Resource list

 While I'm preparing my next plant focused post, I thought I'd give you access to the little repository I've created for myself of resources. These sites, books, and apps have been my triangle of references in learning my way around the yard and I hope they'll help you as well.

Apps:

   Often if I'm out and see something I've not identified before or am simply less than absolutely sure about, I'll get my phone out and snap a picture. But note, as you'll see in descriptions, you need to make sure you get 'good' pictures for identification -- and that doesn't mean in or out of focus. Rather, as you look at different plants you'll realize that a) they are 3D objects so different angles capture different features, and b) sometimes it's the less obvious details that REALLY tell you what you're looking at. So, I always take a few photos:

    1) Full plant (if possible)

    2) Clear shot of top of full leaf -- to connection point with plant

    3) Clear shot of bottom of full leaf

    4) Clear picture of any flowers or seed heads

    5) Clear picture of the stalk, including how branches or leaves connect to it

Some plants you'll want to go even further, such as checking the interior of the stalk for whether its hollow or the color of its sap, but most of the time I try not to break or damage the plant until I know why I'm doing it.

 Once I have my pictures, I turn to a picture recognition software to start me on some leads. I NEVER trust the first thing these recognition softwares pop up with but it can be helpful to get you started down some tracks, confirm what you already thought it might be, or rule out an idea. The apps I have found most helpful in giving me good options are:

    PictureThis

    iNaturalist

PictureThis has a free level and a paid level. In the free level (which is all I've worked with so far) you are limited on the number of identification within a day so I use this one sparingly.

iNaturalist has unlimited uses and is free BUT it tends to present more 'possibilities' than PictureThis that you need to sift through to really figure out what your best next step in confirming your plant will be. 

Typically, I screenshot the information these apps produce for me and then use google to quickly search images based on the LATIN NAME of the plant (which both of these apps will provide for their guesses alongside or underneath the common names).

From the latin name many sites will have more detailed descriptions of the attributes that make that plant, that plant. I click on a few until I find one that is relatively easy for me to read (because some are very science table lab speak like)

At this point I also like to pull out my foraging books and reference the hard copy information I have about my suspected plant.

Books:

    Foraging by Mark "Merriwether" Vorderbruggen, PhD

    Wild Edible Plants of Texas by Charles W. Kane

    The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies by Nicole Apelian, PhD & Claude Davis

If I don't have my books on me however, or I don't find the plant I think I've found in them, or just for additional good measure, I then search:

[latin name of the plant I think I've found] edible

Which will produce a host of valuable opinions but most of which you have to vet by finding multiple other opinions to support that you've not just run across a nut case publishing stuff online with no thought to its possible impact if they're wrong. To shorten my fact checking process I tend to first look at whether or not an opinion comes up from one of these sites:

    Eattheweeds.com

    ForagingTexas.com

There are many other reputable sites, but these two are pretty comprehensive so if they have an opinion posted it tends to help let me know whether I'm on to something or need to move on to searching medicinal uses rather than edible ones.

And that leads me to the next node on the decision tree: if I've found the plant to be edible, the descriptions across all apps, books and sites I've checked continue to line up with my suspicion and non of the sites or books warn of a mimic that could be poisonous, I then search for recipes using the latin name and "recipe" or a few of the common names and "recipe" -- again looking to see if any red flags to my identification appear. If I see there is a potentially dangerous mimic (look-a-like), before I look for recipes I look for information on how to identify the plant listed as the look-a-like, review its photos, and make sure I can rule it out.

But WAIT, THERE'S MORE! 

For some of these plants the recipes and edibility apply to only certain portions, OR you don't need to kill the plant to enjoy eating some of it. So, the next step is to quickly search (normally I use the websites I listed above and youtube for this), How to harvest [latin name of your plant]. This will save you time and possibly extend the time you have to enjoy eating whatever you've found by ensuring you harvest it sustainably. And again here, don't just trust the first thing you run across because there are a LOT of people that post videos without having any thought to whether they're way is what's best for the plant. And the same goes for the recipe search -- more knowledge is better.

And that's all! 😅

I promise you only really go through this labor on the first few sightings of any new plant you're adding to your collection of knowledge. It becomes pretty easy to know your indicators after you've spotted them for any given plant a few times. But that said, DON'T SKIP THIS LEARNING PROCESS BECAUSE YOU MUST KNOW what you're consuming BEFORE you eat it. Your life literally depends on it -- as with all other times you pick up food. It's really no different here than being in a store or restaurant, except there is nobody to sue if you eat something that's not good for you. You check the expiration date on your packaged foods, right? You smell you leftovers? You check ingredients for things you may be allergic to or chemicals you're not interested in consuming. This is the same thing. Look and think before you eat.

Ok!

I feel like this 'quick little resource library' became a daunting instruction set BUT I hope it helps you in some way to feel capable and prepared for your amazing adventure -- to your yard! 😁Isn't travel and adventure great?

J