Subject: Re: Queen Anne's Lace, carrots & edible MA wild plants

From: [email-masked]
Date: 8 Jul 95 22:04:56 -0500

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Michael O'Donnell) writes:
> 
> I heard recently (I cannot remember where) that Queen Anne's Lace is
> related to carrots, so I pulled one up and shredded its root with my
> pocket knife.  Sure enough it smelled VERY much like a carrot - so much
> so that I was temped to eat some, but didn't.  My reluctance to taste
> it was at least partly due to my remembering that another common edible
> plant (tomato) is supposedly related to deadly nightshade(!)  Anyway,
> would anybody care to opine as to whether I might safely chew on one
> of these roots next time I'm out for a walk?
> 
> My region-specific follow-on question would be the more general "What
> common, easily identifiable roadside plants can be safely nibbled while
> on a walk in, say, Massachusetts?"

Yes, you're absolutely right, but I hesitate to begin to identify the
plant you picked over the net.  There are too many really poisonous 
members of the Apiaceae (aka Umbelliferae) to take chances with.

If you're interested in "wild food plants", talk to folks at your
local botanical gardens, parks departments, adult education department,
etc., and ask about guided walks and classes.  Unless you know something
about what you're about to put in your mouth (and what it might be
confused with that you most definitely DON'T want to eat), it's probably
best not to "do it yourself".

If you've "gotta try something", get someone to show you how to identify
the mint family, the Labiatae or Lamiaceae.  With the exception of pennyroyal,
Mentha pulegium, that's a pretty safe family for "tasters".  (Notice that
I said "taste" not "make a meal of it").  Dandelion greens are usually
easy for most people to identify, and they're edible in the early spring,
though a bit acrid for most people.   Cattail (Typha) rhizomes are
edible, and pretty good, but a major messy digging project to find.
If you know sweet birch, Betula lenta, the twigs have a pleasant
wintergreen flavor when chewed.

There are a number of good field guides to common edible plants... I think
I recall one in the Peterson field guide series... that's usually a reliable
series.  However, it's really best to know what you're doing, and compare
the plant with a good field guide before munching.  That way you avoid
the problems like the "mountain guide" about 10 years ago who decided to
teach his clients to forage for wild foods; he mistook poison hemlock for
wild parsnip, and killed the whole party.   :-(

And yes, you're right, the nightshade family, Solanaceae, is another
good family for beginners to avoid eating.

Kay Klier  [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Michael O'Donnell)
Date: Sun, 9 Jul 1995 00:29:58 GMT

Regards,
 ---------------------------------
 Michael O'Donnell     [email-masked]
 ---------------------------------

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From: [email-masked] (Ray R. Hinchman)
Date: 9 Jul 1995 06:28:41 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Michael
O'Donnell) wrote: 
> related to carrots, <stuff deleted>

>members of the Apiaceae (aka Umbelliferae) to take chances with.

Good advice! Including all the info Kay provided on edible wild plants. If
the plant you picked was indeed Queen Ann's Lace, it is not only related to
carrots, they are the same species (Daucus carota).  The garden carrot is a
"domesticated" variety of the species.  Queen Ann's Lace roots are very
tough and stringy, but I have used them to give a "carrot" flavor to soup
or stew cooked over a campfire. I remove the roots and discard after
cooking & before eating. Lots of plants that we eat *parts* of have other
parts that are toxic. A couple of examples: The leaves and stems of tomato
plants (we eat the fruit) and the leaves of rhubarb plants (we eat the
large, fleshy petioles) are toxic.

+-----------------------------------------------+
| Ray R. Hinchman                               |
| Energy Systems Division - Bldg. 372           |
| Argonne National Laboratory                   |
| Argonne, IL   60439-4816                      |
| Voice: (708) 252-3391  FAX: (708) 252-6407    |
| Internet: [email-masked]                    |
+-----------------------------------------------+

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From: [email-masked] (Rick Graul)
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 1995 17:17:01 GMT

[email-masked] (Michael O'Donnell) writes:

>plant (tomato) is supposedly related to deadly nightshade(!)

Michael,

I wouldn't eat Queen Anne's Lace unless I was certain that I could
distinguish it from hemlock, which it resembles.  I don't know about
Massachusetts, but here in the SF Bay Area, hemlock is quite common.

Rick
-- 
**********************************************************************
* Rick Graul                              internet: [email-masked] *
**********************************************************************

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From: [email-masked] (Murray Brain Calvert)
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 1995 14:08:38 GMT

Michael O'Donnell ([email-masked]) wrote:

: I heard recently (I cannot remember where) that Queen Anne's Lace is
: related to carrots, so I pulled one up and shredded its root with my
: pocket knife.  Sure enough it smelled VERY much like a carrot - so much
: so that I was temped to eat some, but didn't.  My reluctance to taste
: it was at least partly due to my remembering that another common edible
: plant (tomato) is supposedly related to deadly nightshade(!)  Anyway,
: would anybody care to opine as to whether I might safely chew on one
: of these roots next time I'm out for a walk?

	Hemlock (that poisoned Socrates) looks a lot like Q.A.L. Just
recently I found Cowbane, or Water Parsnip, on my neighbours land. Many
children and cows have died from eating the leaves or roots. So any
plant with an umbel (flower head like Q.A.L.) should be as suspect as an
unknown mushroom. If I recall, the domestic carrot is biennial. The root
stores energy from the first year of growth, to put up the lacy flower
the second year. The next generation of a hybrid carrot will revert to
the wild Q.A.L. since it is the same species.

Brian Calvert

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From: [email-masked] (Doug Yanega)
Date: 11 Jul 1995 15:57:24 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]

> large, fleshy petioles) are toxic.

In the case of Queen Anne's Lace, cultural and clinical evidence exists
that some chemical in the seeds may prevent embryo implantation -
apparently a potent natural contraceptive.
-- 
Doug Yanega
Illinois Natural History Survey, Center for Biodiversity
607 E. Peabody Dr. Champaign, IL 61820  USA
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is
    the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 8 Jul 95 22:04:56 -0500

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From: [email-masked] (Ray R. Hinchman)
Date: 9 Jul 1995 06:28:41 GMT

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From: [email-masked] (Rick Graul)
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 1995 17:17:01 GMT

Michael,

Rick

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From: [email-masked] (Murray Brain Calvert)
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 1995 14:08:38 GMT

Brian Calvert

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From: [email-masked] (Doug Yanega)
Date: 11 Jul 1995 15:57:24 GMT