Common Edible And Useful Plants Of The West - Sweet Muriel (1962)

At a glance..

It is the hope of the Author that this small volume may prove to be of use to many who are interested in a short history, in non-technical language, of some western plants, and of their uses by the Indians and others as food as well as medicine. To describe all the useful and edible plants of the west would take a volume many times this size, but described here are those, the Author consider most important or interesting and certainly these would be those, in most cases, most often encountered.

The details..

Written by Muriel Sweet, Common Edible and Useful Plants of the West is a comprehensive guide to identifying edible plants in Western America. The book contains descriptions and pictures of various species divided into easily understood categories such as water plants, ferns, trees, shrubs etc. The author has provided detailed instructions on how to identify each plant correctly before using it for food or medicinal purposes.

The book highlights that several western plants are poisonous; therefore one must be sure about its identification before consuming them. Poisonous ones have been marked POISONOUS in capitals with dangerous ones described separately on pages 47 and 54 while less toxic ones listed elsewhere throughout the text.

To aid readers' identification process further, habitats where these different types of vegetation grow have been abbreviated along margins such as Des=desert scrub; Pin-Jum=pinyou-juniper woodland; Osk=tak woodland among others. This makes it easy to locate specific plant species based on location.

Overall this volume serves not only as an informative guide but also a cautionary tale when handling wild flora without proper knowledge beforehand.