Product Description

More than 370 edible wild plants, plus 37 poisonous look-alikes, are described here, with 400 drawings and 78 color photographs showing precisely how to recognize each species. Also included are habitat descriptions, lists of plants by season, and preparation instructions for 22 different food uses.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3492 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Lee Allen Peterson Grew Up In Old Lyme, Connecticut, And Is The Younger Son Of Roger Tory Peterson. After Graduating From Johns Hopkins University, Lee Wrote The Peterson Field Guide To Edible Wild Plants And Spent Years Photographing Plants And Giving Natural History Lectures At Colleges And Nature Centers. He And His Wife, Courtney, Live In Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Roger Tory Peterson, one of the world"s greatest naturalists, received every major award for ornithology, natural science, and conservation, as well as numerous honorary degrees, medals, and citations, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Peterson Identification System has been called the greatest invention since binoculars, and the Peterson Field Guides® are credited with helping to set the stage for the environmental movement.

Customer Reviews

Buyer Beware
Though still an excellent field guide buyers should be aware that this book is merely a rejacketed version of the 1977 edition. It has not been updated and the recommended reading list in the back does not contain material published past 1976. The September 1999 publishing date doesn't mean you are getting the most up to date field guide on wild edibles, just a new cover on an old reference book.

I have an older print
The only difference being the front cover has been updated.

This has a lot of very good line drawings and some photos. The information in it is very good.

But, I would suggest that people cross reference the plants they find with another field book before eating something.

The descriptions in the book are short, the emphasis is on the use of the plant and were you may find them. Remeber with out looking closely an untrained eye may mistake water hemlock (deadly) with water parsnip, cow parsnip, angelica, or wild raison at a quick glance. And that could be unfortunate to say the least. Other then that warning though I enjoyed this book and have had it a long time. It tends to be one of the books I carry with me when I go hiking and looking for plants and birds.

How To Eat Nature
If you're like me and you enjoy trying to eat leaves and berries that you find while hiking and wandering about in nature, this is a handy book to own. The Peterson who wrote this book (son of the Peterson of the many, many wildlife guidebooks writer) is also a forest forrager and details some other cool books to own in the Introduction (including Stalking Wild Asparagus..excellent). I searched for a while to find a guide that would not only easily ID edible berries, roots and leaves..but also give recipe-like tips on how to prepare said roots and leaves..and they do here. Who knew, for example, that one could make a cool and refreshing beverage from staghorn sumac? Crafty! Guide is sub-divided into several search methods: color, plant-type (berry, leaf) and includes many color plates along with ink drawings to help to be sure that Amanita spp. mushroom you're eating won't cause you trouble later! And, the final great feature of the Peterson guides is that the front and back covers are tough so that you can make your copy go camping with you over many moons and you won't wear out your book. Nice!