Lee Peterson

This informative and interesting guide describes edible wild plants of Eastern and Central North America (some edible wild plants of Western North America are mentioned as well, but only if they also occur in Eastern and Central regions). Lee Allen Peterson (who I believe is the son of Roger Tory Peterson, the renowned ornithologist, and founder of the concept of the Peterson Field Guides) not only details what these edible wild plants look like, how tall they are, how to identify the show more plants, the amount of seeds, fruits they generally produce and so on, he also shows the different ways in which the plants might be prepared, warnings about plants that might be toxic if the wrong parts are used and/or ingested, and (very importantly) warnings about toxic look-alikes (which is especially imperative for plants like wild carrot, wild parsnip and the like, which might easily be confused with deadly poison or water hemlock, in fact, the author cautions that beginners not try to harvest wild carrots, wild parsley, yarrow etc. due the risks of possible and perhaps lethal misidentification).

[b:A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North America|378203|A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants Eastern and Central North America|Lee Peterson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174311446s/378203.jpg|368038] contains both illustrations (line drawings) of the featured plants, as well as a section of colour photographs (colour plates). Personally, while I find the illustrations easier to discern and identify than the photographed plants on the colour plates, I would have preferred it, had the illustrations been done in colour, rather than simply in black and white line drawings. I also think that it would have been both interesting and fun, had the author included his own recipes for at least some of the featured wild plants. However, all in all, [b:A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North America|378203|A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants Eastern and Central North America|Lee Peterson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174311446s/378203.jpg|368038] is a wonderful and informative field guide, both for budding harvesters of wild plants, as well as for individuals like me (who will not likely ever attempt to harvest edible wild plants in any large quantities, but find information on plants, botany and wild harvesting interesting and readable). show less

This book is loaded with line drawings of different edible plants (important because photographs can be misleading), and includes descriptions of plants, recipes, and warnings about look-alike poisonous plants. I've decided that with so many deadly look-alikes, I'm not going to be eating plants any time soon, but if you decide to, carry this with you.

Read this twice when I was in high school, along with another book just like it. You might be bored by it, but I was enthralled!

Helps a forager to identify edible wild plants and some of their poisonous look-a-likes.