A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides) (Paperback)

~ Lee Allen Peterson (Author), (Photographer) "SYMBOLS are employed in the margins of the text to point out food uses and warn against poisonous plants..." (more)
Key Phrases: wild onions, wild lettuces, wild mustards, Wild Leek, New England, Saw Palmetto (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

More than 370 edible wild plants, plus 37 poisonous look-alikes, are described here, with 400 drawings and 78 color photographs showing precisely how to recognize each species. Also included are habitat descriptions, lists of plants by season, and preparation instructions for 22 different food uses. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Lee Allen Peterson grew up in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and is the younger son of Roger Tory Peterson. After graduating from Johns Hopkins University, Lee wrote the Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants and spent years photographing plants and giving natural history lectures at colleges and nature centers. He and his wife, Courtney, live in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Roger Tory Peterson, one of the world's greatest naturalists, received every major award for ornithology, natural science, and conservation, as well as numerous honorary degrees, medals, and citations, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Peterson Identification System has been called the greatest invention since binoculars, and the Peterson Field Guides® are credited with helping to set the stage for the environmental movement.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (March 25, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039531870X
• ISBN-13: 978-0395318706
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #599,068 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

113 of 113 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How To Eat Nature, July 30, 2001

By	"k8books" (Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guide Series) (Paperback)

If you're like me and you enjoy trying to eat leaves and berries that you find while hiking and wandering about in nature, this is a handy book to own. The Peterson who wrote this book (son of the Peterson of the many, many wildlife guidebooks writer) is also a forest forrager and details some other cool books to own in the Introduction (including Stalking Wild Asparagus..excellent). I searched for a while to find a guide that would not only easily ID edible berries, roots and leaves..but also give recipe-like tips on how to prepare said roots and leaves..and they do here. Who knew, for example, that one could make a cool and refreshing beverage from staghorn sumac? Crafty! Guide is sub-divided into several search methods: color, plant-type (berry, leaf) and includes many color plates along with ink drawings to help to be sure that Amanita spp. mushroom you're eating won't cause you trouble later! And, the final great feature of the Peterson guides is that the front and back covers are tough so that you can make your copy go camping with you over many moons and you won't wear out your book. Nice!

84 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent book for beginners but has some problems, June 26, 2000

By	Morgan-Rodenbeck family (Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guide Series) (Paperback)

This book contains descriptions and uses of hundreds of useful plants and is probably the most imporant book to have in your edible plant book collection. It also gives fair warning when some evidence suggests possible risks.

Despite these points, there are some things that make it hard to use. First, because they are trying to cram in as many plants as possible, they don't give enough attention to many plants that deserve it and give very breif descriptions, although they do point out some of the main identifying features. Second, the pictures, at least for the first half of the book, are simply recycled from the Peterson Guide to Wildflowers, which means that they often leave out important parts that you really need to see. Third, the book is organized for the most part so that you can't find a plant unless you know the color of the flower, which makes it really difficult to recognize plants unless you find them during the period they flower, which is usually pretty short. And did anyone notice that they switched the pictures of Nodding Wild Onion and Field Garlic on page 115?

Of course, the descriptions and drawings are better than most books on the subject, and it does have many useful features, so this book is definately worth having.

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written., March 14, 2003

By	Detra Fitch (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guide Series) (Paperback)

This book is very well written. it contains over 400 drawings and 78 color photos, to help in the identification of the mentioned plants. Each entry contains information on habitat, when they flower, a description and the uses. Also conatins any applicable warnings. The line drawings are very accurate and are more than enough, when coupled with the descriptions, to be able to identify just about any plant. But if you have any doubts, check the color photos. Also, at the back of the book, it contains the various types of plants divided up into habitat, and then each habitat divided into what plants can be harvested there during various seasons. This book is a great resource for any survivalist's bookshelf.