Identifying Spring Wildflowers | Foraging for Edible and Bushcraft Native Plants in the Eastern US

Description

In the spring, there are so many beautiful plants beneath our feet. Many of them are edible or have medicinal uses, and any others are still a treat to look at.

Here are some you can learn to identify in Ohio and the Eastern US.

PLEASE REMEMBER: Never eat any wild plants or fungi unless you are completely sure you have correctly identified it. When you eat wild food, you do so at your own risk, so be safe, and have fun.

---------------------------------------

Our gear!

Canon T3i Camera (this link is for the T5i, the T3i is what we actually use, but that and the T4i are both good too) - http://amzn.to/1qHphdE

Canon 50mm f1.8 Lens - http://amzn.to/1p29wQs

Sigma 10-20mm Lens - http://amzn.to/1p29AzQ

Tokina 11-16mm Lens - http://amzn.to/UUrhVC

Manfrotto 502 Video Head MVH502AH - http://amzn.to/1nhkBrF

Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod - http://amzn.to/UKa55r

Glidecam 2000 HD w/ Quick Release Plate (That quick release plate is essential. Highly recommended) - http://amzn.to/WUpTEv

Rode Videomic Pro - http://amzn.to/1p2a9JT

Roland Quad Capture (We use this for recording music) - http://amzn.to/1zKzD23

Behringer XM8500 Microphone - http://amzn.to/1qHqOAq

Katadyn Water Filter - http://amzn.to/1onus3P

Columbia Silver Ridge Convertible Pants - http://amzn.to/1pR5qXL

------------------------------­---------

All of the music and footage in this video is original, and was composed, recorded, and captured by Andrew Lin, Bryan Lin, and Robby Huang

All content and music is copyright Adventure Archives/Team Scoog Production (c) 2014

Please request permission before using. Thank you!

Tags: native,wildflowers,edible,plants,flora,identification,plant id,eating,wild food,ray mears,cutleaf toothwort,trillium,finding,forest,nature,bloodroot,native plant,flower,wilderness,bushcraft,garden,natural,camping,hiking,backpacking,outdoors,spring beauty,spring,vernal,equinox,violet,false mermaid weed,walking,forest walk,hike,dayhike

Video Transcription

it's early May and we finally have a beautiful sunny spring day after about half a week of rain and cloudiness so I thought I'd take this day to walk through this beautiful Ohio forest and show you some of the native wildflowers that are coming up one of first is this which is called main flower and oftentimes it'll branch into two leaves and in the middle a little white flower grows and eventually this becomes a round green fruit now this is actually toxic to eat but if you wait until about after August when the fruit becomes yellow and shriveled then it's ripe enough to eat but you should still only take a few nibbles and not gorge yourself on them it's a really beautiful flower especially when it first comes up and there's these beautiful tiny little sprouts looking out of the dirt this delicate little flower with these distinct three leaves and three petals is one of the staples of Ohio really it's called a Trillium this is a white Trillium there's other kinds with the maroon colors and different patterns on the leaves and these are actually edible if you cook them but I would advise against it because oftentimes trillions are pretty rare and rather delicate so it's best not to pull any that you don't need to but it's very beautiful and just such a treat to see one growing in the woods

so right here we've got what's known as spring beauty and one of the characteristics you'll notice is that coming off of this stalk are just a bunch of other little flower buds and it's got these very thin little little leaves and a slightly reddish stem flower is white with these pink streaks in it as well and actually this entire thing is edible and next to it growing in the soil here is what's called jewelweed now it won't be until later in the summer when the flowers actually come out but there's these orange looking flowers that sort of look like parents up from the side but you can actually break the stems of these plants and rub them on bug bites or you know poison ivy rashes or other similar things and it will soothe your skin and also the seed pods later in the summer if you just like touch them between your fingers they'll pop just like popcorn kind of out of your hand it's really fun nature's bubble wrap I see so this plant here pretty distinct looking as you can see it's got these opposite leaves and on this flower here you can see the little flower buds dangling off from the stem now this is called Solomon's seal and there's a very similar looking plant with the same sort of leaf arrangement called Solomon's bloom or false Solomon's seal but instead of having these flowers which grow underneath every leaf it'll have flowers that spread at the end but actually this plant Solomon seal if you dig up the tuber underneath you can eat that and it's a pretty good wild edible now this plant here it looks a lot like the carnivorous pitcher plant is actually another native Ohio wildflower called jack in the pulpit there's a little Jack in his pulpit and it's got these three leaves and the flower itself has this very distinct looking shape and I just think this flower is a good example of how a place like Ohio which might not seem like the most naturally exciting place to go hiking and camping actually has a lot of incredible wildlife and biodiversity nearby this plant is this little guy which is called sticky Willy or cleavers it's got these tiny little hook like hairs and as you can see it just sticks to your clothes and if you cook these up just put them in a pot stir them around on some heat it's actually quite a delicious vegetable that you can eat this little guy here with its heart-shaped leaves here is a yellow violet and I've got here the more common purple violet and these are edible you can pretty much eat the whole thing and I've heard you can mash them up and mix it with honey and that it has a slight vanilla taste and my friend also showed me a little game you can play where you hook these two together and try to see whose flower stays on there you go this flower unfortunately the flowers have already fallen off but for a short time it has these white flowers with four petals and these leaves are pretty distinct they've got these serrations and it's that way that I remember the name which is cut leaf to thwart I've heard the leaves being called a looking similar to Japanese maple or marijuana but I don't know I think it kind of has its own look but you can dig these up and if you eat the root it's got a very peppery or sort of horseradish taste which is an exciting flavor that you don't often get in the wild I think I'm gonna end our walk for today with this flower which is called bloodroot now this particular plant doesn't yet have the white flower which will bloom coming out yet flowers are these radial white flowers with multiple petals and the leaves I just love the way these leaves look it's got a very distinct and elegant look kind of reminds me of like a lily pad or a Rorschach test or something and while you can't really eat it the root does have medicinal purposes and it gets its name bloodroot from the fact that when you cut the root in half this dark red liquid comes out and it looks a lot like blood and people have used this plant to dye cloth and things like that before really beautiful plant I just love seeing it in the woods I used to walk through the forest and all I saw were the trees and a bunch of green stuff on the ground and I sort of just saw it as all the same stuff but when you learn to identify plants you really really gain an appreciation for how much biodiversity you can find in a forest like this this woods is not a very big place but uh it's got a lot of good native plant life and I'm just really thankful to be able to hike through here and use my mind places like this are not only good for the environment but they're good for our personal self