Edible And Useful Plants Of Texas And The Southwest

Originally published: Practical guide to edible and useful plants. Austin, Tex.: Texas Monthly Press, c1987.

A guide to useful Southwestern wild plants, including recipes, teas, spices, dyes, medicinal uses, poisonous plants, fibers, basketry, and industrial uses. All around us there are wild plants useful for food, medicine, and clothing, but most of us don’t know how to identify or use them. Delena Tull amply supplies that knowledge in this book, which she has now expanded to more thoroughly address plants found in New Mexico and Arizona, as well as Texas. Extensively illustrated with black-and-white drawings and color photos, this book includes the following special features: · Recipes for foods made from edible wild plants · Wild teas and spices · Wild plant dyes, with instructions for preparing the plants and dying wool, cotton, and other materials · Instructions for preparing fibers for use in making baskets, textiles, and paper · Information on wild plants used for making rubber, wax, oil, and soap · Information on medicinal uses of plants · Details on hay fever plants and plants that cause rashes · Instructions for distinguishing edible from poisonous berries Detailed information on poisonous plants, including poison ivy, oak, and sumac, as well as herbal treatments for their rashes

More than 5,000 flowering plants make their home in Texas, and the uses of these plants are generally unknown to many people. Less than one hundred years ago, plants were the source of most medicines, fibers, cosmetics, and dyes. Now, many of these products are made synthetically from petroleum derivatives. Native Americans relied on wild plants for thousands of years -- for food, clothing, shelter, and medicines. Early pioneers of Texas and the Southwest soon learned of the many benefits plants provided.

“No single existing publication includes the kind of information featured in this book,” a natural history of the flora of the Lone Star State (A. Michael Powell, Professor of Biology Emeritus and Director of the Herbarium, Sul Ross State University). With some 6,000 species of plants, Texas has extraordinary botanical wealth and diversity. Learning to identify plants is the first step in understanding their vital role in nature, and many field guides have been published for that purpose. But to fully appreciate how Texas’s native plants have sustained people and animals from prehistoric times to the present, you need Remarkable Plants of Texas. In this intriguing book, Matt Warnock Turner explores the little-known facts—be they archaeological, historical, material, medicinal, culinary, or cultural—behind our familiar botanical landscape. In sixty-five entries that cover over eighty of our most common native plants from trees, shrubs, and wildflowers to grasses, cacti, vines, and aquatics, he traces our vast array of connections with plants. Turner looks at how people have used plants for food, shelter, medicine, and economic subsistence; how plants have figured in the historical record and in Texas folklore; how plants nourish wildlife; and how some plants have unusual ecological or biological characteristics. Illustrated with over one hundred color photos and organized for easy reference, Remarkable Plants of Texas can function as a guide to individual species as well as an enjoyable natural history of our most fascinating native plants.

Designed as a light-weight and field-portable reference booklet, Wild Edible Plants of Texas, highlights the Lone Star State's most important edible wild plants. To the point and understandable, this guide best suits the prepper or outdoor enthusiast in need of a salient introduction to the field. No fluff. Just the facts. Each of the 62 entries are comprised of the following sections: Range and Habitat, Edible Uses, Medicinal Uses (when applicable), Cautions, and Special Notes. Both common and scientific names are listed. Over 100 color photos assist in identification and in many cases showcase each plant's choice edible part. Every profile is assigned a Texas-only location map and a seasonal guide on the best harvesting time. A general index is included as are a dozen photos of the state's poisonous plants. Some of the entries have a greater-than Texas range, however many are uniquely Texan and hail from a specific region. West Texas' Chihuahuan Desert, the Hill Country of the Edwards Plateau, the Plains of the Panhandle, and the Piney Woods and Swamplands of the state's Coastal Plain all are botanically represented. Plant List: Agave, Algerita, Amaranth, Arrowhead, Bastard Cabbage, Black Cherry, Blackberry, Bumelia, Cattail, Cholla, Dayflower, Devil's Claw, Dewberry, Dock, Dwarf Palmetto, Elder, Flameflower, Graythorn, Ground Cherry, Hackberry, Hickory, Indian Strawberry, Jewels of Opar, Kudzu, Lambsquarters, Lemonade Berry, London Rocket, Lotus, Madrone, Mallow, Mesquite, Mulberry, Nettle, Oak, Passionflower, Pawpaw, Pecan, Pennywort, Persimmon, Pokeweed, Prickly Pear, Purslane, Redbud, Rusty Blackhaw, Sorrel, Sow Thistle, Spring Beauty, Sugarberry, Thistle, Turk's Cap, Walnut, Wild Gourd, Wild Grape, Wild Oats, Wild Onion, Wild Plum, Wild Sunflower, Winecup, Yaupon Holly, Yellow Nutsedge, Yucca (Fruit), and Yucca (Stalk).