Survival Manual: Edible and Medicinal Plants (part 7)
Description: The wild desert gourd, a member of the watermelon family, produces a 2.4- to 3-meter-long (7 1/2- to 9-foot-long) ground-trailing vine. The perfectly round gourds are as large as an orange. They are yellow when ripe.
Habitat and Distribution: This creeping plant can be found in any climatic zone, generally in desert scrub and waste areas. It grows abundantly in the Sahara, in many Arab countries, on the southeastern coast of India, and on some of the islands of the Aegean Sea. The wild desert gourd will grow in the hottest localities.
Edible Parts: The seeds inside the ripe gourd are edible after they are completely separated from the very bitter pulp. Roast or boil the seedstheir kernels are rich in oil. The flowers are edible. The succulent stem tips can be chewed to obtain water.
Description: Wild dock is a stout plant with most of its leaves at the base of its stem that is commonly 15 to 30 centimeters (6 to 12 inches) long. The plants usually develop from a strong, fleshy, carrotlike taproot. Its flowers are usually very small, growing in green to purplish plumelike clusters. Wild sorrel is similar to wild dock but smaller. Many of the basal leaves are arrow-shaped. They are smaller than those of dock and contain sour juice.
Habitat and Distribution: These plants can be found in almost all climatic zones of the world. They can grow in areas of high or low rainfall. Many kinds are found as weeds in fields, along roadsides, and in waste places.
Edible Parts: Because of the tender nature of their foliage, sorrel and dock are useful plants, especially in desert areas. You can eat their succulent leaves fresh or slightly cooked. To take away the strong taste, change the water once or twice during cookinga useful hint in preparing many kinds of wild greens.
Description: These trees have alternate, simple leaves with entire margins. Often, the leaves are dark green and shiny. All figs have a milky, sticky juice. The fruits vary in size depending on the species, but are usually yellow-brown when ripe.
Habitat and Distribution: Figs are plants of the tropics and semitropics. They grow in several different habitats, including dense forests, margins of forests, and around human settlements.
Edible Parts: The fruits are edible raw or cooked. Some figs have little flavor.
Description: The luffa sponge is widely distributed and fairly typical of a wild squash. There are several dozen kinds of wild squashes in tropical regions. Like most squashes, the luffa is a vine with leaves 7.5 to 20 centimeters (3 to 8 inches) across having 3 lobes. Some squashes have leaves twice this size. Luffa fruits are oblong or cylindrical, smooth, and many-seeded. Luffa flowers are bright yellow. The luffa fruit, when mature, is brown and resembles the cucumber.
Habitat and Distribution: A member of the squash family, which also includes the watermelon, cantaloupe, and cucumber, the luffa sponge is widely cultivated throughout the tropical zone. It may be found in a semiwild state in old clearings and abandoned gardens in rain forests and semievergreen seasonal forests.
Edible Parts: You can boil the young green (half-ripe) fruit and eat them as a vegetable. Adding coconut milk will improve the flavor. After ripening, the luffa sponge develops an inedible spongelike texture in the interior of the fruit. You can also eat the tender shoots, flowers, and young leaves after cooking them. Roast the mature seeds a little and eat them like peanuts.
Description: The wild grapevine climbs with the aid of tendrils. Most grapevines produce deeply lobed leaves similar to the cultivated grape. Wild grapes grow in pyramidal, hanging bunches and are black-blue to amber, or white when ripe.
Habitat and Distribution: Wild grapes are distributed worldwide. Some kinds are found in deserts, others in temperate forests, and others in tropical areas. Wild grapes are commonly found throughout the eastern United States as well as in the southwestern desert areas. Most kinds are rampant climbers over other vegetation. The best place to look for wild grapes is on the edges of forested areas. Wild grapes are also found in Mexico. In the Old World, wild grapes are found from the Mediterranean region eastward through Asia, the East Indies, and to Australia. Africa also has several kinds of wild grapes.
Edible Parts: The ripe grape is the portion eaten. Grapes are rich in natural sugars and, for this reason, are much sought after as a source of energy-giving wild food. None are poisonous.
Other Uses: You can obtain water from severed grapevine stems. Cut off the vine at the bottom and place the cut end in a container. Make a slant-wise cut into the vine about 1.8 meters (6 feet) up on the hanging part. This cut will allow water to flow from the bottom end. As water diminishes in volume, make additional cuts farther down the vine.
CAUTION
To avoid poisoning, do not eat grapelike fruits with only a single seed (moonseed).
Description: _Allium cernuum is an example of the many species of wild onions and garlics, all easily recognized by their distinctive odor.
Habitat and Distribution: Wild onions and garlics are found in open, sunny areas throughout the temperate regions. Cultivated varieties are found anywhere in the world.
Edible Parts: The bulbs and young leaves are edible raw or cooked. Use in soup or to flavor meat.
CAUTION
There are several plants with onionlike bulbs that are extremely poisonous. Be certain that the plant you are using is a true onion or garlic. Do not eat bulbs with no onion smell.
Other Uses: Eating large quantities of onions will give your body an odor that will help to repel insects. Garlic juice works as an antibiotic on wounds.
Description: Some kinds of pistachio trees are evergreen; others lose their leaves during the dry season. The leaves alternate on the stem and have either three large leaves or a number of leaflets. The fruits or nuts are usually hard and dry at maturity.
Habitat and Distribution: About seven kinds of wild pistachio nuts are found in desert or semidesert areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea to Turkey and Afghanistan. The pistachio is generally found in evergreen scrub forests or scrub and thorn forests.
Edible Parts: You can eat the oil nut kernels after parching them over coals.
Description: Wild rice is a tall grass that typically is 1 to 1.5 meters (3 to 4 feet) in height, but may reach 4.5 meters (15 feet). Its grain grows in very loose heads at the top of the plant and is dark brown or blackish when ripe.
Habitat and Distribution: Wild rice grows only in very wet areas in tropical and temperate regions.
Edible Parts: During the spring and summer, the central portion of the lower stems and root shoots are edible. Remove the tough covering before eating. During the late summer and fall, collect the straw-covered husks. Dry and parch the husks, break them, and remove the rice. Boil or roast the rice and then beat it into flour.
Description: This shrub grows 60 centimeters to 2.5 meters (24 inches to 8 feet) high. It has alternate leaves and sharp prickles. Its flowers may be red, pink, or yellow. Its fruit, called rose hip, stays on the shrub year-round.
Habitat and Distribution: Look for wild roses in dry fields and open woods throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
Edible Parts: The flowers and buds are edible raw or boiled. In an emergency, you can peel and eat the young shoots. You can boil fresh, young leaves in water to make a tea. After the flower petals fall, eat the rose hips; the pulp is highly nutritious and an excellent source of vitamin C. Crush or grind dried rose hips to make flour.
CAUTION
Eat only the outer portion of the fruit as the seeds of some species are quite prickly and can cause internal distress.
Description: Wood sorrel resembles shamrock or four-leaf clover, with a bell-shaped pink, yellow, or white flower.
Habitat and Distribution: Wood sorrel is found in temperate zones worldwide, in lawns, open areas, and sunny woods.
Edible Parts: Cook the entire plant.
CAUTION
Eat only small amounts of this plant as it contains a fairly high concentration of oxalic acid that can be harmful.
Description: These plants are vines that creep along the ground. They have alternate, heart- or arrow-shaped leaves. Their rootstock may be very large and weigh many kilograms.
Habitat and Distribution: True yams are restricted to tropical regions where they are an important food crop. Look for yams in fields, clearings, and abandoned gardens. They are found in rain forests, semievergreen seasonal forests, and scrub and thorn forests in the tropics. In warm temperate areas, they are found in seasonal hardwood or mixed hardwood-coniferous forests, as well as some mountainous areas.
Edible Parts: Boil the rootstock and eat it as a vegetable.
Description: The yam bean is a climbing plant of the bean family, with alternate, three-parted leaves and a turniplike root. The bluish or purplish flowers are pealike in shape. The plants are often so rampant that they cover the vegetation upon which they are growing.
Habitat and Distribution: The yam bean is native to the American tropics, but it was carried by man years ago to Asia and the Pacific islands. Now it is commonly cultivated in these places, and is also found growing wild in forested areas. This plant grows in wet areas of tropical regions.
Edible Parts: The tubers are about the size of a turnip and they are crisp, sweet, and juicy with a nutty flavor. They are nourishing and thirst quenching. Eat them raw or boiled. To make flour, slice the raw tubers, let them dry in the sun, and grind into a flour that is high in starch and may be used to thicken soup.
CAUTION
The raw seeds are poisonous.
