标题: Edible and Medicinal Plants #2 [打印本页] 作者: 阿克 时间: 2007-11-27 18:28 标题: Edible and Medicinal Plants #2 By: Love Spellcaster
Bael fruit
Aegle marmelos
Description:
This is a tree that grows from 2.4 to 4.6 meters tall, with a dense spiny growth. The fruit is 5 to 10
centimeters in diameter, gray or yellowish, and full of seeds.
Habitat and Distribution:
Bael fruit is found in rain forests and semievergreen seasonal forests of the tropics. It grows wild
in India and Burma.
Edible Parts:
The fruit, which ripens in December, is at its best when just turning ripe. The juice of the ripe fruit,
diluted with water and mixed with a small amount of tamarind and sugar or honey, is sour but
refreshing. Like other citrus fruits, it is rich in vitamin C.
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Bamboo
Various species including Bambusa, Dendrocalamus, Phyllostachys
Description:
Bamboos are woody grasses that grow up to 15 meters tall. The leaves are grasslike and the
stems are the familiar bamboo used in furniture and fishing poles.
Habitat and Distribution:
Look for bamboo in warm, moist regions in open or jungle country, in lowland, or on mountains.
Bamboos are native to the Far East (Temperate and Tropical zones) but have bean widely planted
around the world.
Edible Parts:
The young shoots of almost all species are edible raw or cooked. Raw shoots have a slightly bitter
taste that is removed by boiling. To prepare, remove the tough protective sheath that is coated
with tawny or red hairs. The seed grain of the flowering bamboo is also edible. Boil the seeds like
rice or pulverize them, mix with water, and make into cakes. Other Uses: Use the mature bamboo
to build structures or to make containers, ladles, spoons, and various other cooking utensils. Also
use bamboo to make tools and weapons. You can make a strong bow by splitting the bamboo and
putting several pieces together. CAUTION: Green bamboo may explode in a fire. Green bamboo
has an internal membrane you must remove before using it as a food or water container.
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Banana and plantain
Musa species
Description:
These are treelike plants with several large leaves at the top. Their flowers are borne in dense
hanging clusters.
Habitat and Distribution:
Look for bananas and plantains in open fields or margins of forests where they are grown as a
crop. They grow in the humid tropics.
Edible Parts:
Their fruits are edible raw or cooked. They may be boiled or baked. You can boil their flowers and
eat them like a vegetable. You can cook and eat the rootstocks and leaf sheaths of many species.
The center or "heart" of the plant is edible year-round, cooked or raw. Other Uses: You can use
the layers of the lower third of the plants to cover coals to roast food. You can also use their
stumps to get water (see Chapter 6). You can use their leaves to wrap other foods for cooking or
storage.
Baobab
Adansonia digitata
Description:
The baobab tree may grow as high as 18 meters and may have a trunk 9 meters in diameter. The
tree has short, stubby branches and a gray, thick bark. Its leaves are compound and their
segments are arranged like the palm of a hand. Its flowers, which are white and several
centimeters across, hang from the higher branches. Its fruit is shaped like a football, measures
up to 45 centimeters long, and is covered with short dense hair.
Habitat and Distribution:
These trees grow in savannas. They are found in Africa, in parts of Australia, and on the island of
Madagascar.
Edible Parts:
You can use the young leaves as a soup vegetable. The tender root of the young baobab tree is
edible. The pulp and seeds of the fruit are also edible. Use one handful of pulp to about one cup of
water for a refreshing drink. To obtain flour, roast the seeds, then grind them. Other Uses:
Drinking a mixture of pulp and water will help cure diarrhea. Often the hollow trunks are good
sources of fresh water. The bark can be cut into strips and pounded to obtain a strong fiber for
making rope.
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Batoko plum
Flacourtia inermis
Description:
This shrub or small tree has dark green, alternate, simple leaves. Its fruits are bright red and
contain six or more seeds.
Habitat and Distribution:
This plant is a native of the Philippines but is widely cultivated for its fruit in other areas. It can be
found in clearings and at the edges of the tropical rain forests of Africa and Asia.
Edible Parts:
Eat the fruit raw or cooked.
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Bearberry or kinnikinnick
Arctostaphylos uvaursi
Description:
This plant is a common evergreen shrub with reddish, scaly bark and thick, leathery leaves 4
centimeters long and 1 centimeter wide. It has white flowers and bright red fruits.
Habitat and Distribution:
This plant is found in arctic, subarctic, and temperate regions, most often in sandy or rocky soil.
Edible Parts:
Its berries are edible raw or cooked. You can make a refreshing tea from its young leaves.
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Beech
Fagus species
Description:
Beech trees are large (9 to 24 meters), symmetrical forest trees that have smooth, light-gray bark
and dark green foliage. The character of its bark, plus its clusters of prickly seedpods, clearly
distinguish the beech tree in the field.
Habitat and Distribution:
This tree is found in the Temperate Zone. It grows wild in the eastern United States, Europe, Asia,
and North Africa. It is found in moist areas, mainly in the forests. This tree is common throughout
southeastern Europe and across temperate Asia. Beech relatives are also found in Chile, New
Guinea, and New Zealand.
Edible Parts:
The mature beechnuts readily fall out of the husklike seedpods. You can eat these dark brown
triangular nuts by breaking the thin shell with your fingernail and removing the white, sweet
kernel inside. Beechnuts are one of the most delicious of all wild nuts. They are a most useful
survival food because of the kernel's high oil content. You can also use the beechnuts as a coffee
substitute. Roast them so that the kernel becomes golden brown and quite hard. Then pulverize
the kernel and, after boiling or steeping in hot water, you have a passable coffee substitute.
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Bignay
Antidesma bunius
Description:
Bignay is a shrub or small tree, 3 to 12 meters tall, with shiny, pointed leaves about 15
centimeters long. Its flowers are small, clustered, and green. It has fleshy, dark red or black fruit
and a single seed. The fruit is about 1 centimeter in diameter.
Habitat and Distribution:
The plant is found in rain forests and semievergreen seasonal forests in the tropics. It is found in
open places and in secondary forests. It grows wild from the Himalayas to Ceylon and eastward
through Indonesia to northern Australia. However, it may be found anywhere in the tropics in
cultivated forms.
Edible Parts:
The fruit is edible raw. Do not eat any other parts of the tree. In Africa, the roots are toxic. Other
parts of the plant may be poisonous. CAUTION: Eaten in large quantities, the fruit may have a
laxative effect.
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Blackberry, raspberry, and dewberry
Rubus species
Description:
These plants have prickly stems (canes) that grow upward, arching back toward the ground.
They have alternate, usually compound leaves. Their fruits may be red, black, yellow, or orange.
Habitat and Distribution:
These plants grow in open, sunny areas at the margin of woods, lakes, streams, and roads
throughout temperate regions. There is also an arctic raspberry.
Edible Parts:
The fruits and peeled young shoots are edible. Flavor varies greatly. Other Uses: Use the leaves to make tea. To treat diarrhea, drink a tea made by brewing the dried root bark of the blackberry
bush.
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Blueberry and huckleberry
Vaccinium and Gaylussacia species
Description:
These shrubs vary in size from 30 centimeters to 3.7 meters tall. All have alternate, simple leaves.
Their fruits may be dark blue, black, or red and have many small seeds.
Habitat and Distribution:
These plants prefer open, sunny areas. They are found throughout much of the north temperate
regions and at higher elevations in Central America.
Edible Parts:
Their fruits are edible raw.
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Breadfruit
Artocarpus incisa
Description:
This tree may grow up to 9 meters tall. It has dark green, deeply divided leaves that are 75
centimeters long and 30 centimeters wide. Its fruits are large, green, ball-like structures up to 30
centimeters across when mature.
Habitat and Distribution:
Look for this tree at the margins of forests and homesites in the humid tropics. It is native to the
South Pacific region but has been widely planted in the West Indies and parts of Polynesia.
Edible Parts:
The fruit pulp is edible raw. The fruit can be sliced, dried, and ground into flour for later use. The
seeds are edible cooked. Other Uses: The thick sap can serve as glue and caulking material. You
can also use it as birdlime (to entrap small birds by smearing the sap on twigs where they usually
perch).
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Burdock
Arctium lappa
Description:
This plant has wavy-edged, arrow-shaped leaves and flower heads in burrlike clusters. It grows
up to 2 meters tall, with purple or pink flowers and a large, fleshy root.
Habitat and Distribution:
Burdock is found worldwide in the North Temperate Zone. Look for it in open waste areas during
the spring and summer.
Edible Parts:
Peel the tender leaf stalks and eat them raw or cook them like greens. The roots are also edible
boiled or baked. CAUTION: Do not confuse burdock with rhubarb that has poisonous leaves.
Other Uses: A liquid made from the roots will help to produce sweating and increase urination.
Dry the root, simmer it in water, strain the liquid, and then drink the strained liquid. Use the fiber
from the dried stalk to weave cordage.
Burl Palm
Corypha elata
Description:
This tree may reach 18 meters in height. It has large, fan-shaped leaves up to 3 meters long and
split into about 100 narrow segments. It bears flowers in huge dusters at the top of the tree. The
tree dies after flowering.
Habitat and Distribution:
This tree grows in coastal areas of the East Indies.
Edible Parts:
The trunk contains starch that is edible raw. The very tip of the trunk is also edible raw or cooked.
You can get large quantities of liquid by bruising the flowering stalk. The kernels of the nuts are
edible. CAUTION: The seed covering may cause dermatitis in some individuals. Other Uses: You
can use the leaves as weaving material.
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