Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants - Ed Begley, Christopher Nyerges - 2014

276 Pages·2014·6.65 MB·English

Copyright © 2014 by Christopher Nyerges
All rights reserved
Published by Chicago Review Press Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN 978-1-61374-698-1

The author and the publisher of this book disclaim all liability incurred in connection with the use of the information contained in this
book.

Questions, comments, and authenticated reports (as requested in the text) should be sent to the author in care of the publisher.

Library of Congress has catalogued the first edition as follows:
Nyerges, Christopher

Guide to wild foods and useful plants / Christopher Nyerges.— 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-55652-344-0
1. Wild plants, Edible. 2. Plants, Useful. 3. Medicinal plants. 4. Wild foods. I. Title.
QK98.5.A1N94 1999
581.6’3-dc21

98-49812

CIP

All photographs taken by Christopher Nyerges unless otherwise noted.
Cover photographs: Top left, Nyerges with wild salad: Gina Ferazzi, copyright © 2010. Los Angeles Times. Reprinted with permission.

Bottom center, passionflower: Dude McLean. All other photos by Christopher Nyerges.

Cover and interior design: Sarah Olson
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Foreword by Ed Begley Jr.
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Pictorial Key to Leaf Shapes
Pictorial Key to Fruits and Seeds

Agave
Alyssum
Amaranth
Black Sage
Brodiaea
Burdock
California Bay
California Coffee Berry and Cascara Sagrada
Camphor Tree
Carob

Castor Bean

Cattail
Chia
Chickweed
Chicory
Cleavers
Currants and Gooseberries
Dandelion
Dock
Elder
Epazote
Eucalyptus
Fennel
Filaree
Glasswort
Grass
Horehound
Horsetail

Jimsonweed

Lamb’s Quarter
Mallow
Manzanita
Milkweed
Miner’s Lettuce
Mugwort
Mustard
Nasturtium
Nettle
Oak Tree
Passionflower
Piñon Pine
Plantain

Poison Hemlock

Poison Oak
Prickly Lettuce
Prickly Pear
Purslane
Rose
Rosemary
Russian Thistle
Sea Rocket
Seaweeds
Shepherd’s Purse
Sow Thistle
Thistle
Toothwort
Toyon

Tree Tobacco

Watercress
Water Hyacinth
Western Black Nightshade
White Sage
Wild Asparagus
Wild Buckwheat
Wild Cucumber
Wild Onions
Willow
Wood Sorrel
Yarrow
Yerba Santa
Yucca

Appendix 1: Safe Families: A Guide to the (Relatively) Easily Recognized Plant Families That Are

Nontoxic and Primarily Edible

Appendix 2: Why Eat Wild Foods?
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Foreword

Most children entering grade school these days can identify, by sight, hundreds of name brands. Hold
up a flash card with three red diamonds and, though some will mispronounce, most will know we’re
talking about Mitsubishi. Display the next card with a white apple, and they understand we’re
pitching a computer, not an edible addition to their lunch sack. And show any child on the planet twin
arches painted gold … I don’t think I need to go on. These same children can identify two or three
plants, at best.

How did we get to this place as a society?
Not so long ago, we maintained a connection to the soil and the earth. We realized our place in the

natural world and sought to maintain a balance with it. Some cultures still do, but their numbers drop
precipitously every year. Is this the direction we should be headed? Is dirt just a place to put a house,
an apartment complex, or a high-rise? What is the value of “idle land,” when we could be erecting
factories to employ hundreds, indeed thousands, of people?

Though we all labor under the illusion that we get our paychecks from these same factories, we do

not. Though we feel snug in our homes and apartments, they are not the ultimate source of our security.
All the many species that inhabit the planet get their real paycheck from the “idle” field, the “unused”
forest, the “unmined” oceans, which supply the air, the soil, the water, the very elements we need for
survival. We now have more shopping malls than high schools in this country. I’m certainly not
suggesting we do away with either, but we need to strike a balance between the worlds of commerce
and education. We need to educate our children about the web of life that supports us all. Christopher
Nyerges’s book offers such an education.

Though I have great admiration for Christopher and those who can live a truly spartan existence, I

live in a home and always will. I work in a movie factory and probably always will. But we must all
learn more about the plants and animals that share our home and revere them for the incredible job
they do of keeping our world in balance.

I have learned what little I know about the many plants that surround us in California very late in

life by walking in the hills with Christopher Nyerges and from reading and rereading an early version
of his book Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants. I suggest readers do both.

—Ed Begley Jr., actor and environmentalist

Acknowledgments

I’d like to especially thank Ernest and Geraldine Hogeboom and Richard White for their original
support of the wild food outings (which began in 1974) and with this book. Also, I thank Dr. Leonid
Enari who I consulted from the beginning of this project, and who offered many ideas. And I thank my
wife, Dolores, who added many suggestions along the way. Proceeds from this book help support the
School of Self-Reliance’s educational activities, such as the wild food outings and various youth
programs in the Angeles National Forest and throughout Southern California.

—Christopher Nyerges

Introduction

When we allow our minds to reflect on the broad expanse of human experience in past millennia, we
can see that most peoples were intimately involved with the plant kingdom. Knowledge of and
interaction with plants was simply part of The Way. Today, though we’ve created vast amounts of
material abundance, we seem to have lost our way in our technological wilderness. We have
forgotten our roots. Our consumer-oriented capitalistic way of thinking and living has lulled many of
us into believing that we are above all that, and we show our scorn for unwanted nature by attacking
wild plants with poisons, weed whackers, and hoes. How far we’ve drifted.

The original concept for this book was an emergency survival manual. Someone who was lost,

stranded, or otherwise without the conveniences of modern civilization could pick up this book and
identify plants for making meals, medicine, and tools. Of course, it is far better to learn such skills as
a normal part of everyday life, and not just as something to do in an emergency.

NOMENCLATURE

The Latin names in this edition will conform with The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California, 2012 edition. Where
there is a new Family, Genus, or Species name from this previous edition, the text will explain, “formerly known as x.”

I have collected the information and used the techniques described in Guide to Wild Foods and

Useful Plants for over 40 years. My goal in writing this book is to educate and to instill appreciation
for the floral wealth that continues to grow everywhere. We hope that by reading this book you will
gain a heightened sense of responsibility to be a keeper of the flame, to strive to learn and use the
ancient skills of self-reliance.

This book is written so that it can be easily used in the field or at home. The photographs,

illustrations, and descriptions of the various parts of the plant should make identification easy. In
addition, a comprehensive glossary defines the terms you’ll come across as you read this book. We
welcome authenticated reports from readers to add to this book in future editions (see copyright page
for instructions).

Each listing is organized first by how to identify the plant, covering each part of the plant so that

you can accurately recognize it in the field. I discuss the various uses of the plant—the edible,
medicinal, and the useful properties. I then indicate if there are any detrimental properties. I also
explain where you are most likely to find the plant. Some listings contain nutritional and/or chemical
composition information. In some entries, you’ll see descriptions of the lore or the signature of the
plant. Lore, which originally meant teaching, is a story in which some aspect of the plant can be used
to convey a lesson or teaching. Lore can be a metaphor, or literal.

The signature of a plant refers to the Doctrine of Signatures, whereby each plant contains a clue as

to its value or use. The classic example is the walnut. The inner edible meat resembles the human
brain, and this meat is good brain food. The hard shell resembles the skull. The fleshy outer layer is a
good dye and has been used to dye hair.

Signatures are usually not so simple to see and interpret. You might note function, color of leaves

and fruits, interaction with other plants or fauna, aromas, or another characteristic. Though we have
only scratched the surface, a whole world of meaning awaits those who use analogy and explore these

signatures in depth.

Camphor leaf

We suggest you thumb through this book and look at all the photographs and illustrations. Then

when you find a plant, you can begin by comparing its leaf or fruit to the pictorial keys on pages 7–15.
Though there are many, many other plants that you might find in your area, we have included those
plants that we actually use, those that are easy to recognize, and those that are common to many
regions.

There are no shortcuts to learning the art of plant identification and uses. There are no rules of

thumb to determine if a plant is edible or poisonous. You will need to devote a certain amount of time
to studying and using these individual plants, and you will need to observe these plants in the field.
Study and fieldwork are a sine qua non. You cannot and will not learn how to identify a plant and its
uses simply by reading about it.

Collecting Useful Plants

When you find a plant that you want to use, always reflect on the fact that this living floral being is
allowing you to use its leaves or fruits or bark. Feel thankful. Don’t uproot plants if you only need
some leaves. Pinch off what you need carefully. We have observed that our careful pinching of leaves
actually extends the life of the plants, causing them to produce two to three times as much leaf and
fruit as they would have without our interaction. This phenomenon has been described in an article I
wrote in the January/February 1998 issue of The Wild Foods Forum entitled “Passive Agriculture.”

Move around. Pick a little here, a little there. Don’t strip a single plant bare. Also observe the

relative abundance of the plant. If there are few in the area, perhaps it would be best not to pick from
that plant at all. If you’re collecting various roots, always leave a few so that the plants continue to
grow.

When we collect from the wild, we make the effort to return something back to the plant. In the old

days, bits of tobacco would be left at the base of the plant because tobacco is both a fertilizer and a
sacred plant to many Native American cultures. We may put tobacco or mulch under the plant, or we
may just breathe on it so that it can inhale our carbon dioxide. It is certainly possible for large
numbers of us to utilize the foods and herbs of the wild without exploiting and ruining the wild.
Preservation requires careful attention to the details of each plant and insistence that your actions be
part of a solution, not part of the problem. Carelessly harvesting wild plants can lead to denuded,