Table Of ContentGuide to Wild Foods
and useFul Plants
Second edition
ChristoPher nyerGes
Foreword by Ed Begley Jr.
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. ............................vii
Acknowledgments ....................................ix
Introduction ...........................................1
Pictorial Key to Leaf Shapes .......................... 7
Pictorial Key to Fruits and Seeds ......................12
Agave ...............................................17
Alyssum ............................................ 22
Amaranth ........................................... 25
Black Sage ......................................... 28
Brodiaea .............................................31
Burdock ............................................34
california Bay .......................................39
california coffee Berry and cascara Sagrada ......... 42
camphor tree .......................................46
carob ................................................51
castor Bean ......................................56
cattail ..............................................60
chia ................................................65
chickweed ....................................... 70
chicory ........................................ 73
cleavers .................................... 77
currants and Gooseberries .............. 79
dandelion ........................... 82
dock ................................ 88
elder .................................92
epazote ............................... 95
eucalyptus ...............................98
Fennel ............................................. 103
Filaree ............................................. 106
Glasswort .......................................... 108
Grass ............................................... 111
Horehound ..........................................116
Horsetail ............................................118
Jimsonweed ......................................121
Lamb’s Quarter .................................... 124
Mallow ..............................................127
Manzanita ......................................... 130
Milkweed .......................................... 135
Miner’s Lettuce .................................... 138
Mugwort. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Mustard ................................. 144
nasturtium ............................. 148
nettle .................................. 152
oak tree ................................ 159
Passionflower ........................... 165
Piñon Pine ............................... 170
Plantain .................................... 174
Poison Hemlock .................................. 178
Poison oak ........................................ 183
Prickly Lettuce ..................................... 189
Prickly Pear ........................................ 192
Purslane ........................................... 197
Rose ..............................................202
Rosemary ..........................................207
Russian thistle ..................................... 210
Sea Rocket ........................................ 213
Seaweeds ......................................... 216
Shepherd’s Purse ..................................226
Sow thistle ........................................229
thistle .............................................232
toothwort ..........................................235
toyon ..............................................238
tree tobacco ..................................... 241
Watercress ........................................244
Water Hyacinth .....................................248
Western Black nightshade .....................253
White Sage ................................256
Wild Asparagus ...........................259
Wild Buckwheat ........................ 261
Wild cucumber .........................263
Wild onions ............................267
Willow .................................270
Wood Sorrel ............................275
Yarrow .............................................278
Yerba Santa ........................................ 281
Yucca ..............................................283
Appendix 1: Safe Families: A Guide to the (Relatively)
Easily Recognized Plant Families That Are Nontoxic
and Primarily Edible ...............................287
Appendix 2: Why Eat Wild Foods? ...................303
Glossary ...................................311
Bibliography .............................323
Index ....................................327
Foreword
Most children entering grade school these days can identify, by sight,
hundreds of name brands. Hold up a flash card with three red dia-
monds 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 main-
tain 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 sup-
ply 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
vii
viii | FoReWoRd
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 sur-
round 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 Rich-
ard 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 through-
out Southern California.
—Christopher Nyerges
ix
