Foragers Beware....

Of course before you go picking wild plants to eat, you will need to know how to identify them.  Probably of greater importance is being able to distinguish plants that look similar but are poisonous.  Outdoor Life has an article on 3 Dangerous Plants That Look Like Edibles.  They are:

• Giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) looks like carrot or cow parsley
• Moonseed (Menispermum canadense) looks like grapes
• Horse nettle (Solanum carolinense) looks like tomatoes

Off-the-Grid News adds several more Dangerous Look-Alikes:

• Water hemlocks (Cicuta sp.) look like carrot
• Blue flag (Iris versicolor) and yellow flag (Iris pseduacorus) look like cattails
• Indian strawberry (Potentilla indica) looks like field strawberries
• Daffodils (Narcissus sp.) look like wild garlic
• and of course, many edible mushrooms have deadly look-alikes.