Edible and Medicinal Plants #6

阿克

By: Love Spellcaster
Plantain, broad and narrow leaf
Plantago species
Description:
The broad leaf plantain has leaves over 2.5 centimeters across that grow close to the ground. The
flowers are on a spike that rises from the middle of the cluster of leaves. The narrow leaf plantain
has leaves up to 12 centimeters long and 2.5 centimeters wide, covered with hairs. The leaves
form a rosette. The flowers are small and inconspicuous.
Habitat and Distribution:
Look for these plants in lawns and along roads in the North Temperate Zone. This plant is a
common weed throughout much of the world.
Edible Parts:
The young tender leaves are edible raw. Older leaves should be cooked. Seeds are edible raw or
roasted. Other Uses: To relieve pain from wounds and sores, wash and soak the entire plant for a
short time and apply it to the injured area. To treat diarrhea, drink tea made from 28 grams (1
ounce) of the plant leaves boiled in 0.5 liter of water. The seeds and seed husks act as laxatives.
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Pokeweed
Phytolacca americana
Description:
This plant may grow as high as 3 meters. Its leaves are elliptic and up to 1 meter in length. It
produces many large clusters of purple fruits in late spring.
Habitat and Distribution:
Look for this plant in open, sunny areas in forest clearings, in fields, and along roadsides in
eastern North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
Edible Parts:
The young leaves and stems are edible cooked. Boil them twice, discarding the water from the
first boiling. The fruits are edible if cooked. CAUTION: All parts of this plant are poisonous if eaten
raw. Never eat the underground portions of the plant as these contain the highest concentrations
of the poisons. Do not eat any plant over 25 centimeters tall or when red is showing in the plant.
Other Uses: Use the juice of fresh berries as a dye.
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Prickly pear cactus
Opuntia species
Description:
This cactus has flat, padlike stems that are green. Many round, furry dots that contain sharppointed
hairs cover these stems.
Habitat and Distribution:
This cactus is found in arid and semiarid regions and in dry, sandy areas of wetter regions
throughout most of the United States and Central and South America. Some species are planted
in arid and semiarid regions of other parts of the world.
Edible Parts:
All parts of the plant are edible. Peel the fruits and eat them fresh or crush them to prepare a refreshing drink. Avoid the tiny, pointed hairs. Roast the seeds and grind them to a flour.
CAUTION: Avoid any prickly pear cactus like plant with milky sap. Other Uses: The pad is a good
source of water. Peel it carefully to remove all sharp hairs before putting it in your mouth. You can
also use the pads to promote healing. Split them and apply the pulp to wounds.
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Purslane
Portulaca oleracea
Description:
This plant grows close to the ground. It is seldom more than a few centimeters tall. Its stems and
leaves are fleshy and often tinged with red. It has paddleshaped leaves, 2.5 centimeter or less
long, clustered at the tips of the stems. Its flowers are yellow or pink. Its seeds are tiny and black.
Habitat and Distribution:
It grows in full sun in cultivated fields, field margins, and other weedy areas throughout the world.
Edible Parts:
All parts are edible. Wash and boil the plants for a tasty vegetable or eat them raw. Use the seeds
as a flour substitute or eat them raw.
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Rattan palm
Calamus species
Description:
The rattan palm is a stout, robust climber. It has hooks on the midrib of its leaves that it uses to
remain attached to trees on which it grows. Sometimes, mature stems grow to 90 meters. It has
alternate, compound leaves and a whitish flower.
Habitat and Distribution:
The rattan palm is found from tropical Africa through Asia to the East Indies and Australia. It
grows mainly in rain forests.
Edible Parts:
Rattan palms hold a considerable amount of starch in their young stem tips. You can eat them
roasted or raw. In other kinds, a gelatinous pulp, either sweet or sour, surrounds the seeds. You
can suck out this pulp. The palm heart is also edible raw or cooked. Other Uses: You can obtain
large amounts of potable water by cutting the ends of the long stems (see Chapter 6). The stems
can be used to make baskets and fish traps.
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Reed
Phragmites australis
Description:
This tall, coarse grass grows to 3.5 meters tall and has gray-green leaves about 4 centimeters
wide. It has large masses of brown flower branches in early summer. These rarely produce grain
and become fluffy, gray masses late in the season.
Habitat and Distribution:
Look for reed in any open, wet area, especially one that has been disturbed through dredging.
Reed is found throughout the temperate regions of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Edible Parts:
All parts of the plant are edible raw or cooked in any season. Harvest the stems as they emerge
from the soil and boil them. You can also harvest them just before they produce flowers, then dry
and beat them into flour. You can also dig up and boil the underground stems, but they are often
tough. Seeds are edible raw or boiled, but they are rarely found.
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Reindeer moss
Cladonia rangiferina
Description:
Reindeer moss is a low-growing plant only a few centimeters tall. It does not flower but does
produce bright red reproductive structures.
Habitat and Distribution:
Look for this lichen in open, dry areas. It is very common in much of North America.
Edible Parts:
The entire plant is edible but has a crunchy, brittle texture. Soak the plant in water with some
wood ashes to remove the bitterness, then dry, crush, and add it to milk or to other food.
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Rock tripe
Umbilicaria species
Description:
This plant forms large patches with curling edges. The top of the plant is usually black. The
underside is lighter in color.
Habitat and Distribution:
Look on rocks and boulders for this plant. It is common throughout North America.
Edible Parts:
The entire plant is edible. Scrape it off the rock and wash it to remove grit. The plant may be dry
and crunchy; soak it in water until it becomes soft. Rock tripes may contain large quantities of
bitter substances; soaking or boiling them in several changes of water will remove the bitterness.
CAUTION: There are some reports of poisoning from rock tripe, so apply the Universal Edibility
Test.
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Rose apple
Eugenia jambos
Description:
This tree grows 3 to 9 meters high. It has opposite, simple, dark green, shiny leaves. When fresh,
it has fluffy, yellowish-green flowers and red to purple egg-shaped fruit.
Habitat and Distribution:
This tree is widely planted in all of the tropics. It can also be found in a semiwild state in thickets,
waste places, and secondary forests.
Edible Parts:
The entire fruit is edible raw or cooked.
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Sago palm
Metroxylon sagu
Description:
These palms are low trees, rarely over 9 meters tall, with a stout, spiny trunk. The outer rind is
about 5 centimeters thick and hard as bamboo. The rind encloses a spongy inner pith containing
a high proportion of starch. It has typical palmlike leaves clustered at the tip.
Habitat and Distribution:
Sago palm is found in tropical rain forests. It flourishes in damp lowlands in the Malay Peninsula,
New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and adjacent islands. It is found mainly in swamps and
along streams, lakes, and rivers.
Edible Parts:
These palms, when available, are of great use to the survivor. One trunk, cut just before it
flowers, will yield enough sago to feed a person for 1 year. Obtain sago starch from nonflowering
palms. To extract the edible sage, cut away the bark lengthwise from one half of the trunk, and
pound the soft, whitish inner part (pith) as fine as possible. Knead the pith in water and strain it
through a coarse cloth into a container. The fine, white sago will settle in the container. Once the
sago settles, it is ready for use. Squeeze off the excess water and let it dry. Cook it as pancakes
or oatmeal. Two kilograms of sago is the nutritional equivalent of 1.5 kilograms of rice. The upper
part of the trunk's core does not yield sage, but you can roast it in lumps over a fire. You can also
eat the young sago nuts and the growing shoots or palm cabbage. Other Uses: Use the stems of
tall sorghums as thatching materials.
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Sassafras
Sassafras albidum
Description:
This shrub or small tree bears different leaves on the same plant. Some leaves will have one lobe,
some two lobes, and some no lobes. The flowers, which appear in early spring, are small and
yellow. The fruits are dark blue. The plant parts have a characteristics root beer smell.
Habitat and Distribution:
Sassafras grows at the margins of roads and forests, usually in open, sunny areas. It is a common
tree throughout eastern North America.
Edible Parts:
The young twigs and leaves are edible fresh or dried. You can add dried young twigs and leaves
to soups. Dig the underground portion, peel off the bark, and let it dry. Then boil it in water to
prepare sassafras tea. Other Uses: Shred the tender twigs for use as a toothbrush.
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Saxaul
Haloxylon ammondendron
Description:
The saxaul is found either as a small tree or as a large shrub with heavy, coarse wood and
spongy, water-soaked bark. The branches of the young trees are vivid green and pendulous. The
flowers are small and yellow.
Habitat and Distribution:
The saxaul is found in desert and arid areas. It is found on the arid salt deserts of Central Asia,
particularly in the Turkestan region and east of the Caspian Sea.
Edible Parts:
The thick bark acts as a water storage organ. You can get drinking water by pressing quantities
of the bark. This plant is an important source of water in the arid regions in which it grows.
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Screw pine
Pandanus species
Description:
The screw pine is a strange plant on stilts, or prop roots, that support the plant above-ground so
that it appears more or less suspended in midair. These plants are either shrubby or treelike, 3 to
9 meters tall, with stiff leaves having sawlike edges. The fruits are large, roughened balls
resembling pineapples, but without the tuft of leaves at the end.
Habitat and Distribution:
The screw pine is a tropical plant that grows in rain forests and semievergreen seasonal forests.
It is found mainly along seashores, although certain kinds occur inland for some distance, from
Madagascar to southern Asia and the islands of the southwestern Pacific. There are about 180
types.
Edible Parts:
Knock the ripe fruit to the ground to separate the fruit segments from the hard outer covering.
Chew the inner fleshy part. Cook fruit that is not fully ripe in an earth oven. Before cooking, wrap
the whole fruit in banana leaves, breadfruit leaves, or any other suitable thick, leathery leaves.
After cooking for about 2 hours, you can chew fruit segments like ripe fruit. Green fruit is inedible.
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Sea orach
Atriplex halimus
Description:
The sea orach is a sparingly branched herbaceous plant with small, gray-colored leaves up to 2.5
centimeters long. Sea orach resembles Iamb's quarter, a common weed in most gardens in the
United States. It produces its flowers in narrow, densely compacted spikes at the tips of its
branches.
Habitat and Distribution:
The sea orach is found in highly alkaline and salty areas along seashores from the Mediterranean
countries to inland areas in North Africa and eastward to Turkey and central Siberia. Generally, it
can be found in tropical scrub and thorn forests, steppes in temperate regions, and most desert
scrub and waste areas.
Edible Parts:
Its leaves are edible. In the areas where it grows, it has the healthy reputation of being one of the
few native plants that can sustain man in times of want.
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Sheep sorrel
Rumex acerosella
Description:
These plants are seldom more than 30 centimeters tall. They have alternate leaves, often with
arrowlike bases, very small flowers, and frequently reddish stems. Habitat and Distribution:
Look for these plants in old fields and other disturbed areas in North America and Europe.
Edible Parts:
The plants are edible raw or cooked. CAUTION: These plants contain oxalic acid that can be
damaging if too many plants are eaten raw. Cooking seems to destroy the chemical.
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Sorghum
Sorghum species
Description:
There are many different kinds of sorghum, all of which bear grains in heads at the top of the
plants. The grains are brown, white, red, or black. Sorghum is the main food crop in many parts of
the world.
Habitat and Distribution:
Sorghum is found worldwide, usually in warmer climates. All species are found in open, sunny
areas.
Edible Parts:
The grains are edible at any stage of development. When young, the grains are milky and edible
raw. Boil the older grains. Sorghum is a nutritious food. Other Uses: Use the stems of tall
sorghum as building materials.
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Spatterdock or yellow water lily
Nuphar species
Description:
This plant has leaves up to 60 centimeters long with a triangular notch at the base. The shape of
the leaves is somewhat variable. The plant's yellow flowers are 2.5 centimeter across and
develop into bottle-shaped fruits. The fruits are green when ripe.
Habitat and Distribution:
These plants grow throughout most of North America. They are found in quiet, fresh, shallow
water (never deeper than 1.8 meters).
Edible Parts:
All parts of the plant are edible. The fruits contain several dark brown seeds you can parch or
roast and then grind into flour. The large rootstock contains starch. Dig it out of the mud, peel off
the outside, and boil the flesh. Sometimes the rootstock contains large quantities of a very bitter
compound. Boiling in several changes of water may remove the bitterness.
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