Identify
Wild Forage
Identify these (13)
American persimmon
Diospyros virginiana
Native tree with blocky bark and sweet orange fruit that is only edible when fully ripe.
Broadleaf plantain
Plantago major
Tough-veined weed rosette. Its main danger is first-year foxglove, which can look similar at a glance.
Chickweed
Stellaria media
Low, sprawling cool-season green with a single line of hairs on the stem. Spurge is the look-alike to rule out.
Dandelion
Taraxacum officinale
Common lawn and field weed with a hollow, leafless flower stalk and a toothed leaf rosette.
Elderberry
Sambucus canadensis
Multi-stemmed shrub with white flower umbels and dark berries. Berries must be cooked; look-alike umbels can be deadly.
Pawpaw
Asimina triloba
Understory tree with big tropical-looking leaves and custardy fruit in fall. Seeds and skin are not eaten.
Poke shoots (poke sallet)
Phytolacca americana
Traditional Appalachian spring green. Toxic unless harvested at exactly the right stage and prepared correctly.
Ramps
Allium tricoccum
Spring woodland onion with 2-3 smooth, broad leaves. Shares habitat with deadly look-alikes, so every plant gets the full checklist.
Spicebush
Lindera benzoin
Aromatic understory shrub with yellow spring flowers and red berries used like allspice.
Staghorn sumac
Rhus typhina
Upright red fuzzy fruit cones make a tart, lemony drink. Poison sumac is the look-alike to rule out.
Stinging nettle
Urtica dioica
Opposite, toothed leaves with stinging hairs. Excellent cooked green when harvested young.
Wild blackberry / black raspberry
Rubus allegheniensis / Rubus occidentalis
Thorny arching canes with compound leaves and dark aggregate fruit.
Wood sorrel
Oxalis stricta / Oxalis violacea
Clover-looking plant with heart-shaped leaflets and a sour, lemony taste.
Do not eat or touch (7)
False hellebore
Veratrum viride
Deadly. Emerges in early spring in the same seeps and coves as ramps, and has been mistaken for them.
Foxglove
Digitalis purpurea
Heart-toxic garden escape. The first-year rosette is often mistaken for plantain or comfrey.
Lily of the valley
Convallaria majalis
Toxic to the heart. Grows in dense colonies around old homesites and also wild in Appalachian mountain forests, and is a known ramp look-alike.
Poison hemlock
Conium maculatum
Deadly. Every part is poisonous. Often mistaken for wild carrot, parsley or other umbel plants.
Poison ivy
Toxicodendron radicans
Common vine, shrub or groundcover with urushiol oil that causes rash. Present year-round, even as bare vines.
Poison sumac
Toxicodendron vernix
Swamp shrub whose oils cause a severe rash. Never eat, never touch, never burn.
Water hemlock
Cicuta maculata
Deadly. Among the most toxic native plants in North America; a small bite can be fatal.
Educational reference only. Never eat a wild plant or mushroom based on a website or app. Confirm with an experienced forager, your local extension office, or a mycological club. Poison Control (US): 1-800-222-1222. Call 911 for severe symptoms.