Wild Edibles

Poison Ivy
American Indians would eat the small leaves to get immune to it

Hickory

Sweet Gum Tree
first chewing gum!

Arrow head/Duck Potato
a root crop, like potatoes, edible raw, but better cooked

Poke Weed
make salat (cooked greens), use purple berries for dye, when bigger the plant is more toxic (you can see the pink color rising up the stem), best cooked and best eaten when small about 8" high

Mulberry Tree

Blackberry

Greenbriar
tips like asparagus

Greenbriar

Possibly White or Black Snakeroot
a medicinal plant

Wood Nettles
stinging hairs make it difficult to pick, this is deactivated by cooking, mostly found in shade in the US (vs. stinging nettles in South Asia grow in sunny areas)

Wood Nettles

Nandina
note - most RED berries are poisonous

River Cane
slow growing, slightly edible tips and shoots

Russian Olive
nitrogen fixer (pulls nitrogen into the soil), orange brick red fruit, sweet

Elderberry
highly productive, cough syrup, wine, purple berries in May/June

Curled Dock
liver tonic, great for blood pressure, young leaves are edible raw or cooked, larger leaves are fibrous

Pearl Dock

Chick weed

 Bullbriar
this is delicious!

 

Water Hemlock
a toxic plant that resembles carrot

 

Wood sorrel
not a clover

 

Wood sorrel

 

Muscadine Grape

 

Chickweed

 

Paw Paw
wonderful fruit like avocado and banana

Resources:

Matthew Kip, Community Gardens, University of South Carolina

NPR's Foraging the Weeds for Wild, Healthy Greens