Looks Edible But Isn’t

Going forward I’ll be starting a new series entitled ‘Looks Edible But Isn’t’. These will be some of the most common plants around my area that I get questions on, and that I wondered about myself when I first started foraging.

These will be put up about once a week or so, but may be more or less frequent than that depending upon how busy I get over the late fall and early winter.

Here is a sampling of a few of the items that will be covered, and their likely (but not set in stone) order:

Part I – Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) Beware those little oblong tomato looking berries!

Part II – Tartarian Honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica) Those nice cherry looking double berries are not for nomming. It has been mistaken for Autumn Olive by some folks in the past, who wanted to make the plant they were looking for ‘fit’ that description.

Part III – Common Ragweed (Ambrosia artemesiifolia) It’s one of those leafy plants that is damn near everywhere, and looks like it should be edible, and just about every forager I’ve met has hoped so. But, alas, I can find historical use for the plant, but I have found several warnings that say consumption of it could be dangerous.

Each will be complete with some real life pictures that I took throughout the season.

More will follow as I go through my pictures archive and see what I have available to use for future editions.
Well, that should cover the next three weeks or so. The first one will be up probably later tonight, or whenever it’s done. 😀