Edible plant foods of western Washington State

[?] Subscribe To This Site

Edible plant foods of western Washington State

Salmonberries on the bush.

I live in western Washington, and I have always felt fortunate to live in such a bountiful and beautiful area. In fact, there probably isn't an easier place for wilderness survival! I attribute this mainly to the huge selection of edible wild plants in the region. To list just a few:

-Berries (salmonberries, thimbleberries, blackberries, red and blue huckleberries, watermelon berries, elderberries, and more)

-Tubers and Stems (wild carrot, fiddlehead ferns, and shoots, cattail)

-Tree foods (crabapples, indian plum, birch nuts, and maple and birch sap)

-Wild (and introduced) Greens (nettle, dandelion, and plantain weed)

-And more besides!

I'm afraid I can't accurately describe to you all of these (there are so many!), so I encourage you to go look up a couple of these plants--it may save your life someday!

Comments for
Edible plant foods of western Washington State

Average Rating

Click here to add your own comments

Rating

i live in washington too!
by: keith carter

By my house theres wild red cap berries, some wild blue berries, black berries, salmon berries, huckle berries, elder berries, and some wierd berries

Rating

Know your wild plants...
by: Winyan Staz Wakien

The spring shoots of both salmon berry and the thimble berry are edible. Native American Indian children love the sweet stems of the thimble berry in the spring.
Salal, bunchberries, blackberries..so many berries to chose from but if you dont know your berries..a good rule of thumb until you do know is do not eat the red or the white ones unless you know them very well.
While we do have an edible red huckleberry, it bears a resemblence to other red berries that are not so good for you so know your plants.
The bright red berries of the bittersweet may look delicious but can kill a small child if enough are eaten and will make an adult very sick or even kill them.
Bittersweet vines however make excellent weavable vines that make great Yule wreaths and baskets too.
Again...know your plants well.
That little low ground cover you see all over the cities for landscaping is called knick-knick by Native American Indians and the berrys are also known as bear berries. Edible berries (not a favorite of mine but are better mixed with other berries) that were dried and used in pemmican. The leaves were also used for a smoking mixture (mixed with red willow inner-bark and some salal leaves) by Natives.
Oregan grape berries were also used in this manner. You will find the oregan grape berries are sweetest after a mild frost.

Rating

more berries
by: Anonymous

salal berries too

Rating

two cents
by: Anonymous

You ought to have a comprehensive list of edible indigenous plants in WA state.

Rating

Needs More
by: Anonymous

needs more plants i think its the whole point of a page on plants plus the plant shown is extremely common and found every were!!

Rating

There should be more pages like this!
by: Anonymous

I think this type of page is a great idea. People should make their own pages like this for where they live. It would be so cool if there was a page for every part of north america!

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How?
Simply click here to return to Survival food tips

Edible plant foods of western Washington State

Comments for Edible plant foods of western Washington State

Comments for
Edible plant foods of western Washington State