosefoot.”

Lamb’s quarter contains:

 A whopping 11,600 IU of beta carotene per half cup (compared to 6500mg for
Swiss chard, and 8100mg for spinach)
 300mg calcium per half cup (compared to 88mg for Swiss chard, and 93mg for
spinach)
 More than 4 percent protein

Lamb’s quarter is also rich in vitamin C, riboflavin, folate, magnesium, potassium,

vitamin E, B6 and thiamine. Wild spinach is much more nutrient rich than its cultivated
cousin and tastes very similar. You can prepare lamb’s quarter in the same ways as you
fix regular spinach. Make sure your specimen is CLEAN because lamb’s quarter is a
“purifier herb” that pulls pollutants out of the soil, concentrating them in the leaves.

For a few recipes, click here and here.

According to Wildman Steve Brill, lamb’s quarter, which is odorless, looks much like a
mildly poisonous plant called epazote, which smells resinous—so become familiar with
both so you don’t confuse the two. Here is Steve’s video tutorial on lamb’s quarter, with
lots of visuals to help you learn to identify it.

Plantain

Plantains, or Plantago major, have a family all their own—the

Plantain family (Plantaginaceae). It goes by many names, including common plantain,
broadleaf plantain, ripple grass, waybread, snakeweed, Cuckoo’s bread, Englishman’s
 foot and White Man’s foot, because it was said to grow wherever your feet touch the
ground. By the way, this is not at all related to the banana-like fruit called “plantain,”
which is part of the Banana family (Musaceae).

This cool season perennial herb loves damp, infertile soil and fertile lawns, and has broad
oval leaves (up to 10 inches long) with fibrous roots that spread out in a rosette. The
plants produce numerous, small flowers along the ends of a long stalk, between 8 and 20
inches tall.

The young leaves of plantains are edible raw or cooked and are rich in vitamin B1 and
riboflavin. This herb has a long history of medicinal use, dating back to ancient times. It
truly seems to be a panacea for everything, as the list of its uses is extensive. One
American Indian name for plantain translates as “life medicine,” which says it all.

Part of plantain’s nutritional power comes from a remarkable glycoside called Aucubin,
which is reported in the Journal of Toxicology to be a potent anti-toxin. In fact, this
“weed” is full of effective agents, including ascorbic acid, apigenin (a phytonutrient with
strong antioxidant properties), benzoic acid, oleanolic acid, and salicylic acid, among
others, which give the plant a wide range of uses as an antiseptic, poison antidote, anti-
inflammatory, antitussive, diuretic, hemostatic, and even a heart remedy.

There is medical evidence that plantain can help with a variety of health problems,
including:

Asthma, coughing, sinusitis, Bladder Fever Hypertension

bronchitis tuberculosis and problems,
emphysema cystitis
Rheumatism Blood sugar Diarrhea, dysentery, gastritis, peptic ulcer, Allergies and
control Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), hemorrhoids hay fever
and constipation
Providing a natural aversion to Stopping Skin inflammation, wounds, stings, and Rattlesnake bites
tobacco bleeding malignant ulcers

Stinging Nettles
 Last but not least is the wickedly fascinating
stinging nettle, a member of the Nettle family, Urtica dioica. This nettle’s nasty sting is
well concealed behind its beautiful lacey leaves, which can shoot little poison darts into
you if you aren’t paying attention.

The leaves look a great deal like mint… but they certainly don’t behave like it!

The nettle’s sting comes from tiny hollow hairs on its stems and on the underside of its
leaves. Inside these hairs is a mixture of chemicals, including histamine, acetylcholine,
serotonin, and formic acid. Whey you touch the hairs, they break, exposing sharp points
that inject your skin with the toxin. Ouch!

The sting of the stinging nettle is a pretty good way to positively identify it. But there is
another stinging plant, the Cnidoscolus stimulosus (or spurge nettle, which isn’t actually
part of the Nettle family) that you could confuse it with. Spurge nettle has palm shaped or
hand shaped leaves, as contrasted to the stinging nettle’s hock shaped or lance shaped
leaves. You can learn more about stinging nettle in this short video tutorial by Green
Deane.

David Wolfe shows you how to pick stinging nettles without getting stung in this video.
If you do get stung, applying a paste of baking soda and water is said to effectively
soothe local pain and inflammation.

Nettles are high in iron, potassium, manganese, calcium and vitamins A, C, D and K.
Each cup of nettles supplies you with a whopping 1,790 IU of vitamin A, which is three
days’ RDA. The parts of the nettle most commonly consumed are the leaves and roots, as
the stems are quite tough on a mature plant.

Stinging nettle has the following medicinal uses:

Treating anemia and fatigue, due to its high iron Relief of arthritis, joint pain, and gout (internally and
and chlorophyll content externally), by promoting elimination of uric acid from your
joints
Nettle root is reported to be helpful for enlarged As a styptic (an arrestor of local bleeding)
prostate (Benign Prostate Hyperplasia, or BPH)
Urinary tract infections Breaking down urinary stones
Relief from hay fever and seasonal allergies Treatment for hives, rashes, and other skin irritations
(especially reactions to shellfish) by virtue of its antihistamine
properties
Diuretic Stinging nettle is even rumored to be an aphrodisiac

Most people cook stinging nettles because cooking neutralizes the sting, although there
are some uber-hard core foodies who eat them raw. Soaking them also reportedly helps
remove the stinging chemicals, so do that first if you want to try them in a salad. For
some great sounding nettle recipes, see this article by HonestFood.net.

There are certainly more good wild edibles out there. Prickly lettuce, chickweed, sow
thistle, red clover, burdock, cattails, Japanese knotweed, and sheep sorrel all deserve
attention but are beyond the scope of one article. As you expand your wild palate, you
can gradually learn about some of the other wild edibles just waiting for your discovery.

Safety Tips for the Frolicking Forager

Before foraging out your new wild-edible adventure, there are some precautions to take,
since not all wild plants are safe to eat.

You should never eat a plant unless you are entirely sure it is not poisonous.

According to raw food and wild plant expert Sergei Boutenko:

“When you harvest wild plants for food, there is a high guarantee that edible plants will
be sharing their living space with non-edibles. These non-edibles may range in toxicity
from mild to extreme. If you are anything like me, then you too prefer to avoid any form
of poisoning whether it is mild or severe. For this reason it is a good idea to first learn
how to positively identify wild plants and then exercise caution when gathering them for
food.

Fortunately, there are far more edible plants than poisonous ones. Boutenko claims there
are thousands of safe, edible plants growing wild in North America, but there are only
150 listed by the American Association of Poison Control as poisonous. Of those 150,
only about 50 are considered to be “highly poisonous” (i.e., can be fatal), and the rest are
classified as “mildly poisonous,” which means they may cause nausea, diarrhea, or
headache, but probably not kill you.

Boutenko argues that it isn’t too difficult to learn what you need to know to avoid the 50
dangerous plants, and once you’re familiar with those, your chances of getting poisoned
are almost nil. Some communities even offer classes that teach you how to identify safe,
edible plants, so you might want to investigate the possibility of a “foraging,” “grazing”
or “wildcrafting” workshop in your area. And purchasing a good field guide will get you
off to a good start.
 Some of the most common poisonous plants you will need to familiarize yourself with
are listed in the table that follows. Please understand, this is NOT a comprehensive
list, but just a sampling.

Hyacinth, Narcissus, Oleander Rosary Pea, Castor Monkshood

Daffodil Bean
Foxglove Daphne Yew Moonseed
Mistletoe Water Hemlock and Poison Nightshade Jimson Weed (Thorn
Hemlock Apple)

According to Wilderness Survival, if you see a wild plant you can’t identify, the
characteristics that you should regard as “red flags” for toxicity include:

Milky or discolored sap Beans, bulbs, or seeds in pods

Bitter or soapy taste Spines, fine hairs or thorns
Dill, carrot, parsnip, or parsley like foliage “Almond” scent in woody parts or leaves
Grain heads with pink, purple, or black spurs Three-leaved growth pattern

The fact that a plant has some of these characteristics doesn’t necessarily mean it’s
poisonous, but if you can’t positively identify it, you’re better off not adding it to your
salad. And remember to NEVER harvest plants that have been exposed to herbicides or
pesticides, road salt, asphalt runoff, paint or pet waste. Here is one helpful site that
includes pictures of poisonous look-alikes, side by side with the edibles.

One last word of caution: Introduce new wild foods to your body gradually.

Even a high-quality, nutritious wild plant or herb can cause an unexpected reaction in
some people. Try them one at a time and in SMALL amounts to see how your body is
going to react. If you feel good, have at it! But don’t consume a big bowl of wild greens
all at once that you’ve never eaten before, because if you DO have a bad reaction to one
of them, you won’t know WHICH one.

Additional Resources
Edible wild plant expert John Kallas recommends that, if you want to begin a foraging
lifestyle, you should have a “starting library” that consists of the following:

1. Three books about edible wild plants

2. Three books about plant identification
3. Three books about poisonous plants

He also makes suggestions about what books to choose in each category.

The following are a few book suggestions, to get you started:

 Edible Wild Plants – Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate Volume 1 by John Kallas
  The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible
Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer
 Nature’s Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild
Plants by Samuel Thayer
 Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So
Wild) Places by Steve Brill
 The Wild Table: Seasonal Foraged Food and Recipes by Connie Green and Sarah
Scott

If you prefer to learn by video, you might want to take a look at Green Deane’s video
series about edible plants. He has 125 videos on YouTube, most of them about foraging.

Lastly, Sergei Boutenko has released an iPhone app called “Wild Edibles” for those of
you who want a field guide right inside your smart phone.

Happy foraging!

References:

 Live Science July 31, 2011

 Wild Food Adventures
 USDA Plants Database
 University of Illinois Extension July 26, 2003
 Mother Earth News April/May 2005
 Nutritiondata
 Nutrition and You
 Drugs.com
 Weston A. Price Foundation February 18, 2004
 The Daily Green
 Livestrong
 The Leaf Lady
 Wize Woman Herbal Ezine
 Sacred Earth Ethnobotany and Ecotravel
 Wildman Steve Brill
 Alternative Nature
 Pharm Res. August 1991
 J Ethnopharmacol. December 1995
 Squidoo
 University of Maryland Medical Center
 Eat the Weeds
 Sergei Boutenko
 Aggie-Horticulture
 Practical Survivor
 Awareness Act
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