Epazote

Scientific Name(s): Dysphania ambrosioides (formerly Chenopodium ambrosoides)
Abundance: common
What: leaves
How: seasoning
Where: sandy soil along woodland borders
When: spring, summer
Nutritional Value: low
Dangers: use sparingly as a herb as high doses can be poisonous. ~1% of the population suffers an allergic reaction to epazote

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are arranged in an alternate pattern along the stem.

Leaf Shape: The leaves are generally lance-shaped or narrowly ovate, with lengths varying between 1.5 to 4 inches and widths of about 0.5 to 1 inch.

Leaf Venation: Venation is pinnate, with a prominent central vein and smaller veins branching out towards the leaf margins.

Leaf Margin: Leaf margins are serrated or toothed, particularly towards the leaf tip.

Leaf Color: The color of the leaves ranges from a dark green to a reddish-green, often with a matte finish.

Flower Structure: The flowers are small and inconspicuous, clustered in small, axillary spikes.

Flower Color: The flowers are typically greenish or whitish.

Fruit: The fruit is a tiny and green.

Seed: The seeds are minute, not typically noticeable unless the fruit is opened.

Stem: The stem is erect, branched, and can have reddish or purplish hues.

Hairs: Stems are hairy.

Height: The plant usually reaches heights of 2 to 3 feet.

Young epazote plants.


Top view of epazote plant.


3/4 tilt view of epazote.


Side view of epazote. Note the alternating leaves.


Close-up of epazote's hairy stem.


Topside of leaf. Note how the veins run to the points along the edge of the leaf.


Underside of the leaf. Note how the veins run to the points along the edge of the leaf.


Epazote flowers.


Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.


North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.


Disturbed, sandy soil along woodland borders is the most likely place to find the ancient herb. If you are familiar with lamb's quarter's appearance you're half way to identifying this plant. Epazote leaves alternate up the stem and look like elongated versions of lamb's quarter leaves. This plant will branch out some, usually from near the bottom of the plant. Trimming its top will cause multiple sprouts continuing to grow from the cut spot. By the end of its growing season it can be five feet tall and somewhat leggy. The most distinctive part of this plant is its scent. To me the crushed leaves smell like lemons soaked in gasoline. Other people think it smells more like brake fluid or some sort of industrial cleaner. It's hard to believe something who's name translates into "skunk sweat" is used heavily in cooking! But throughout the ages it has been a key flavor in South American dishes, especially in the areas of the Yucatan and Veracruz areas of Mexico.

Considering how strong of flavor it has only a few leaves are needed to impart the correct citrusy tones to bean dishes. Why is it added to beans? Well, it turns out Epazote contains some compounds that are particularly good at breaking down bean proteins, making them more readily digested by the human body. A side effect of this "pre-digestion" is the gas-producing effects of beans is reduced. The leaves can be dried but fresh is preferred when cooking.

Epazote flowers and seeds resemble those of lamb's quarter, with the flowers being tiny, green, and numerous and the seeds being tiny and brown. Due to the high concentration of ascaridole in the seeds, I don't recommend eating them like lamb's quarter seeds.

The ascaridole oil found in Epazote leaves is used as a deworming (vermifuge) agent and was taken as a tea made from the leaves and seeds to rid the humans and animals of tapeworms, ringworms, and other parasitic worms. To expel the dead worms from the body, a laxative was also taken. However, the levels of this oil needed to kill worms is very close to what would be fatal to humans, too. This makes Epazote an anti-worming agent of last resort, modern medicines are much safer.


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Ginkgo

Scientific Name(s): Ginkgo biloba
Abundance: rare
What: leaves, nuts
How: leaves raw, tea; seed/nut roasted
Where: woods, landscaping
When: leaves in spring, summer, fall; nut in summer
Nutritional Value: leaves are medicinal, nuts have calories
Dangers: the fruit STINKS and contains assorted, somewhat dangerous chemicals. Do not let the raw fruit pulp come in contact with bare flesh, mouth, or eyes.

Medicinal Summary
Leaves - improves blood circulation; improves memory; may reduce dementia (eaten, tisane)

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are unique, fan-shaped, and arranged alternately along the stem.

Leaf Shape: Ginkgo leaves have a distinctive fan shape, typically measuring 2 to 3 inches in length. Often displaying a cleft in the middle.

Leaf Margin: Leaves have a lobed or bilobed margin.

Leaf Color: Foliage is bright green in the summer, turning golden yellow in the fall.

Flower Structure: Ginkgo trees are dioecious, meaning there are separate male and female trees. Male flowers are small, catkin-like structures.

Flower Color: Flowers are small (1/8") cones growing on 1"-2" spikes, being either green or yellow.

Fruit (Seed): The fruit is a large, fleshy seed surrounded by a foul-smelling outer layer. The seed is about 1 inch in diameter. They onlt form on female trees and ripen in the fall.

Bark: Bark is typically light gray and smooth on young trees, becoming rougher and more deeply furrowed with age.

Height: Ginkgo trees can grow to be 50 to 80 feet tall.

Hairs: Leaves and stems are generally smooth, without noticeable hairs.

Branching Pattern: Ginkgo trees have an open, spreading growth form with distinct branches.

Ginkgo leaves.


Close-up of Ginkgo leaf.


Ginkgo trunk.


Young Ginkgo tree.


Unripe Ginkgo fruit (female trees, only).


Close-up of Ginkgo fruit. When yellow/orange, soft, wrinkly, and falling from the tree it's ripe.


Ginkgo fruit (ripening in the fall).

By Famartin (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Ginko nuts after removing outer fruit (female trees only).


Ginko trees, native to Asia, are now common landscaping plants. Due to the mess and smell of the ripe nut outer coating, usually only male forms of the tree are used. Ginkgo are ancient trees dating back 270 million years and is considered a "living fossil" and a single tree can live 1,000 years. Individual ginkgo trees are either male or female, with only the female producing fruit. The fruit ripens in the summer as approximately grape-sized yellow fruit. This fruit pulp smells really bad, something like a cross between dog poop and vomit. This pulp is discard because the real treasure is the large seed it contains. Wear rubber gloves when digging the seed out of the ginkgo fruit or else your hands will stink for days. Scrub any pulp off the seeds with plenty of running water. The seeds/nuts are then roasted as the unroasted seeds are still somewhat toxic.

Ginkgo leaves have a long history of being used to treat issues with blood circulation, memory, and dementia. The easiest way to use them is to chew a leaf into a pulp and then suck on this pulp for 10-20 minutes. Tea can also be made from the leaves.


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Heals All

Scientific Name(s): Prunella vulgaris
Abundance: uncommon
What: leaves
How: raw, tea, cooked
Where: borders, woods, fields, wastelands, full sun, light shade
When: spring, summer
Nutritional Value: medicinal compounds
Dangers: none

Medicinal Summary:
Leaves/Stems/Flowers - wound healer; antibacterial; antiviral; anti-cancer; colitis anti-inflammatory; hemostatic; appetite stimulant (tisane, poultice)

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are arranged in an opposite-alternating pattern along the stem.

Leaf Shape: The leaves are broadly lanceolate to ovate, typically measuring about 1 to 3 inches in length and 0.5 to 1 inch in width.

Leaf Venation: Venation is pinnate, with a central vein and smaller branching veins.

Leaf Margin: The leaf margins are serrated or toothed, especially towards the tip.

Leaf Color: The color of the leaves is a deep green, often with a slightly lighter shade on the underside.

Flower Structure: Flowers are clustered in dense, pyramidal, spike-like inflorescences at the tips of stems or in the leaf axils.

Flower Color: The flowers are typically purple or violet, though they can also be pink or white. Each flower is tubular with a two-lipped appearance.

Fruit: The fruit is a small, dry nutlet.

Seed: Seeds are contained within the nutlets, small and hard.

Stem: Stems are square in cross-section, a characteristic of the mint family, and can be hairy or smooth.

Hairs: There may be fine hairs on the stems and the undersides of the leaves.

Height: The plant typically grows to a height of about 6 to 18 inches.

Bed of heal's all plants while flowering.


Heal's all bed before flowering.


Individual heal's all stalk.


Heal's all plant.


Close-up of heal's all flower stalk before flowering.


Close-up of heal's all flower.


Note the "beard" on the flower's lower lip petal.


Heal's All seedlings in January in Houston, before producing a stem or flowers.


Heal's All in the summer after going to seed.


Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.


North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.


Usually found in somewhat moist, woody areas, Heal's All is a rather unassuming plant for most of it's life. Appearing in late winter, it's first call to attention occurs with the appearance of its unmistakable, pyramidal flower stalk in mid-spring. It isn't a solitary plant and so much prefers being surrounded by many of its fellow Heal's All plants.

Heal's all is often considered to be the best all-around medicinal plant. Other names for it include selfheal, heart-of-the-earth, and woundwort. According to legend and also Peterson's Guide to Medicinal Plants heal's all will take care of problems with lungs, liver, kidneys, blood, joints, cancers, ulcers, tumors, swellings, and back trouble. The usual method of ingestion is as a leaf tea or alcohol extraction. I also like chopping the leaves up and adding them to any rice I am cooking.

The plant can be air-dried for later use. as tea, but the alcohol extraction is best done with fresh leaves. The dried leaves & flowers can also be smoked as part of an herbal "tobacco" mixture.

Link to scientific papers on the medicinal properties of Heal's All (Prunella vulgaris).


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Tinder/Hoof Mushrooms

Scientific Name(s): Fomes fomentarius
Abundance: uncommon
What: mushroom
How: infusion medicinally, smoke to repel mosquitos, inner layer to catch a spark
Where: woods
When: winter, spring, summer, fall
Nutritional Value: not applicable
Dangers: not eaten, but infusion is used internally and externally to fight infections

COLLECTING MUSHROOM REQUIRES 100% CERTAINTY. WWW.FORAGINGTEXAS.COM ACCEPTS NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR IDENTIFICATION ERRORS BY ANY READERS.

Growth Form: Fomes fomentarius typically grows solitarily, forming perennial, woody growths on trees shaped somewhat like a horse's hoof.

Cap Shape and Size: The cap is hoof or fan-shaped, ranging from 2 to 20 inches across. It has a hard, woody texture and is gray to brown in color, often with concentric zones of color.

Gills or Pores: This species has pores on the underside, which are small and round. The pore surface is usually white to brown.

Stipe Characteristics: Fomes fomentarius lacks a distinct stipe; it attaches directly to the tree with a broad, lateral attachment.

Odor: This fungus may have a "mushroom" smell.

Bruising: The flesh is too tough and woody to show bruising.

Spore Color: The spore print is white to light brown.

Substrate and Habitat: Commonly found on hardwoods, particularly birch, but can also be found on other trees.

Other Characteristics: Can continue to grow over several years, resulting in growth bands with a darker strip at the base of each growth band.

Tinder (Hoof) mushrooms on a dying tree.


Side view. Note the layers and gray color.


Top-angled view. The greenish color near the top is from mildew.


Looking at the underside, note the tiny holes aka pores. This is in the class of polypore mushrooms.


Though oddly shaped, this is still a tinder/hoof mushroom.


Cut in half, the lower, dark section consists of hundreds of tightly packed tubes and the upper, brown section is called "amadou".


The amadou layer will catch a spark from flint and steel.



Tinder hoof mushrooms are one of several different shelf polypore mushrooms found on dead/dying trees. The distinguishing characteristics of these is the layers of grow that result in a thick/tall mushroom rather than a large fan shape. These can be found any time of the year on Texas trees, preferring hardwoods such as oaks, hickories, maples, elms, and sweet gums to pine, cedar, or cypress. The use of these mushrooms can be traced back thousands of years, even being part of Otzi, the Alps caveman corpse's kit.

Hoof mushrooms have several main uses, one of which is medicinal and the others are bushcraft. An infusing made from fresh or dried hoof mushrooms by boiling a tablespoon of chopped-up mushroom in a cup of water produces a strong broth with both antibacterial and antiviral properties. This broth can be drunk to fight internal infections as well as a wash for infected wounds.

This mushroom has some awesome bushcraft use, the first being it's one of the few natural products that will catch a spark, hence the name tinder mushroom. The inner, fibrous "amadou" layer, when dried can be used to start fires from any spark or ember generating source such as flint and steel, flint on quartz, firesteel, or fire-bows. The amadou is pounded into a flat fabric that has lots of fuzzy fiber ends to catch fire.

If you already have a fire going but want to transport the fire elsewhere, hoof/tinder mushrooms will smolder for a long time if ignited. Packed in so moss, you now have a hot coal you can carry with you to start a fire at the next campsite without the effort and uncertainty of making a fire from scratch.

The amadou also has a history of being pounded into a felt-like material used to make clothing and bags. It'll take a lot of mushrooms to get a decent-sized piece of fabric to cover yourself but fewer if you're okay with being indecent. If you look on Etsy.com you can find amadou hats and other gear, though I can't vouch they're made from real amadou.


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Hericium Mushrooms

Scientific Name(s): Hericium erinaceus, H. coralloides, H. americanum
Abundance: rare
What: mushroom
How: cooked
Where: woods
When: fall, winter, spring
Nutritional Value: beneficial compounds

COLLECTING MUSHROOM REQUIRES 100% CERTAINTY. WWW.FORAGINGTEXAS.COM ACCEPTS NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR IDENTIFICATION ERRORS BY ANY READERS.

Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus) form "snowball" shapes with spore tubes over 1cm long. Pick when white, not yellow/brown.






Bearded Tooth (Hericium americanum) form long-toothed "waterfalls".




Close-up of Hericium americanum spore tubes.


Past-ripe Hericium americanum turn brown but the inner white parts are still edible.


Bear's Head Tooth (Hericium coralloides) grow like H. americium but with shorter spore tubes.








Walking through hardwood forests on a cool day after rains you see an odd sight...a furry looking snowball stuck to a dead tree...or maybe something that looks like coral but far from the sea. A closer examination reveals it is a Hericium mushroom, distinctively made of a cluster of spore tubes and lacking any noticeable cap. They only grow on dead or dying wood so if one of these delicious mushrooms appears on a tree in your yard, be warned.

You want to collect these while they are white or at most slightly off-white. As they mature to a yellow/brown color they are no longer worth eating. These mushrooms must be cooked, with my favorite methods simply cutting them up into 1" pieces then sautéing them in butter until they become just a little crispy at the edges. Once cooked, their flavor is reminiscent of lobster.

Hericium mushrooms are known to contain several compounds that have been found to help with cognitive functions such as memory/recall as well as mood issues such as depression and anxiety. There's also some evidence that they reduce the plaque in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. This is an amazing family of mushrooms!


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.