Customer Reviews

The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is not very thorough. Many plants that I know to be edible were not included, and some plants that are mentioned do not have photographic representations. Had I bought it at a bookstore rather than online I would have returned it. Very disappointing overall. I had expected a much more exhaustive guide from the Department of the Army.

I recently picked up a book from the library called The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants by the Department of the Army. Yes, that Army, the US Army and Pentagon are listed on the back page. This is a 'no-nonsense survival aid, {...} an essential guide for serious adventurers and the armchair botanist alike." I thought I would get some interesting information about locally edible and poisonous plants, but the book provided something else, a serious scare. First, the book covers the tropics, subtropics, and temperate zones, but covers very few edible plants from each region. That is OK, even if not great. In the beginning of the book it is stated that you should never eat any plants you can't securely identify to the correct species. Well, well - I would like to see the person that can identify any plant to the correct species based on the photos and descriptions in this book. I can't even see some of the plants in some of the photos. Many of photos are grainy, too dark, and over-tinted in green. And when they couldn't find good photos they resorted to stick figures of the plants, also badly pixelated.

The photos of sorghum grains, the only photo used to illustrate this plant, looks like a large bunch of small cockroaches on a tabletop. The description of sorghum, which supposedly is there to help you identify the plant, follows: "There are many different kinds of sorghum, all of which bear grains in heads at the top of the plants. The grains are brown, white, red, or black. Sorghum is the main food crop in many parts of the world." Would you be comfortable with identify a wild plant as sorghum after reading this? I mean, the only real description here is that the seed color can vary and that the seeds are in heads on the top of the plant. It doesn't even say it is a grass! Plant families are only listed for poisonous plants, I wonder why? If you get sick, only then you need to know the family?

The mixture of tropical with temperate plants provides some interesting contrasts. Sago palm (with a horrible photo), and sassafras (with a great photo, from the season when the plants have leaves) share one page. Same with prickly pear cactus (Opuntia) and pokeweed (Phytolacca, a plant which actually is very poisonous if raw or taller than 25 cm.)

Some information is dangerously wrong. The fish tail palm, which I recently saw in the botanical garden in Stockholm, is edible, but the fruits are toxic and the leaves can give you dermatitis (link)." In this manual, this is a perfectly fine plant without any warning signs at all. Only 17 poisonous plants are listed, and this book is supposedly covering the whole world.

Looking through this book I am starting to think it is a joke. Either that, or the American soldiers are much dumber than I thought. The text reads often like an essay by a 4th grader, for example:

"Look for sugarcane in fields. It grows only in the tropics (throughout the world). Because it is a crop, it is often found in large numbers."

This book is an embarrassment to the US government, US publishers, and botany. The book was published in 2009, and even if it was printed in China (true), I bet the material was provided from the US.

Remember that this book is called the "Complete guide..."? It is as complete and useful as the human anatomy chapter of a high school biology book is to a neurosurgeon. As a survival aid, this book is not very helpful, and could even be risky to use for the serious outdoorsman. I also really doubt there are any armchair botanists out there that would enjoy a book with so many botanical faults. I really hope the US Army provides their soldiers with better field manuals than this. There are many more and better books on this subject for those that really are interested in wild edible plants and wilderness survival.

This book is perfect for beginners interested in learning about edible wild plants. It clearly states specific precautions when making selections, and definitely stays between the lines as far as picking plants that are easy for newbies to identify as edibles. Warnings are clearly labeled and easy to read. It reviews some basic basic plant anatomy, but just enough to be helpful with identifications without confusing a beginner. It also covers plants that are potentially dangerous if consumed in whole or in part.

It covers plants found around the globe in various ecosystems ranging from artic to tropic to desert conditions. The color pictures give good detail for identifications. The digital drawings not so much, but they're not bad.

Although it definitely does not even begin to cover the broad range of edible plants actually present in the world, it covers enough of the safe ones, both endemics and cultivated crops, for most situations where one's survival might hinge on this kind of knowledge.

This book has a lot of pictures to reference. I live in Northern California, and there are some things that are not listed in this book. Plus I have read many books that say to NOT eat some of the plants that this book tells you, you can eat. Who knows which is right?

This book calls itself the "Complete Guide", but it only covers prominent and easy to identify plants throughout various regions of the world. While that may be good for someone that finds themselves in a new country each week, it's very limited in practical use if you're looking for edible plants in your region alone. I highly recommend the Peterson Field Guides for edible and medicinal plants. They're very thorough and cover everything you need to know. For better identification it may be a good idea to have a book with more extensive identification information, but I do think Peterson comes as close as you can get to a complete guide for your region. Let me digress a bit... The pictures in this book are some of the best you'll find in any plant book. Descriptions, while short, give you information you need.

This is the best book I have found on edible wild plants. It's colored pictures and helpful descriptions plus interesting facts make it a most enjoyable read. All of my friends are lining up to get a chance to read it.

This is a pretty good beginner's guide. I use it to identify all the weeds in my yard and neighborhood and to get better at identifying useful plants. It classifies the plants by leaf type, flower color, and the like. Helpful.

This is a great book to have if you find yourself out of food, and starving!

The book shows you what the plants look like, what parts you can eat, when is the best time to eat them, and how too cook some of it.

The book covers a wide area of plants in many climates and area's so you might only see a small selection on plants in your area that you will reconize and can eat.

It also covers poisonous plants that you want to advoid.

NOT VERY COMPLETE - I WANTED A MORE DETAILED BOOK ON COMMON WILD PLANTS NOT MUCH HELP. WANTED MORE ON WILD PLANTS IN THE NORTHWEST.

Purchased this as a gift, and the receiver absolutely loves it. I have no doubt he would give it five stars. I've taken a peek at it, and while I enjoy the fact that it covers the entire world, many of the pictures and descriptions are a bit unclear and it could certainly benefit from some more detail. Overall, though, a very good choice.