How to identify
wild edible plants

Wild edible plants, fruits, berries and nuts are one of the survivor's most important foods. You will always find plants in the wilderness unless you are in the middle of an arid desert. The problem is knowing which plants are edible and have good food value.

When planning your wilderness trip make sure you learn the plant life of the region you are going to visit. Knowledge of even one or two wild edible plants that grow widely in the area you are going to visit can be of great help in your search for food.


Poisonous plants

The nature has a lot of wild edible plants to offer but also a lot of poisonous plants. There are many good rules what plants to avoid. For example, any plant that has a milky sap or white berries.

But how can you tell if a wild plant is edible or not? Is there a simple and safe way to test a plant to know whether or not it's poisonous? No, not really. The only way for you to know which plants to eat or which to stay away from is to learn them.

Nevertheless, you can find description of plant edibility test in wilderness survival literatures.


Edibility test

The whole idea of an edibility test is that you test the plant step by step. Between every step you wait and watch for unpleasant reaction. The procedure is lengthy, it takes many hours. The last step is to swallow a small amount and wait half a day to see if you get sick.

If you are unlucky and pick the wrong plant, for example poison hemlock, you will have some serious problems. No, eating on unknown plants is very dangerous. In a survival situation it simple isn't worth the risk.


Conclusion

In a wilderness survival situation there is no room for experimentation. Accidental poisoning will make your situation even worse. There's no way around the necessity of making a 100% certain identification. Eat only those plants you know are safe to eat.

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