A Guide to Plant Survival

Temperate Zone Edibles

• Temperate zones with wooded areas hold the widest variety of edible plants, according to Wilderness Survival. Temperate zones grow a wide array of trees, grasses and weeds. Here, you can find commonly eaten fruits like blueberries, blackberries and strawberries. You can also turn to less commonly eaten, but still prolific, plants like dandelions, chestnuts, acorns, cattail roots, lotus roots and even wild onion and garlic. The list does not end there, but these plants are prolific and easily recognizable.

Desert Zone Edibles

• Deserts don't appear to hold abundant plant life, and the plants they do grow often come with tough or prickly shells. Some are also poisonous to humans, even if animals can eat them. Identification is especially important in the desert.

  Here, you can eat acacia plants, agave plant flesh, and several species of cactus. You may be lucky enough to find prickly pear cacti, which grow bright pink fruits. Always brush edible cacti and agave plants with a soft cloth before eating to remove the needles.

Tropical Zone Edibles

• Tropical zones are usually warm and humid, making juicy tropical fruit your biggest resource in these areas. Look for bananas, mangos, papaya and coconuts. You may also eat bamboo shoots, cashew nuts and breadfruit. Watch out for poisonous insects in these areas; banana bunches are often homes for banana spiders. Harvest single bananas with a cautious eye rather than cutting an entire bunch at one time.

  If your tropical area is close to an oceanic water source, search for seaweed. Seaweed is full of nutrients necessary for survival.

Identification and Preparation

• Whenever you go into the wilderness, travel with a plant identification guide that contains colored photos and detailed descriptions. Make sure it has diagrams of each plant and is specific to the area you're exploring. When identifying a plant, make sure that each detail listed in your guide is present in your plant. For instance, if a leafy plant looks like a plant in your book but has a serrated edge instead of the smooth one described, do not eat it. Also, take note of which parts of each plant are edible. Some plants have edible roots, but poisonous stems or vice versa.

  Always boil wild plants to kill harmful bacteria and make the plants more pleasant to eat. You can make roots and tubers tasty and safe by baking them in a camp stove or on a hot rock over a fire.