Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants
Nyerges, an authority on survival skills, discusses 71 wild foods--from agave to yucca--and tells where they can be found. Some of the more familiar plants are chickweed, chicory, dandelion, fennel, grass, milkweed, nasturtium, prickly pear, thistle, and yarrow. Photographs, other illustrations, and textual descriptions of the various parts of the plants (stalks, stems, leaves, and flowers) make identification easy. In each listing, the author explains the plant's edible properties and medicinal uses, where to find it, and its growing cycle. The book also includes some plant folklore and several recipes. A few of the plants, such as poison hemlock, tree tobacco, and jimsonweed, are poisonous but have some medicinal value. There is a pictorial key to leaf shapes and one to fruits and seeds, as well as a glossary, If you're lost in the woods, the book could save your life; if you're interested in plant life and botany, the book is fascinating reading.George Cohen