Plants You Can Eat

Introduction | Edibility of Plants | Plant Identification | Universal Edibility Test | Preparation of Plant Food | Plants for Medicine | Miscellaneous Uses of Plants |

Plant Identification

You identify plants, other than by memorizing particular varieties through familiarity, by using such factors as leaf shape and margin, leaf arrangements and root structure. The basic leaf margins are toothed, lobed and toothless or smooth.

These leaves may be lance-shaped, elliptical, egg-shaped, oblong, wedge-shaped, triangular, long-pointed or top-shaped.

The basic types of leaf arrangements are opposite, alternate, compound, simple and basal rosette.

The basic types of root structures are the bulb, clove, taproot, tuber, rhizome, corm and crown. Bulbs are familiar to us as onions and, when sliced in half, will show concentric rings. Cloves are those bulblike structures that remind us of garlic and will separate into small pieces when broken apart. This characteristic separates wild onions from wild garlic. Taproots resemble carrots and may be single-rooted or branched, but usually only one plant stalk arises from each root. Tubers are like potatoes and daylilies, and you will find these structures either on strings or in clusters underneath the parent plants. Rhizomes are large creeping rootstock or underground stems, and many plants arise from the "eyes" of these roots. Corms are similar to bulbs but are solid when cut, rather than possessing rings. A crown is the type of root structure found on plants such as asparagus and looks much like a mophead under the soil's surface.

Learn as much as possible about plants you intend to use for food and their unique characteristics. Some plants have both edible and poisonous parts. Many are edible only at certain times of the year. Others may have poisonous relatives that look very similar to the ones you can eat or use for medicine.