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Absolutely identify plants before using them as food. A great guide.

wilderness-survival.net — At times you may find yourself in a situation for which you could not plan. In this instance you may not have had the chance to learn the plant life of the region in which you must survive. In this case you can use the Universal Edibility Test to determine which plants you can eat and those to avoid.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 23, 2007

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  • alexgieg, on 10/11/2007, -1/+38The universal edibility test is very, very, VERY dangerous! It's not recommended, ever. Most plants will poison and kill an human being who eat them, even if the plant at first pass this test. If you're after food, go after meat. Make traps, a spear, a primitive fishing rod, whatever, and hunt and fish your food. Birds, animals and fish are almost always secure, and even many insects are safer than unknown plants. The only situation where you should try this is if it's IMPOSSIBLE to get meat, you're without food for many (and I mean MANY) days, and there's no perspective AT ALL of a rescue team finding you. After all, when you're 100% SURE you're going to die anyway, doing anything is better than nothing. Otherwise, just DON'T DO IT, okay? There is an EXTREMELY HIGH risk of death doing this!

    See here for more details: http://survival.com/IVB/index.php?showtopic=10284

    Buried due to dangerousness! Help stop spreading the misinformation!
  • SevanElevan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+15"Plants growing near homes and occupied buildingspr along roadsides may have been sprayed with pesticides."

    I thought this was a wildnerness survival guide. If I'm near homes I could probably just find a grocery store.

    Unless this is a survival guide for the homeless.
  • g30ff, on 10/11/2007, -5/+15The site is well laid out, but basically just a ripoff of an old army manual. If you like the manual you can probably find it online for free as a pdf (although you might have to get it from some slightly creepy survivalist website). Also the 'ultimate survival knife' they are selling with the "drop point blade" is clearly shown to be a clip point. I wouldn't trust the expertise or the recommendation of someone who doesn't know the difference.
  • Typhoon2009, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9I prefer my method of 'eat first, ask later.'
  • SenatorPenguin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Damn, I wish I had this for Oregon Trail.
  • naturewoman56, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3It's interesting to learn that so many people "digg" this topic; but I agree with many of the above comments (vague, fairly uninformative, even dangerous). For serious foragers, it would be better to purchase one of the more recent books on the subject. Suggestions and a list of common edible plants can be found at http://www.organic-nature-news.com/edible-weeds.html.

    Let me add that noone would take the time to try the edibility test. A field manual and a pot of water for boiling would be more useful.
  • Error601, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3The best test is watch what the native animals eat and chances are it's not going to kill you. Or just eat the native animals if you're quick.
  • nokaagnew, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5Wow, this is strange. Yesterday, a friend was telling me about this(from an army survival manual). This evening, another friend brought up the same thing. And now, here it is again.
  • Bobski, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4It is truly a sad state when a predominate life form loses it's innate ability to determine the most basic of life functions - safe eating - and has to rely on artificial means for enlightenment.
  • g30ff, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Well sabach, I perused the site because it seemed like my kind of thing and, although I thought the layout was excellent, the content seemed pretty derivative. II can't call it plagiarism since it is in the public domain, but reformatting public domain material into even a very nicely done website doesn't inspire confidence in me.

    As the comment by alexgieg below points out, it is sometimes dangerous to put up a website and make claims that your own level of experience and training can't back up even if you are just repeating what someone else has written. I think I was being at least a little bit useful when I pointed out that it was widely available as a pdf. And I think I was being more useful still when I called into question the level of survival-related expertise of the site creator. The site purports to provide survival-related information and so credibility should be an important issue. To be honest, the difference between a drop point (convex curve from the spine to the tip, which tends to be stronger) and a clip point (concave/straight, better penetration on a thrust) is minimal compared to the mind-boggling foolishness of promoting one of those ***** two-piece hollow handle knives. The blades are poorly fastened to the handle and will easily break, leaving you with no knife, and the survival kit is generally kind of crappy and, importantly, completely unavailable in any situation in which you are not carrying your 14" knife. There are some nice one-piece custom jobs around like the ones from Chis Reeve Knives, but they go for ~200$ and up (way up), but you get what you pay for. I guess I'm a bit of more of a knife-nerd than most, so that's what stood out more than the bad advice on eating plants you aren't 100% sure of, but if anyone is seriously interested in wilderness survival I would advise them to check with other sources rather than taking the information on this website as gospel truth. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
  • sabach, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I take almost everything with a grain of salt and definitely wouldn't take the content of the site as gospel, I need several sources before I buy into what any particular individual is saying. What I know about wilderness survival was taught to me by my Dad who grew up in the Appalachian foothills, he actually lived it and I've never found anything he told me to be wrong. There's plenty out there that's safe to eat, you really don't have to resort to plants you aren't sure of.

    On knives, you obviously have tons more experience with them than me, I have my old Navy K-bar for hunting and my Case XX in my computer toolkit and I'm happy with them. A guy I know who used to run a local ISP had a hobby of making knives and swords from discarded saw blades, he did some beautiful work.
  • simplejoe79, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2lol yeah thats what i was thinking when i was going through it......
  • Sharky35, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Buried for stupidity.
  • Error601, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1The ability to record things and teach them to others are innate abilities.
  • BackwardsPanda, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Screw this, im eating the mushrooms i find.
  • gwhardyiv, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2By the time I do all this stuff, I'm already dead.
  • knomevol, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1well, if you think about it, who is going to be using this guide? someone who is *extremely* hungry.

    so... perhaps if this guide mentions "don't eat if spoiled" they'll think "you know, it might be better to just keep going hungry than eating this" if they're hungry enough to consider eating something spoiled.
  • maxa, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I don't think that's a good test. A lot of animals have specific adaptations to eat particular poisonous plants, because then they have a food source that no one else it eating.

    Here in Ohio, squirrels and deer love to eat buckeyes. They are specifically adapted to process the poisons in buckeyes. But those will give you a terrible gastro-intenstinal distress, and will kill you if you eat to much.
  • spiffytech, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1If I were stranded on an island and could domesticate an animal, is there a certain kind of animal I could use to test the plants? I know some animals are unaffected by foods that would kill a human, but is there an animal I might find on an island with similar food tolerances that I could feed samples?
  • Tmax88, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I was going to say, geoff, i love the way they try to sell the user information that's freely available. A multitude of army manuals are available at http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/ and other sources for those who feel like searching a bit more than me. A "creepy survivalist" website I like is donrearic.com
  • archer104, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I know that you guys are paranoid. I mean really, it is not that unusual for a topic to come up three times in one day. And besides we live in one of the safest...OH MY GOD! WHAT IN *****'S NAME IS THAT!!!!.........
  • lucas22, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1i just hope my laptop doesnt go flat in the middle of nowhere with no wifi for using this site as a reference. because everyone knows sattelite phones are so expensive you might be better off dying under a rock
  • g30ff, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Thanks for the link they've got a lot of interesting stuff there. Hmm... how long to you think it will take for wilderness-survival.net's creator to make a webpage for helocopter-gunnery.net. Maybe I can beat him to it...

    Step one: make a webpage based on public domain military manuals
    Step two: ???
    Step three: Profit!!!
  • maxa, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@alexgeig -- you are absolutely right. Naturalist and surivavlist has a list of four 'safe' plants in a sruvival siuation. They are:
    Oaks
    Pines
    Grasses
    Cattails
    http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-and-Environment/1982-05-01/At-Home-in-the-Wilderness-Part-V-Edible-Plants.aspx

    Of course there are other plants that are good to eat, the the above for are hard to misidentify and are safe to eat.
  • fquednau, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1This happens all the time. Look out for it. It's one of the funny things of reality.
  • Dissociation, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Buried for being inaccurate since some plantsberriesmeat pass the universal test and still aren't edible.
  • bincoder, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0How to survive:
    1) Find a critter eating a plant, type of plant doesn't matter.
    2) Hunt down and kill critter, skin, cook and eat.
    3) If pesticides are a problem, you are near civilization. Scan horizon for a McDonalds, hunt it down and order a salad. If the salad makes you sick, sue.
    There. You have survived.
  • knomevol, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1yeah, man. what's up with these stories all of the sudden? is someone (or a lot of people if it's making front page, what, twice now?) expecting to be going very hungry? is there something going on that we should be prepared for? someone know something?
  • g30ff, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2It's aimed at soldiers who may not have that option available to them. Also, It is good to point this out to learners since many of the areas where they will see potentially edible plants are not too far off the beaten path, e.g. dandelion leaves are quite edible, but don't eat the ones you see in parks or your neigbours yard unless you enjoy the taste of herbicides and pesticides.
  • internetslacker, on 10/11/2007, -7/+7It's still better than eating at Arby's.
  • InferiorWang, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I wish I knew what some good guides were for edible plants. I know a good bit about survivalist and back country stuff and love to know camping. I just wish I knew how to identify edible plants (in my general area) better than the basic military manuals tell you in case I ever actually needed the information.

    Anyone have good book or website recommendations for the south east?
  • Osjpr, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1"Birds, animals and fish are almost always secure, and even many insects are safer than unknown plants."
    Unless thery're filled with lead and arsenic etc from pollution...
  • maxa, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Check out Tom Brown's Edible and Medicinal plants, and also The Peterson's guides for edible and also medicinal plants.
  • simplejoe79, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1QUITE INFORMATIVE.......
  • sabach, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2Still a hell of a lot more useful than your comment.
  • FSUCHEEF, on 10/11/2007, -12/+4The initial rules for this are stupid!!!!
    Dont eat anthing spoiled or rotten.... oh really could not have figured that one out myself.

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