Other Uses for Plants

Make dyes from various plants to color clothing or to camouflage your skin. Usually, you will have to boil the plants to get the best results. Onion skins produce yellow, walnut hulls produce brown, and pokeberries provide a purple dye.

Make fibers and cordage from plant fibers. Most commonly used are the stems from nettles and milkweeds, yucca plants and the inner bark of trees like the linden.

Make fish poison by immersing walnut hulls in a small area of quiet water. This poison makes it impossible for the fish to breathe but doesn't adversely affect their edibility.

Make tinder for starting fires from cattail fluff, cedar bark, lighter knot wood from pine trees or hardened sap from resinous wood trees.

Make insulation by fluffing up female cattail heads or milkweed down.

Make insect repellents by applying the expressed juice of wild garlic or onion to the skin, by placing sassafras leaves in your shelter, or by burning or smudging cattail seed hair fibers.

Plants can be your ally as long as you use them cautiously. The key to the safe use of plants is positive identification whether you use them as food or medicine or in constructing shelters or equipment.

Plants and Animals

PLANTS YOU
CAN EAT
Get guidelines to finding edible plants in the wild.

PLANTS YOU
CAN'T EAT
Learn how to identify poisonous plants you should avoid.

DANGEROUS
ANIMALS
Be on guard for animals that can harm you in the wilderness.

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Other Uses for Plants

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Plants and Animals