Alaska's Wild Plants, Revised Edition

Janice J. Schofield

Description

With bright color photographs and completely up-to-date information, this authoritative guidebook introduces adventurers and harvesters to more than 80 of Alaska's most common wild edible plants.

Alaska’s Wild Plants is the perfect guide to tuck in your backpack as you explore Alaska’s lands. Now reorganized to be more user friendly with a new introduction to foraging, this informative book will help you discover the bounty of the land and its plants around you.

• Understand basic principles to foraging and easy plant preparations.
• Learn about each plant's nutritional content, and medicinal and culinary uses.
• Discover the habitats where the plant can be found and how to harvest it correctly.
• Identify the plant’s physical characteristics with an accompanying color photograph.
• Find more expert sources to continue your plant education.

For explorers, foragers, harvesters, or just the casually interested, this book will help readers recognize Alaska’s most common edible plants, including chickweed, high bush cranberry, crowberry, sweet gale, and more.

Sujets

• Plants
• Sciences et techniques
• Nature

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 31 mars 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781513262802
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

REVISED EDITION
ALASKA S WILD PLANTS
A Guide to Alaska s Edible and Healthful Harvest
JANICE J. SCHOFIELD
Dedicated to the wild plants ,
who are our greatest teachers ,
and to all who love and cherish them .
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book benefits Kachemak Heritage Land Trust, a non-profit corporation dedicated to preservation of critical habitat in the Kachemak region. For additional information on KHLT, write 315 Klondike Avenue, Homer, AK 99603, or go to www.kachemaklandtrust.org .
DISCLAIMER: Though the plants described in this book have been traditionally used as food or medicine, positive species identification in the field is the reader s responsibility. If identity is questionable, do not gather or ingest a plant. Neither the author nor the publisher is responsible for allergic or adverse reactions individuals may experience from wild foods, nor do they claim that the techniques described in this guide will cure any illness.
Text and photographs 2020 by Janice J. Schofield
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of Alaska Northwest Books .
Edited by Susan Sommer
Indexed by Sam Arnold-Boyd
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Eaton, Janice Schofield, 1951- author.
Title: Alaska s wild plants : a guide to Alaska s edible and healthful harvest / Janice J. Schofield.
Description: Revised edition. | [Berkeley, Calif.] : Alaska Northwest Books, an imprint of West Margin Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: An introductory field guide to the most common edible plants in Alaska, including photographs and information on each plant s botanical name, harvesting direction, food and medicinal use, and more -Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019049578 (print) | LCCN 2019049579 (ebook) | ISBN 9781513262789 (paperback) | ISBN 9781513262796 (hardback) | ISBN 9781513262802 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Wild plants, Edible-Alaska-Identification. | Wild plants, Edible-Therapeutic use-Alaska. | Cooking (Wild foods)-Alaska.
Classification: LCC QK98.5.U6 E28 2020 (print) | LCC QK98.5.U6 (ebook) | DDC 581.6/3209798-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049578
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049579
Printed in China
24 23 22 21 20 1 2 3 4 5
Proudly distributed by Ingram Publisher Services
Alaska Northwest Books
An imprint of West Margin Press

WestMarginPress.com
WESTMARGIN PRESS
Publishing Director: Jennifer Newens
Marketing Manager: Angela Zbornik
Editor: Olivia Ngai
Design Production: Rachel Lopez Metzger
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
How This Book is Organized
Before You Begin
After the Harvest
Basic Foraging Principles
Learning More About a Plant Notes on Botanical Names
Using Herbs in Our Everyday Life is Our Birthright
FREE-RANGE PLANTS
Wild Mustard
Blueberry Huckleberry
Coltsfoot
Dandelion
Bedstraw
Willow
Rhodiola
Saxifrage
SEA SANDY SHORES
Bull Kelp
Ribbon Kelp
Dulse
Nori
Sea Lettuce
Bladderwrack
Beach Greens
Beach Pea
Glasswort
Goosetongue
Lovage
Orach
Oysterleaf
GARDENS, LAWNS DISTURBED SOILS
Chickweed
Clover
Horsetail
Lamb s Quarter
Nettle
Pineapple Weed
Plantain
Puffball
Wormwood
Yarrow
FORESTS OPEN WOODS
Spruce
Birch
Cottonwood
Juniper
Devil s Club
Serviceberry
Currant
Highbush Cranberry
Salmonberry
Fiddlehead Fern
Chiming Bells
Twisted Stalk
Violet
TUNDRA
Cloudberry
Crowberry
Lingonberry
Labrador Tea
MEADOWS
Burnet
Chocolate Lily
Columbine
Cow Parsnip
Elder
Field Mint
Fireweed
Geranium
Goldenrod
Nagoonberry
Raspberry
Rose
Shooting Star
Strawberry
Wild Chive
MARSHES, PONDS, CREEKS WETLANDS
Bog Cranberry
Sweet Gale
Cattail
Mare s Tail
Marsh Marigold
Dock Sorrel
Jewelweed
Monkeyflower
American Veronica
Spring Beauty
Mountain Sorrel
POISONOUS PLANTS
Poison Hemlock
Baneberry
Monkshood
Delphinium
False Hellebore
Death Camas
Arrowgrass
Bog Rosemary
Wild Calla
HERBAL PREPARATIONS
GLOSSARY
RECOMMENDED READING RESOURCES
HERBAL DIRECTORY
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Over two and a half decades have passed since the original publication of Alaska s Wild Plants . During that time, interest in wild plants has soared. More enthusiasts than ever flock to plant classes, buy plant books, and head to the wild. The motivation for many is similar to what first stirred me to forage: supplementary and emergency food, and deeper connection to plants and the natural world.
Alaska is an extreme place to live with its short, intense growing season. In the endless summer light, plants gallop from sprout to seed. Though more and more tunnel houses have been erected in Alaskan towns and villages for extending the gardening season, the hardy wild remains a source of nutrient dense plants, combined with the fun of gathering.
Alaska is also where outdoor adventurers abound and there is higher risk of getting lost, stranded, or injured out in the wild. Knowing how to use the wild green helpers for first aid can be lifesaving. This revised updated edition expands knowledge of using herbs for health purposes. See page 182 for directions on preparing herbal poultices, ointments, infusions, decoctions, and tinctures.
Foraging requires developing observational skills like learning to recognize plants in varying stages of growth. Gatherers must differentiate between the herbal helpers and the inedible plants. This book is intended as one guide in your journey.
A book of this size, ideal for the backpack and replete with details of how to incorporate these plants into your life, cannot also be an exhaustive guide to identification. It s intended as an adjunct to heftier tomes like Discovering Wild Plants (with detailed line drawings by R.W. Tyler and photos of the plants throughout the growing season), Beverly Gray s The Boreal Herbal , Verna Pratt s many photographic guides, and academic plant keys. Countless online reference materials are also available. If you have any doubt of a plant s identity, cross-check with other sources. See page 190 for my recommended reading.
How This Book is Organized
Plants, like people, live in communities. Plants that flourish together share affinity for certain soils, lighting conditions, moisture, salinity, or altitude. For this reason, this book is organized by habitat. Once you find one of the plants in a section, you are likely to meet many of the companions listed. Beach plants, for example, will be not be found anywhere except near ocean shores.
However, some plants, like blueberry, are highly adaptable. Blueberries range from bog to forest to alpine. Hence, a new category in this edition has been added: Free-Range Plants. This section is an excellent starting point for readers, as it also develops awareness of the floral patterns of plant families like mustard. Learn to recognize the characteristic structure of a mustard flower, and a vast friendly family of plants is at your service.
Within each section, plants are grouped by similar type. In Sea Sandy Shores, the seaweeds sequentially follow each other, then the shore plants. Within Forests Open Woods, all the trees are sequential, followed by the understory plants.
The habitat sections are explained in detail at the beginning of each new segment of the book. Each section is also coded with a color for easy reference.
Before You Begin
1 Review the Caution sections carefully. Some plants, such as cow parsnip, can cause dermatitis; others, like red elder, have both edible and toxic portions.
2 When eating any new food for the first time, consume a small amount only. Be sensitive to the effect on your body; discontinue use immediately and seek medical attention if you experience adverse reactions or allergies.
3 Just because something is good for you in moderation and seasonally available, it doesn t mean consuming gallons a day of that thing will be better. Be sensible.
4 If you are pregnant or on pharmaceuticals, and have questions regarding whether a particular herb is suitable for you, check with your health professional. Some online sources show cautions for virtually anything and everything and are not always accurate.
5 Start slowly and build confidence plant by plant. Included in this book are numerous recipe ideas to stimulate your creativity.
After the Harvest
1 Rinse your edibles in cool water to remove dust. If using roots, scrub them well with a brush.
2 For year-round use, bundle herbs and hang upside down in a warm, shady, well-ventilated space. (An exception are sea vegetables, which often mold unless quickly sun-dried.)
3 Herbs, including small quantities of sea vegetables, may also be dried in an oven on the lowest setting, or in an electric or solar-powered dehydrator.
4 When the herbs are fully dried, store them in a dark place in airtight containers. Label and date