Sam Thayer's Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America
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Serious foragers will find this a highly useful resource, well organized, filled with photographs, maps, and detailed descriptions of plants and the habitats where they are found.
- More than 700 species represented in 2000 photographs
- More than 600 maps to identify the range of particular plants
- Notes on which parts of the plants are not only edible but pleasantly so
The book is arranged in 38 chapters organized by visibly distinguishable botanical features (e.g., Fern-like plants, palms, and horsetails; Trees or shrubs with large fleshy fruits; Aquatic plants with grass-like leaves or tubular leafless stems). A final chapter calls out plants which are poisonous and confusing to identify.
While some fundamental botanical knowledge is essential for using the book–you should know such things as what basal leaves are and how to distinguish milky sap–these are things anyone should learn before they go looking for any wild plants. The book includes an extensive glossary with sample illustrations to help you get started, and there are flowcharts within each chapter to teach you to begin to distinguish crucial characteristics.
Wisconsin-based author Sam Thayer has written several earlier books on foraging, but this is his most extensive (700+ pages) to date. He began “survival camping” at fourteen and led his first wild food walks when he was 19. He’s been leading foraging expeditions for the last three decades.
Flexibind. Full-color photography throughout.
