# Survival > Foraging & Wild Edibles >  Can you identify this plant ?

## rebel

Is it edible?

If it is edible, how would you prepare it?

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## rebel

Hint:  This plant is in it's infancy stage.

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## Rick

I'm tempted to say Fiddle Fern (Ostrich Fern) but frankly I've never seen the fuzzy stuff on them.

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## Chuck

Fiddleheads, they are fern frond. We put up close to 100 lbs a year. As far as I know all fiddleheads are OK to eat although some are not as good as others. You do have to get most of the brown papery stuff off and they have to be cooked to to destroy something in them(don't remember what the stuff is called). We steam them and eat them with vinaigrette sauce. We also dry a lot for winter greens. Fiddleheads are the first green of the season for many Alaskans. If you are in doubt check with the local Extension Service.

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## Sourdough

Put me down for Fiddle Back Fern, good battered and fried. I too have never seen it with that white mold looking stuff.

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## rebel

Your right, fiddlehead and I don't know about the fuzz.  You win the prize.  Would you like to post the next plant picture?  I can as I have time.

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## Rick

Okay. I went out today looking for Morels (skunked on those by the way) and took the camera. This one is a bit tougher but pretty common in the Midwest. I thought I had taken a better pic of the flower but it has five petals and is white. You can find these as solitary plants or spread out, almost carpet like. They only bloom in this time of year. The third pic is a large area of them.

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## grundle

The leaves look like wild grapes, but I never seen em flower like that before

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## rebel

My initial guess is a berry plant.  I'll try Thimbleberry.

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## tfisher

now I was hoping for a pic of those big shrooms you guys have over in Indiana.
I used to be a Hoosier

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## Rick

Not grapes and not berries. In fact, it's not even a fruit. 

If it's big shrooms you want, it's big shrooms you'll get. What kind are they? Here's a hint. They are growing on an old elm.

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## crashdive123

Speaking of large fungi - I had to inspect an old abandoned home a while back.  This was growing through a seam in the kitchen floor.

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## Rick

I would bet your life that it's a shell. :Big Grin:  Panus Conchatus.

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## rebel

> Okay. I went out today looking for Morels (skunked on those by the way) and took the camera. This one is a bit tougher but pretty common in the Midwest. I thought I had taken a better pic of the flower but it has five petals and is white. You can find these as solitary plants or spread out, almost carpet like. They only bloom in this time of year. The third pic is a large area of them.


A nettle???

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## Rick

Nope. Think condiment. That's the use. (it's not something in your kitchen but something you can use in the wild).

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## Rick

While you work on that plant AND the mushroom, I'll give you an easy one.

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## MMonette

only thing i can think of is mint but mint dosent flower dose it......

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## Rick

Not mint for the first one. 

I'm going to put you out of your misery. As I said, it's a bit tougher. It's Toothwart. These guys grow everywhere in the Midwest. You can find lower woodlands just covered in it. The roots can be grated and prepared like horseradish.

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## MMonette

Chives for the third

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## rebel

> Not mint for the first one. 
> 
> I'm going to put you out of your misery. As I said, it's a bit tougher. It's Toothwart. These guys grow everywhere in the Midwest. You can find lower woodlands just covered in it. The roots can be grated and prepared like horseradish.


That was my next answer...yea right!  Toothwart?  I've never heard of it and maybe now I will not forget.

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## Rick

Close enough. It's either wild onion or wild garlic. In this case, wild onion. The only way I can tell them apart is by smell. Any takers on the mushroom?

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## rebel

TOOTHWART!  I can't get over it.  The name doesn't make it appetizing.

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## Rick

And Nettles sound good? Or Spiderwort?

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## canid

rick; your mushroom is Polyporus squamosus. your plant i must say looks like a mustard of some variety to my eyes.

crash's mushroom looks to be a Pleurotus species, such as P. oystreatus.

i wish i had markets like this around here:

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## Rick

Canid - You are right on the money. Some folks call them scales or scaleys. Edible but not very tasty. That's why they are still on the tree. :Big Grin: 

Okay - Here's another one for you. This one is a lot easier than the toothwort. This one is a very handy plant. Just provide the general name. You don't have to be specific.

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## Stealth

i agree with candid, that looks more like mustard than toothwort to me.  and the last picture is a violet

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## Rick

Excellent! It is a violet. There are three types of wild violets in the Midwest. Marsh Blue Violet, Common Blue Violet and Birdfoot Violet. This is most likely a Common Blue Violet. The difference between the Marsh and Common Violet is the distance the flower rises above the leaves. 

There are lots of uses for wild violets. You can use the young leaves as a salad. They are bit bland but would go well with dandelions for instance. They can also be boiled for 10 or 15 minutes to make nice greens. The leaves can also be added to stews as a thickener. The flowers can be candied and the leaves dried and used as a tea.

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## Rick

A note on the earlier pic of the toothwart. My bad!! I said the flower had five petals and meant to say four. I just caught that. If I threw anyone off, my apologies. 

One of the differences between mustard and toothwart is mustard has yellow flowers and toothwart is white or pink. At least it is around here.

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## canid

there are pink and purple flowered mustartd, but my comment was on the foliar appearance. the flower structure is different for sure.

i think i've fixed the problem i had with statically linking those images:

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and:
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i chose both of these images from my archives because all the details needed to identify them to species are visible.

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## Rick

I think it's the very rare triple blue mushroom. I think it's Latin name is Triplus Bluish Mushroominus.

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## nell67

I agree Rick,it has that distinct blue hue that sets it apart from all the rest.

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## rebel

What do you think?

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## Stealth

that ones too easy, ill let someone else have it:-P

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## rebel

How about this little guy?

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## canid

we're supposed to identify that Rubus to species from that picture?

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## rebel

> we're supposed to identify that Rubus to species from that picture?


Which one did you not like?

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## canid

the one where neither of them give me enough detail, from my amount of experience, to tell which species of Rubus bramble that is...

don't worry, somebody else will get it, but i'm gonna go with R. idaeus, the european/red raspberry, from the stature of the spines and the general morphology of the leaves. this is a guess.

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## rebel

Sorry about the picture quality.

First is Dandelion.  Second is poison ivy.

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## canid

the foliage looked to have been comming from a thorny bramble, which i took to be one plant. do you know what that was?

the picture also gives the impression of thorns on the axil of the the leaf group on the right but to be honest, i'm drinking.

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## rebel

Now I see what you are referencing.  I don't know what the thorny stick is in relation to.

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## canid

meh. if it's just a vine on it's own, and not connected to the trifolate leaves above it's probably either a Rubus or a Rosa, or something else alltogether.

you really got me with that one. cheers.

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## rebel

My mistake on the ivy.  I took pictures of several plants and put the wrong one on.  Good catch Canid!  It sure is nice having the depth of experience that is present in this forum.

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## rebel

Let's see...

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## Omid

It is ferns covered with a white moss or fungi or something. It sorta looks like this thing that destroyed one of my tomato plants (I forgot what it was called).

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## crashdive123

More poison ivy with freshly budding leaves.

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## Rick

Canid - That's exactly why I only stick to a couple of mushrooms. I have no idea. I can't even offer a guess. Neither look like anything in my guide. I'll be interested know what they are so I can go back and look them up and see why they don't look the same.

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## Rick

I don't have a non-edible guide for Rebel's last post. I don't think it's an ivy based on the leaf cluster to the far right. It looks like five in the cluster. Without flowers, my edible guide is useless.

If that's actually two leaves together then I'll go with an ivy. Everything else looks right.

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## crashdive123

Oops.  Right you are - not a three cluster.

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## canid

that is Hydnum [= Dentinum ] repandum, the hedgehog fungus and Boletus barrowsii, the white king bolet.

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## Rick

Well, no wonder I can't identify it. Neither one is in my guide. I have a number of Hydnum and Boletus listed but not those specific ones. Good pics by the way.

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## canid

the white king bolete is almost identical to B. edulis, except for the white color, and was once considered a subspecies of the same. is is a bit less common, but easier to spot in the woods  :Big Grin: 

the Hyndum repandum is the classic hedgehog mushroom, though it is only well known and popular in some regions. it is incredible. it will be listed in older [and even some newer] field guides as Dentinum repandum.

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## catfishrivers

> Not mint for the first one. 
> 
> I'm going to put you out of your misery. As I said, it's a bit tougher. It's Toothwart. These guys grow everywhere in the Midwest. You can find lower woodlands just covered in it. The roots can be grated and prepared like horseradish.


I was going to guess garlic mustard...

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## Leon

Heres one for you, commonly found in the UK and N. America.

What it commonly known as, is it edible and on what tree is it often found?

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## Rick

I'll take a shot at Ganoderma Tsugae. Yes, it's edible when it first forms. It will be found on Eastern Hemlock and some other conifers. 

Close?

It could be also be a Fistulina Heptica

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## Leon

No to the the first guess but it is edible.

Your second guess is correct i think, im not 100% on the Latin name but over here we call it beefsteak fungus on account of it appearing like a slab of meat especially when its young (it even bleeds red when you cut it!). I don't know about the Eastern Hemlock to be honest, but over here its most frequently found on oaks (dead or alive).

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## grundle

Wow, I think I saw some of that the other day.  How do you prepare it for edibility?

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## Leon

I haven't eaten those myself, i just used to find them and sell them to my mothers boyfriend (50p each which seemed like a good deal in my early teens!). What i do know is that you need to remove the hard base first and that its probably best to soak them in water for a while, i have found a recipe for you here - http://www.foodiesite.com/recipes/2002-10:bfsteakfungus 

That follows the idea of soaking but suggests white wine in order to marinade it. 

The appearance varies greatly depending on age, the young ones can look very moist and fleshy, and any found on moss are quite an amazing red colour.

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## Rick

Okay, here's an important question. Is your mother's boyfriend still with us?

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## Leon

Yes and very fit and healthy he is for a guy his age (he works outdoors - aboricultural work). Hes a big fan of mushrooms, when we went picking we usually after boletus as they are his favourites and had to of course be careful as theres a very poisonous variety that can be hard to identify as it can only have a subtle blue tinge to the flesh sometimes.

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## grazer

> Okay. I went out today looking for Morels (skunked on those by the way) and took the camera. This one is a bit tougher but pretty common in the Midwest. I thought I had taken a better pic of the flower but it has five petals and is white. You can find these as solitary plants or spread out, almost carpet like. They only bloom in this time of year. The third pic is a large area of them.


I've always called it garlic mustard.  Basal leaves are edible and palatable in early spring.

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