Is There a Wild, Edible Native Plant That Grows In Your Area, Which You Especially Like?

Question

Here in the prairies of Western Washington, the thimbleberries are starting to ripen! The Native Americans harvested them for food and dried them for winter, but growing up here I mainly just ate them from the bush while hiking - as I do now, when going for walks. 

The colour of the ripe berry is striking, very intense; and they do look a bit like thimbles...Rubus parviflorus; they are native to much of western North America, and I like to see them...

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Answer 1

We have quite a few wild plant and mushroom species, although natural sites, open to the public, are rather rare. Just citing some wild fruits, as the list would be long:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_idaeus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragaria_vesca

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_avium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackberry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilberry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus

...

or plants used as vegetables or spices:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraxacum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_ursinum

...

Comments

Marianne, the taraxacum...yes I have tried that as a vegetable green, also made wine once from the flowers!

...and I forgot about the mushrooms, we see lots of those also in our damp forests.

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Wow, you did more than I did; we used the young leaves for salads and, sometimes, cooked, like spinach.

And, for the mushrooms, we had to be very cautious, as children, and to collect (under the guidance of experienced adults) only those, which could not be confused with non-edible or poisonous species. Our favourites were morels, chanterelles, or Boletus (namely B. edulis) ...

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Marianne, that is amazing, those are the same edible mushrooms found in our forests here in Western Washington State!

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Lol, Virginia, various species of plants and animals, species, and subspecies are found, more or less worldwide, like, for instance, in the whole northern hemisphere.

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Yes, seems so Marianne, smh! I wonder if that hearkens back to Pangeia, when all the continents were joined...

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Yes, Virginia, that is correct, if referring to ancestors of plants and animals, their groups or families - some are called "fossile plants" or "fossile animals" and their evolution:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondwana

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangaea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondwana#Breakup

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_history_of_plants

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_history_of_plants#/media/Filelant_Diversity_(2).svg

Certain "fossile" species did survive till today (starting with small organisms like bacteria, algae, mosses, fungi, etc.).

http://phytophactor.fieldofscience.com/2009/05/oldest-species-on-earth-is-fern.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrozamia

https://monicawilde.com/horsetail-equisetum-arvensis-healing-properties/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocotyledon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poaceae

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnosperm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginkgo_biloba

and

http://thechive.com/2014/09/25/oldest-animal-species-still-living-on-earth-today-12-photos/

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Marianne, what a story the Earth can tell...and we are learning to listen !!!

Here this was on one of your links... "The adjective "Gondwanan" is in common use in biogeography when referring to patterns of distribution of living organisms, typically when the organisms are restricted to two or more of the now-discontinuous regions that were once part of Gondwana, including the Antarctic flora. For example, the plant family Proteaceae, known only from southern South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, is considered to have a "Gondwanan distribution". This pattern is often considered to indicate an archaic, or relict, lineage."

Now I am going to click on 'Antarctic flora'...have NO idea what they could be talking about there...

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Lol - excellent, Virginia - yes, you will be surprised about the arctic flora and fauna.

Answer 2

About the only ones I can think of around here is wild raspberries and wild mint. Everything else is in someones yard or property!

Comments

Rooster, yes I know both of those, and like them very much!

Answer 3

Yes, wild raspberries here too.  They taste much better than the cultivated ones.