[from flap] More than 5,000 flowering plants make their home in Texas, and the uses of these plants are generally unknown to many people. Less than one hundred years ago, plants were the source of most medicines, fibers, cosmetics, and dyes. Now, many of these products are made synthetically from petroleum derivatives. Native Americans relied on wild plants for thousands of years - for food, clothing, shelter, and medicines. Early pioneers of Texas and the Southwest soon learned of the many benefits plants provided.

A Practical Guide to Edible and Useful Plants contains descriptions and uses of hundreds of wild plants found in Texas, the Southwest, and many regions throughout the United States. It includes commentary on plants as medicine, special sections on mushrooms, and poisonous and harmful plants. Hundreds of imaginative recipes for making everything from acorn waffles to yucca laundry soap show the exciting and diverse possibilities readily available from our native plants.

Because we now live in a world of "instant everything," we no longer look to the native plants around us for our daily bread and shelter. We don't really need to know that mesquite pods are sweet and nutritious, and it isn't really necessary to know how to dye wool with goldenrod flowers. But we are interested in acquiring this knowledge again because it creates an important link to our heritage, as well as a key to the future. Many wild edible plants are high in vitamins, proteins, or carbohydrates, and have potential as commercially grown agricultural products. As petroleum reserves dwindle, we may someday have to rely on plants again to provide "substitutes" for the many necessities petroleum supplies to us.

Illustrated by 77 drawings and more than 50 color photographs, this comprehensive and easy-to-use book will be an invaluable reference for anyone interested in native plants and our natural environment.