Are there any specific guidelines for edible plants in North America?

Question

I know there are dangerous plants and fruits to eat, but are there any basic rules one can use when in an emergency situation that apply to all safe foods? The 'rules' don't necessarily have to apply to every plant, but I'm looking for something along the lines of "if it has ____, it is safe to eat" and similar.

I understand that you its best to be absolutely sure of what you are eating before you do it, but there must be some basic guidelines.

Answer 1

Learning specific plants is helpful, but each person can have different food reactions, and they can change over time. So learning to taste well is a valuable skill:

1. Start with a clean mouth

2. Take a small bite

3. Chew it in the very front of your mouth

4. Spit it out

5. Notice how it tastes, and how you feel. Not just in your mouth & throat, but throughout your body. Dizzy? Fuzzy vision? Weak?

There are many different plant species, but you can say a lot about entire families, or at least about genera. A great resource for this information is Tom Elpel's Botany in a Day.

Learn to recognize the most severe poisonous plans (here in WA state, USA, it's poison hemlock) and don't bother tasting them. It's probably a good idea to skip the whole carrot family.

Learn to recognize a few good edibles. I like dandelion, miner's lettuce, chickweed, peppergrass, stinging nettle, and mustards.

Answer 2

The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America: Nature's Green Feast would be a good start.

Book description from Amazon.com:

From mushrooms to ferns, to trees and shrubs, nature offers a slew of healthy and tasty menu alternatives. We no longer have to limit ourselves to the 50 to 60 fruits and vegetables commonly grown in North America but can now learn and begin to enjoy more than 4,000 wild and delicious foods growing in our own back yards!

Noted ethnobotanist Dr. Francois Couplan has been teaching the uses of various fruits, nuts, and grains world wide since 1975 and has published more than 13 books about plants in both French and German. He has worked with world-renowned chefs including Jean-Georges Vongerichten in New York, to bring wild plants to gourmet menus and has been cooking with hundreds of different plants for the past thirty years. This title is not only a guide to intriguing and palatable edible plants based on the author's personal experiences but a unique pathway to appreciating nature.

_{Source: Amazon.com}