Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants
LuminEarth’s FREE Online Guide to Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants
Welcome to LuminEarth’s FREE Online Guide to Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants!
Here we have compiled information on wild edibiles and medicinals, categorized alphabetically by any and all names we’ve come across in our studies for these amazing flora.
Our contributors have committed a great deal of time and energy to studying and experimenting with these plants. Many of these plants we personally use on a regular basis.
Always make sure you can positively identify a plant before using or ingesting it. Many plants have poisonous look-alikes!
Some people may find raw leaves and flowers difficult to digest.
Peterson’s Field Guide (A Guide to Edible Wild Plants) indicates that raw leaves and flowers are difficult to digest, but they can be eaten in quantity if if soaked a few hours in hot water or cooked in some manner. Also dried flowers and seeds can be ground into flour.
-Cindy MoonRose, Eatable Weed Walks and Plant Classes
My family and I eat many of the more tender plants such as dandelion greens, violet leaves, and broadleaf plantain raw mixed in salads with other greens and vegetables with no problem.
If you are interested in the medicinal value of these wild plants, you may also like to read:
- How to Dry and Store Herbs
- How to Make Herbal Blends
- How to Make Herbal Syrups
- How to Make Herbal Lozenges
- How to Make Your Own Tinctures in Eight Easy Steps
- How to Make Herbal Tinctures From Any Loose Herb
- Commonly Used Herbology Terms and Definitions
We hope you enjoy this information, and put it to good use in the near future!
Herbs that grow in an area take on the characteristics of their environment and are particularly useful for the treatment of those ailments associated with the climate and other conditions of the area. In any region, there are perhaps a dozen important herbs that can be used to treat most illnesses encountered there.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. ~Albert Einstein
A
Aaron’s Rod (Becki Baumgartner)
Algodoncillo (Becki Baumgartner)
American Nightshade (Becki Baumgartner)
Arnoglossa (Becki Baumgartner)
Asclepias syriaca (Becki Baumgartner)
B
Banaf Shah (Becki Baumgartner)
Breitwegerich (Becki Baumgartner)
Bazir Dam Bill (Becki Baumgartner)
Broadleaf Milkweed (Becki Baumgartner)
Broadleaf Plantain (Becki Baumgartner)
Bull Thistle (Becki Baumgartner)
Buyuk Sinirliot (Becki Baumgartner)
C
Canadian Goldenrod (Becki Baumgartner)
Cancer Root (Becki Baumgartner)
Cat’s Foot (Becki Baumgartner)
Ch’E Ch’len (Becki Baumgartner)
Che Qian Zi (Becki Baumgartner)
Chin Yin Hua (Becki Baumgartner)
Chin Yin T’Eng (Becki Baumgartner)
Chinese Honeysuckle (Becki Baumgartner)
Cinnamon Wood (Becki Baumgartner)
Cirsium vulgare (Becki Baumgartner)
Common Blue Violet (Becki Baumgartner)
Common Milkweed (Becki Baumgartner)
Common Plantain (Becki Baumgartner)
Common Sassafras (Becki Baumgartner)
Common Thistle (Becki Baumgartner)
Cottonweed (Becki Baumgartner)
Creeping Charlie (Becki Baumgartner)
Cukoo’s Bread (Becki Baumgartner)
D
Daum Sejumbok (Becki Baumgartner)
Duraznillo (Becki Baumgartner)
E
Early Goldenrod (Becki Baumgartner)
Ekur Anjing (Becki Baumgartner)
English Violet (Becki Baumgartner)
Englishman’s Foot (Becki Baumgartner)
European Goldenrod (Becki Baumgartner)
F
Floh-Knöterich (Becki Baumgartner)
Fuller’s Thistle (Becki Baumgartner)
G
Garden Violet (Becki Baumgartner)
Gechi Qulaghi (Becki Baumgartner)
Gill-Over-The-Ground (Becki Baumgartner)
Glechoma hederacea (Becki Baumgartner)
Great Plantain or Greater Plantain (Becki Baumgartner)
Grote Weegbree (Becki Baumgartner)
Ground Ivy (Becki Baumgartner)
H
Hall’s Honeysuckle (Becki Baumgartner)
Hedge Maids (Becki Baumgartner)
Herbe à la Ouate (Becki Baumgartner)
Honeysuckle (Becki Baumgartner)
I
J
Japanese Honeysuckle (Becki Baumgartner)
Jen Tug Kao (Becki Baumgartner)
Jen Tung, Jen Tung Chiu (Becki Baumgartner)
Jin Hua, Jin Yin Hua (Becki Baumgartner)
K
Kansas Milkweed (Becki Baumgartner)
Kokulu Menekse (Becki Baumgartner)
Kuntze Saloop (Becki Baumgartner)
L
Ladino Clover (Becki Baumgartner)
Lady’s Thumb (Becki Baumgartner)
Laurus albida (Becki Baumgartner)
Lisan Al Hamal (Becki Baumgartner)
Llantén común (Becki Baumgartner)
Llantén major (Becki Baumgartner)
Llanten mayor (Becki Baumgartner)
Lonicera japonica (Becki Baumgartner)
M
Maarts Viooltje (Becki Baumgartner)
Meloh Kiloh (Becki Baumgartner)
N
Nioi-Sumire (Becki Baumgartner)
O
Ordinary Violet (Becki Baumgartner)
Otot Ototan (Becki Baumgartner)
P
Pennsylvania Smartweed (Becki Baumgartner)
Persicaria (Becki Baumgartner)
Phytolacca americana (Becki Baumgartner)
Pigeon Berry (Becki Baumgartner)
Plantago Asiatica (Becki Baumgartner)
Plantago major (Becki Baumgartner)
Poke Salad or Poke Sallet (Becki Baumgartner)
Polygonum Hydropiper (Becki Baumgartner)
Polygonum persicaria (Becki Baumgartner)
Purple Violet (Becki Baumgartner)
Q
Quercus Species (Becki Baumgartner)
R
Renouée persicaire (Becki Baumgartner)
Ripple Grass (Becki Baumgartner)
Ren Dong Hua (Becki Baumgartner)
S
Sangka Buwah (Becki Baumgartner)
Sassafras albidum (Becki Baumgartner)
Sassafras officinale (Becki Baumgartner)
Sassafras varifolium (Becki Baumgartner)
Sei Ohr Re (Becki Baumgartner)
Seidenpflanze (Becki Baumgartner)
Shuang Hua (Becki Baumgartner)
Silky Sallowwort (Becki Baumgartner)
Solidago canadensis (Becki Baumgartner)
Solidago gigantea (Becki Baumgartner)
Solidago Glomerata (Becki Baumgartner)
Solidago longifolia (Becki Baumgartner)
Solidago serotina (Becki Baumgartner)
Solidago virgaurea (Becki Baumgartner)
Spear Thistle (Becki Baumgartner)
Spotted Ladysthumb (Becki Baumgartner)
Suri Pandak (Becki Baumgartner)
Sweet Blue Violet (Becki Baumgartner)
Sweet Violet (Becki Baumgartner)
T
Tanchagem-maior (Becki Baumgartner)
Tear-thumb (Becki Baumgartner)
Trifolium repens (Becki Baumgartner)
U
V
Viola odorata (Becki Baumgartner)
Violette Des Jardins (Becki Baumgartner)
Virginia Poke (Becki Baumgartner)
Virginia Silk (Becki Baumgartner)
W
Water Pepper (Becki Baumgartner)
Waybread or Waybroad (Becki Baumgartner)
White Clover (Becki Baumgartner)
White Dutch Clover (Becki Baumgartner)
White Man’s Foot (Becki Baumgartner)
White Shamrock (Becki Baumgartner)
Wild Cotton (Becki Baumgartner)
X
Y
Z
The LuminEarth Library
Here is a list of some the books used in our research and experimentation. Enjoy!
- A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guide)
- Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers: When and Where to Find Them by William Hutson
- Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places by “Wildman” Steve Brill
- Jude’s Herbal Home Remedies: Natural Health, Beauty & Home Care Secrets by Jude C. Williams, M.H.
- Ortho’s All About Herbs by Maggie Oster
- Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health by Rosemary Gladstar
- Secrets of the Chinese Herbalists by Richard Lucas
- Sunset Herbs: An Illustrated Guide by The Editors of Sunset Magazine
- The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer
- The Herbal Drugstore by Linda B. White, M.D.
- The Herbal Home Remedy Book: Simple Recipes for Tinctures, Teas, Salves, Tonics and Syrups by Joyce A. Wardwell
- The Natural Physicians’s Healing Therapies: Proven Remedies Medical Doctors Don’t Know by Mark Stengler, ND
- The Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine by Daniel B. Mowrey, Ph.D.
- The Way of Herbs by Michael Tierra, L.Ac., O.M.D.
- Wildflowers of the Land Between the Lakes Region, Kentucky and Tennessee
Disclaimer: The statements in this article are for educational purposes only and have not been evaluated by or sanctioned by the FDA. Only your doctor can properly diagnose and treat any disease or disorder. The remedies discussed herein are not meant to treat or cure any type of disease. The user understands that the above information is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician or a pharmacist.