St. Andrew's Cross

Scientific Name(s): Hypericum hypericoides
Abundance: common
What: roots, leaves
How: root tea, poultice; leaf tea, poultice
Where: disturbed areas, fields
When: summer, fall
Nutritional Value: medicinal
Dangers: none known

Medicinal Summary:

Soothes damaged/inflamed skin (poultice)

Leaf Arrangement: The leaves are arranged oppositely along the stems.

Leaf Shape: The leaves are typically lanceolate or elliptical, with a length ranging from 1 to 2 inches and a width of around 0.5 to 1 inch.

Leaf Venation: The venation is pinnate, with a central vein running along the length of each leaf and smaller veins branching off to the sides.

Leaf Margin: The leaf margins are entire, without serrations or lobes.

Leaf Color: The leaves are generally green, and the color is consistent on both the upper and lower surfaces.

Flower Structure: The flowers are typically solitary or in small clusters at the ends of the stems. Each flower has four petals in an X arrangement.

Flower Color: The flowers are bright yellow.

Fruit: The fruit is a capsule, which develops after the flower has been fertilized.

Seed: The seeds are small and brown, found within the capsules.

Stem: The stems are usually erect , branching, and may have a reddish-brown color. 

Hairs: The plant may have fine hairs on the stems or leaves, contributing to a slightly textured appearance. 

Height: The height of Hypericum hypericoides can range from 1 to 3 feet, depending on the specific variety and growing conditions.

Full plant.










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.


By mid-summer the four-petaled, yellow flowers of St. Andrew's Cross can be found all across the disturbed, partially shaded areas of Texas. This plant is tough but doesn't like full sun, preferring the shade of a wood's edge. It grows from a tiny seedling to over waist-high in just a few months. Its 1" long, dark green leaves alternate along the stems and branches. There's often a short branch growing up off the stem from the base of a leaf. The long stems droop and end up hanging downwards by late summer.

Although St. Andrew's Cross is a close relative of St. John's Wort, it doesn't have the scientifically proven medicinal benefits of its more famous cousin. Traditionally, assorted Native American tribes used the plant medicinally to sooth certain inflammations. Tea from the root has some painkiller properties as well as soothing colicky babies. Its astringent nature was also used to treat diarrhea and issues with the kidneys and bladder. As a poultice, it was used to treat chapped skin. The leaves of St. Andrew's Cross are also astringent and used to make skin soothing poultices and tea with the same urinary tract treatment as the root.


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Stinging Nettle

Scientific name: Urtica chamaedryoides, U. dioica, U. urens
Abundance: common
What: leaves and young stems
How: cooked greens, tea
Where: woods, borders, abandoned areas, woods, sunny and shady areas
When: spring, early summer
Nutritional Value: Rich in vitamins A,C,D,K, many minerals, and high in protein.
Dangers: can cause skin irritations, handle while wearing leather gloves. Cook to remove stingers before consuming.

Medicinal Summary
Leaves - anti-inflammatory; antihistamine; diuretic; local anesthetic; anti-diarrheal; hemostat (tisane, tincture)

Leaf Arrangement: Opposite; leaves directly facing each other on the stem.

Leaf Shape: Heart-shaped to ovate; broadly rounded with pointed tips, typically 1-2 inches long and wide. Margins may have shallow teeth or be entire.

Leaf Venation: Pinnate; veins branching off a central midvein.

Leaf Margin: Shallowly toothed to entire; some variation may occur within the same plant.

Leaf Color: Bright green, sometimes with a paler underside.

Flower Structure: Insignificant, greenish to whitish flowers clustered in leaf axils (crotches). Male and female flowers occur on separate plants.

Flower Color: Greenish-white, inconspicuous and easily overlooked.

Fruit: Tiny, dry achenes enclosed within the persistent flower bracts. Achenes are about 1mm in diameter and light brown in color.

Seed: Single seed per achene, small and brown.

Stem: Erect and slender, typically growing 6-24 inches tall. Stems are often square-sided and may be tinged with purple.

Hairs: Densely covered with stinging hairs (trichomes) containing histamine and formic acid, causing an itchy sting upon contact.

Height: 6-24 inches.

Texas heart-leaf stinging nettle (Urtica chamaedryoides) at flowering stage.

Close-up of heart-leaf stinging nettles (Urtica chamaedryoides).


Patch of heart-leaf stinging nettles (Urtica chamaedryoides).


Young heart-leaf stinging nettles (Urtica chamaedryoides). They are tender and tasty while still this small.

Common stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is much taller and has longer leaves than heart-leaf nettle.

Common stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) can be over 5 feet tall, growing in thick stands.

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.


Stinging nettles are known throughout the world as a very nutritious and highly medicinal plant though you must be careful when harvesting them. The stem and leaves are covered with tiny hollow needles filled with formic acid, oxalic acid, tartaric acid, histamine, serotonin, and acetylcholine. Touching any of these needles will inject you with these, which causes an extremely painful burning sensation.

These plants are easy to identify by their hairy, square stems and the burning sensation they cause when grabbed with the bare hand. Sidenote: don't grab them with your bare hand, it really hurts! If you do grab them with your bare hand the sting can be soothed by rubbing curled dock, plantain, or other astringent leaves on the area.

The young stems and leaves should be placed in boiling water for approximately sixty seconds to remove the stinging agents before eating young nettle plants. Alternatively, steeping the leaves in hot water creates a very healthy tea loaded with vitamins and minerals. Dried plants can be incorporated into pasta dough.

Homemade stinging nettle-infused ravioli.

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.

Sumac

Scientific name: Rhus lanceolata, Rhus glabra, Rhus copallinum
Abundance: uncommon
What: red berries
How: lemonade, tea, seasoning
Where: fields
When: early summer
Nutritional Value: minor traces of vitamins and antioxidants
Dangers: white sumac berries are very toxic

Leaf Arrangement: Compound leaves are alternately arranged along the stems.

Leaf Shape: The leaves are pinnately compound, consisting of multiple leaflets.

Leaf Venation: The venation of the leaflets are pinnate.

Leaf Margin: The leaflets have serrated margins.

Leaf Color: The upper side of the leaflets is green, while the underside may have a lighter hue.

Flower Structure: The plant produces dense, conical clusters of small greenish-yellow flowers.

Flower Color: The flowers are typically yellowish-green and form terminal (end-of-branch) clusters.

Fruit: The fruit is a red, hairy drupe, densely packed in a compact cluster. They often have a white, crystalline powder coating the mature fruit.

Seed: Each drupe contains a single seed.

Bark: Mature bark is gray-brown and rough. Younger bark is smooth and red or green-gray depending on specific species.

Hairs: The young branches and fruit are fuzzy.

Height: Smooth sumac can grow up to 9 to 15 feet in height, forming colonies through spreading rhizomes.

Sumac shrubs.

Closer look at sumac shrubs.




Ripe sumac (Rhus glabra) berries.


Close-up of sumac berries.




Another view of sumac berries. The white/gray coating is responsible for the tangy flavor.


Topside of Winged Sumac (Rhus copallinum) leaf.


Underside of Winged Sumac (Rhus copallinum) leaf.


Close-up of winged sumac leaf. Note the "wings" along either side of the main leaf stem.


Young sumac flowers which will eventually turn into berries.


Sumac in the fall (Rhus glabra or Rhus lanceolata).


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.


I wish I had a dime for every person who thought sumac (assorted members of the Rhus genus) and poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) were the same plant. Or better yet, I'd like to go back in time have a long talk with the guy who decided to call T. vernix "poison sumac". As you may have guessed by now the two are very different plants and the edible sumac doesn't contain the urishiol oil that causes painful poison ivy/sumac/oak rashes.

Often forming beautiful stands along roads, in fields, and at the edges of woods, these small trees rarely grow more than 7-8 feet tall. They are a very "open" tree with single, narrow trunks that don't branch out until close to the top, giving them an elegant appearance in my opinion. The trunks are gray and pockmarked while the branches become reddish and fuzzy near the leaves. The crushed leaves have a very distinctive odor...of sumac.

The dried berries are a traditional Middle Eastern seasoning used primarily on chicken and fish. Place the dried berries in a peppermill and then grind them over the food either before or after cooking, giving it a tangy, desert flair.

A pleasing "pink sumacade" is made by soaking the berries in cold water for at least ten minutes though overnight in the fridge maximizes the flavor, then filtering the liquid to remove berries and fine sumac hairs before drinking.

Making two quarts of sumac-ade.



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.

Spanish Moss

 Scientific name: Tillandsia usneoides 

Abundance: plentiful
What: leaf strands
How: raw, cooked
Where: humid areas
When: summer, fall
Nutritional Value: high in antioxidants

Medicinal Uses: good for wrapping wounds, reduces blood sugar levels, slows down infections due to bacterialstatic compounds

Leaf Arrangement: The leaves are densely packed and arranged in a rosette pattern, forming a cascading, hanging structure.

Leaf Shape: The leaves are linear and slender, measuring up to 2 inches long and about 0.1 inches wide.

Leaf Venation: The leaves have parallel venation, with veins running straight and parallel from the base to the tip of the leaf. However, these veins are extremely small and very hard to see.

Leaf Margin: The leaf margins are entire, smooth, and lack any serrations or lobes.

Leaf Color: The leaves are gray-green, often appearing silvery due to the presence of trichomes (fine hairs).

Flower Structure: The flowers are small and tubular, measuring about 0.5 inches long and 0.2 inches wide.

Flower Color: The flowers are typically pale green or yellowish-green, sometimes with a bluish tinge.

Fruit: The fruit is a small, dry capsule, approximately 1 inch long and 0.25 inches wide.

Seed: The seeds are tiny and have long, silky hairs attached, which aid in wind dispersal. Each seed measures about 0.1 inches in length.

Stem: The stems are thin, wiry, and flexible, often appearing tangled and covered in trichomes.

Hairs: The entire plant is covered with fine, grayish trichomes (hairs), which help in absorbing moisture from the air.

Height: The plant can grow to lengths of up to 20 feet when hanging, with individual strands varying in length.

Trees covered in Spanish moss

Closeup of the strand-like leaves. Note the fine hairs

Texas distribution, attributed to the wildly inaccurate U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties with similar ecosystems or if used in landscaping.

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

Spanish moss is a plant in the bromeliad family, same as pineapple...but alas it does NOT taste like pineapple. If you were ever eating some celery and wished that it was even more fibrous but less moist, you are in for a treat. Spanish moss tastes very similar to celery but is a bit more chewy. With that in mind, chop it up and use it in celery dishes such as dressing/stuffing, added to soups, mixed with peanut butter, or drop it in a Bloody Mary. I enjoy adding the chopped Spanish moss to cup-a-soup and cup-a-noodle things where you add boiling water.

The edible portion are the long, gray, branching strands. There's nothing toxic about the thin, brown flower stalks, but they are even tougher than the strand-leaves and rather (in my opinion) undesirable to eat.

Besides food, Spanish moss has a long history of being used as bedding, animal fodder, and combined with clay to make bricks and plasters. It can also be stuffed inside clothing as insulation against the cold. If its used as bedding or insulation, consider hanging it over a smoky fire for a while to drive out blood-sucking chiggers who like to make it their home.

This plant isn't a parasite, it just finds trees to be a handy place to hang from while it absorbs water from rain & dew, and nutrients from dust. This sort of plant is called an epiphyte, for those who care about such things.

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.

Sunflower - Wild

Scientific name: Helianthus annuus
Abundance: plentiful
What: young flowers, seeds
How: seeds can be eaten raw, ground into flour, roasted, or crushed for sunflower oil, the shells can be roasted then used as a coffee substitute; young flowers are boiled
Where: Sunny areas, ditches, abandoned yards
When: Seeds ripen in late summer, early fall
Nutritional Value: carbohydrates, protein and oils

Leaf Arrangement: Opposite at the base of the stem but alternating at the top; leaves can measure up to 12 inches long.

Leaf Shape: Ovate to heart-shaped with a pointed tip, typically 6 inches wide and 12 inches long.

Leaf Venation: Pinnate, with a prominent central vein from which smaller veins branch out.

Leaf Margin: Serrated or toothed, with small, sharp teeth along the edge.

Leaf Color: Bright green, with a rough texture to the touch.

Flower Structure: Composite - what looks like one flower is actually composed of many ray (single long, yellow petal) and disc (small, dark) flowers. Flower heads grow to be about 3 inches in diameter.

Flower Color: Bright yellow petals (ray florets) surrounding a dark brown to purple central disc.

Fruit: The fruit is an achene, about 1/4 inch long and 1/8 inch wide.

Seed: Tiny, with a tear-dropped shape and black or striped hulls.

Stem: Sturdy, hairy stem that can grow over 10 feet tall. Green or yellowish, often with small, dark spots.

Hairs: Stiff, bristly hairs cover the stem and leaf surfaces.

Height: Can reach heights of 6 to 10 feet, depending on the variety and growing conditions.

Wild sunflowers


Close-up of flower with immature seeds.


Back of sunflower.


Sunflower leaves ranging from 2" to 6" in length.



Close-up of stem. Both leaves and stem have fine hairs.


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.


Running rampant just about any sunny place mankind has torn up soil, the tall, gangly sunflowers seem to thrive in every wasteland. The flowers are much small flowers, only 2-3 inches across, are plentiful on each thick, tall stalk.

The young flower buds, when green and before they've opened, are quite good when boiled until tender then served with butter. I'll also add the young flower buds to stews and curries. The mature seeds are an excellent source of high-calorie oil which birds and other animals love. Humans can eat them, too but they are very small and generally aren't worth the effort to gather.


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.