When water is limited, food is not important. If there is no water, one should not eat, as food requires water to digest. If there is sufficient water, food may become a concern. There are many desert plants which can be utilized for food, but locating edible plants is not as easy as would appear from the proliferation of books on wild plants.
Many plants and plant parts are only edible during certain times of year, or may be edible cooked and poisonous raw. Many edible plants, such as rhubarb, have poisonous parts. Plants do not provide one with any large amount of food value; salad would not maintain a hard working person over a period of time. Some desert plants, such as jojoba nuts, are edible in small quantities, but large quantities can cause illness or even prove toxic. One also should consider the possible loss of body water through sweat expended while hunting for edible plants. Often there are only minute differences in appearance between an edible and a toxic plant.
Remember that a plant which is eaten by animals is not necessarily safe for human consumption. There are no safe rules for determining poisonous plants. One should never eat any plant unless absolutely sure that it is an edible species. If there is any doubt, it is better to go hungry.
The beans of the mesquite tree are edible. The bean pods can be cooked and eaten like green beans when they are first forming and soft. After they have dried, they can be ground and cooked like pinto beans. The bark of this tree is dark and rough. The leaves are tiny. This tree has thorns.
The palo verde tree has edible beans just after the blooms have died. These should be prepared like mesquite beans. The palo verde tree has a smooth green bark, thorns, and tiny leaves.
Ironwood and catclaw acacia have beans which can be cooked and eaten like mesquite beans. Ironwood has a purple flower in the spring, and acacia resembles mesquite, but its leaves are smaller.
Desert hackberry is a water indicator plant and has small edible berries. Leaves are small, heart-shaped and off center (one lobe larger than the other) with three main veins.
The jojoba has edible nuts which should not be consumed in large quantities. The jojoba is a shrubby plant with dry appearing, grey-green leaves which grow straight up and down rather than flat to the sun.
All cactus fruits are edible, though some are not tasty. Most of these fruits have small, almost invisible spines. The fruit should be peeled or burned to get rid of these spines.
Prickly pear pads are edible when young and tender. Peel or burn them to get rid of the spines.
The central heart of the agave, or century plant, can be baked and eaten, but it is a difficult proposition to obtain this heart and bake it.
The green flowering stalk of the yucca has some sugar and can be chewed.
In the higher or damper parts of the desert, one can find cattails, dandilions, or pinon nuts. The stalk of the cattail is edible, along with the green seed stalk.
There are other edible desert plants, but these are more difficult to recognize. Persons interested in an intensive study of edible plants may find many books or classes to aid them.
If in doubt, do not eat any plant. There are no hard and fast rules enabling one to recognize poisonous plants. It is said that cooking food destroys many toxins, and that if a mouthful of plant burns or irritates the mouth, it should not be swallowed. Neither of these always occur with a poisonous plant, and some plants are so toxic that a small mouthful will make one seriously ill, even if not swallowed.
All plants with milky sap should be avoided.
White berries should never be eaten. Red berries are poisonous about half the time.
Mushrooms should never be eaten unless one is an expert on these fungi.
Nightshade should be avoided. This plant has grayish leaves and purple or yellow flowers and small, gourd-like yellow berries. It resembles a potato.
Locoweed, milkvetch, or rattleweed, has many poisonous varieties, and it is best to avoid all. The plants are four to twelve inches tall with white or purple flowers. They resemble peas, and have long pods.
Jimsonweed or sacred datura, is a highly toxic plant. It is large and spreading, with large leaves and sizable white flowers which resemble a morning glory. The fruit is round and prickly.
Coral bean plants have bright red seeds and red flowers. The leaf is triangular, and the plant is a shrub. The poisonous seeds are in thick pods which split open.
Turpentine bush and milkweed have milky sap, cream or yellow flowers, and stems that appear like rushes.
Mistletoe is a poisonous plant. Desert mistletoe has small leaves and white berries and a thick, fleshy stem. This grows high in trees.
Since one can survive for many days without food, it is best to avoid plant life unless one has made a hobby of edible plants and can always identify the safe species.
Chapter Ten Please
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