How to Find Wild Edible Plants

Sometimes a trip to the wild runs longer than you have planned and you might run out of food. But you don’t have to worry because you can still find food in the wild. In a survival situation it is said that the last thing that you have to worry about is food. You can survive longer than you think without food however, it is still important that you are familiar with wild edible plants. Familiarizing yourself with these wild edible plants will help you survive and you can add them to your diet.

Bushes, weeds, roots, and trees are some of the food sources that you can find in the wild. You can find wild edible plants that are so safe to eat throughout the world.

Identifying wild edible plants properly

It is very important to properly identify the wild plants you see along the way. A lot of people have been poisoned for being careless. Be very careful in picking and eating these plants to avoid being poisoned. It is also important to eat just a little portion of the wild plant first and wait for 30 minutes up to 1 hour to digest. If there is no sign of sickness or nausea, the plant is safe to eat.

Consider the location of the wild plant; plants that are near the highways or roadways are covered with pollution; plants near farms are sometimes contaminated with chemicals; plants near the waterways might be contaminated with parasites.

Before eating wild plants you should rinse it with clean water, boil it to kill bacteria and if the plant smells like almonds, do NOT eat it – a lot of wild plants that smell like almonds are poisonous.

Test the plant

A Universal Edibility Test is used to see if a wild plant is safe to eat.

If you are not sure if the plant is safe to eat, you can use this test. The test starts by fasting for about 8 hours. During the 8 hour period, place the leaf of the plant on your skin;observe if there are any reactions. After that, place the leaf against your lips and then wait for three minutes. If there is no burning or itching developed, you can now place the leaf in your tongue for 15 minutes and then chew it for another 15 minutes, do not swallow it. If there aren’t any reactions or irritations, you can now swallow the plant.

Wait for 8 hours to see if there are any signs of sickness. If it turns out that everything is fine, eat 1/4 cup of the plant and then wait for another eight hours for any signs of sickness. If everything is fine, the plant is safe to eat.

 Edible mushrooms

Some mushrooms are dangerous to eat; it can lead to serious illness or death. These wild plants need to be identified carefully before consuming them. The morel family and Caesar’s mushroom are safe to eat. The half free morel, yellow morel and black morel are the three types of morels that are safe to eat. They can be found in North America.

Edible nuts

Edible nuts are usually found in temperate and other zones. Examples of edible nuts are acorns from the plethora oak, hickory nuts and walnuts.

Other Wild Edible Plants

You can find different kinds of cactus and agave in the desert that you can use for food and water. Day lily flowers, the roots of water lily, cattail shoots, Prickly leaf lettuce and watercress are all edible. However, you should avoid milky sap because they are poisonous.