1. Wild Plant Foraging - Tasty or Toxic?
Donna Lotzer
Poison Education Coordinator
UWHC Poison Prevention Center
Madison, WI
2015
May 2015
Pics are Wild parsnip root, morels and stinging nettles
Comes from for plants and morels are my own picture
Produced by and property of:
Donna Lotzer, Clinical Pharmacist, Poison Education Coordinator
University of WI Hospital & Clinics Poison Prevention Center
600 Highland Avenue, MC # 9475, Madison, WI 53792
Phone:
Please ask permission before use of this presentation

2. Before You Decide to “Live Off the Land”…
It’s not like you see on TV
Dual Survival, Survivorman, Man vs. Wild
Do you notice the disclaimers?
Be prepared – know your environment
Are you in your backyard garden?
Headed to an exotic locale?
Act like the locals when traveling
But remember their diet is NOT comparable in most situations
TV shows have professional back-up and expertise for what they do – no way they want to kill off the people on the show (!).
All shows warn viewers not to try this at home…
Medical literature and lay press abound with cases of people poisoned by plants they pick and eat from their own yards and gardens, some with fatal outcomes
Plants and mushrooms may look similar in other parts of the world but mistakes are possible too, so be very careful when eating off the land anywhere you travel. Use the same cautions or even more when drinking the water of course, or when harvesting plants grown in water or cleaned with local water supplies, which could be contaminated with bacteria, parasites, etc.

3. …Become a Food Prep Expert
What parts of the plant are edible?
Mayapple RIPE fruit
Is cooking required to detoxify plants?
Nettles
Elderberries
What about seasonal variations?
Burdock
All parts of mayapple are toxic with the exception of ripe fruit. Fruit is used to make jelly – too much causes diarrhea however.
Elderberries are actually toxic (contain cyanide!!!!) until fruit is cooked – so delicious as jam, wine and pies but not so good when eaten raw.
Nettles have very nasty spines that are incredibly painful with skin contact and render it inedible, but when cooked properly it is perfectly good to eat, especially when young leaves are used. Find and follow a recipe for how to harvest and prepare nettles.
Burdock is sometimes mistaken for “wild rhubarb” in the early spring when stalks come up. Not toxic if eaten but does not really taste good. Leaves are not edible anytime of the year, and of course once flowers/burs come up most people will not try to consume plant parts.

4. Do “Shrooms” Count as Plants?
Some are delicious
Morels, puffballs
Some can be fatal
Amanita virosa
Guidebooks are NOT reliable for mushrooms
Never assume wild ‘shrooms are edible raw
Toxic varieties are in your yard or woods…
Mushrooms are not plants, strictly speaking, but most people who forage for them will also collect plants like fiddleheads, asparagus or flowers while they are out in the woods picking mushrooms.
Morels in the spring are choice and edible but must be cooked and not eaten raw. Puffballs are found in late summer to fall, and as long as they are positively identified and are in good shape they are edible as well once cooked.
Mushrooms like Amanita virosa grow right in people’s yards and my poison center handled three fatal cases in WI over the years. Even experienced mushroom hunters can make mistakes on identity so be VERY careful when picking mushrooms in the wild, and always save a sample of whatever is eaten for ID later if needed. Another misidentification put a man who was a long-time mushroom forager in the hospital for several days after he mistook toxic Jack-O-Lantern mushrooms for edible chanterelles.

5. What is “Wildcrafting”?
Wildcrafting is a term for the age-old practice of collecting plant materials in their natural habitat for food, medicine, and craft. 
can connect you
Allows for mapping to share locations for edible plants
Submit pictures for possible ID
Reasons for wildcrafting
Gather plants to prepare as medicines or food
Harvest plants to sell to others
has an herbalist approach
Foraging is a way of life that predates horticulture, agriculture and industrialism. It is a pre-farming economy with a foundation built on skills including scavenging, hunting and gathering. People are rediscovering plants that can be used for food, medicinal, and creative purposes, but they need to be careful because of the risk of mistaking something toxic for an edible/usable plant/herb/mushroom. Imagine the unfortunate person who harvested vines in the woods for craft use, only to find out she had been working with poison ivy!! Many herbs are picked young (fiddleheads) but that is also the time of their growing season when they can most likely be misidentified, sometimes with very adverse results.

6. A “Go-To” Guy for Foraging
He even has an app for that on his webpage (!)
has pics of edible and other plants and mushrooms
also has good information by searching under “foraging”
Shown with Japanese knotweed
Moral of the story – never forage alone unless very experienced…always find someone who knows what they are doing, take a class, use guide books etc.

7. WikiHow or What the Heck
Suggests steps to survive off the land
Caveat: “If you are near death…”
Lots of confidence (!)
May not survive the testing steps 
Remember you can go weeks with just water if needed
Decide what plant part is to be tested
Test for dermal effects
Which has nothing to do with being edible!?!
Test on lips, tongue, then swallow a bit
If you are OK 8 hrs later perhaps you are safe
No further comments needed here (!).

8. Enough said…

9. Best and Worst Choices for “Edible Arrangements”
Often due to mistaken ID
Aggregate berries
Chamomile, Dandelion
Gardenia, Garlic mustard
Jasmine, Lilac, Mayapple
Nasturtium, Nettles
Radish, Rose
Squash blossom, Sumac
Violet, Water cress
Wild carrot, garlic, leeks (roots)
Berries (all colors) – most
Bulbs (daffodil, tulip)
Castor beans
Hemlock, esp. roots
Horse chestnut
Jimson weed
Mushrooms
Lit citation: Mistaken use of foxglove leaves picked in a national park (in China) for comfrey to make tea caused nine people to become ill. While the flowers are quite different the leaves on non-flowering plants do look similar. Of course there is a toxic potential with comfrey as well but with totally different symptoms.
J Chin Med Assoc 2010: 73(2):
Jimsonweed mistakenly used in stew – six family members – happened in Maryland in Plant was picked in the yard – found growing wild (!) and added to the stew. Reported in MMWR
Mistaken use of daffodil and tulip bulbs instead of onions and garlic in spaghetti dinner – poison center exposure call
Poisoning from eating the seeds of apricots (or apples or plums or peaches…) because they contain cyanide. Article details cases in Turkey where poisoning in children is rather common. Annals of Tropical Paediatrics 2010:30:39-43
Oleander honey poisoning children
Mistaking Atropa belladona fruit for blueberries – happened in Switzerland but this plant is in the US! Woman had blurred vision, disorientation, dilated pupils, agitation. Eur J Ophthalmol 2009:Jan-Feb 19:1:170-2
Very unusual situation – someone grafted an eggplant to a poisonous Devil’s trumpet (Datura metel). Two people became ill with slurred speech, dilated pupils, drowsiness after eating the eggplant!!! Tox revealed scopolamine and atropine in the food. Happened in Japan in 2008.
Two cases of people thinking they picked “wild carrot” and instead picked poison and/or water hemlock. A 14 YO Canadian boy DIED 20 hrs after eating a plant suspected to be water hemlock. Vet Hum Toxicol 2001: Feb: 43:1:35-6. The other case was an 11 YO boy in France who ate the root, became ill, was hospitalized and survived.
A man in India ate seeds/beans from a Rosary pea (Arbus precatorius) after being told it would work as an aphrodisiac. He had bloody diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, seizures, and was put on a ventilator once hospitalized. He eventually recovered (3 weeks) with mostly supportive care. Reportedly a fatal dose of seeds is as low as 2- 3 for an adult. Had he swallowed the seeds whole he likely would have been OK.

10. Foraging Fatalities
Two people “living off the land” found dead in a forest
Opted for a vegan lifestyle
Turns out they ate oleander leaves which are very toxic to the heart (contains digoxin)
Mistaken identity – hemlock vs. wild carrot or parsnip
Easy to confuse, especially in spring
Seizures and death possible in minutes to hours, and no antidote
Apricot pits and cyanide
Very toxic in small numbers, especially in children
Am J Forensic Med Pathol 2012;33: 93-97) is the citation for oleander fatal cases. Victims were in their 20’s when they died. Article also cites other fatal cases.
Wild parsley is also easily mistaken for wild hemlock which would be a fatal mistake
Clinical Toxicology (2009) 47, 270–278 is one citation on hemlock toxicity
Annals of Tropical Paediatrics (2010) 30, 39–43 is the citation for the apricot cases in children
Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 254 (2011) 148–153 is a recent article on plant poisonings in general

11. Foraging Misadventures
Jimsonweed stew
Six people hospitalized with hallucinations and other symptoms
Leaves picked from plants growing in the yard (!)
Tomatoes and potatoes
Leaves, sprouts, vines poisonous while tuber/fruit are edible
Easter lily toxic – fatal in cats
Even though safe for humans, plants in Lily family are toxic to the kidneys in cats and can kill them
MMWR / February 5, 2010 / Vol. 59 / No. 4 pp is citation for jimsonweed cases
Ramps (wild garlic) and colchicum autumnale (meadow saffron) foliage are look-alikes. If the wrong plant is ingested it can be fatal and there is no antidote to counter its lethal effects.
JAVMA, Vol 220, No. 1, January 1, 2002 has cat fatal cases from lilies

12. Foodborne botulism
Asparagus, mushrooms, chili, ketchup, beef stew, beans, (along with fish, beaver tail & whale blubber {Alaska})
Not exactly foraging but can come from harvesting/collection in a contaminated environment
Due to improper processing
Must follow strict storage/canning/processing guides
No signs that food is bad when eaten
Look, taste, smell all normal
Prep/preventive steps critical
Clostridium botulinum is a spore-forming bacterium found worldwide in soil and marine environments. The bacteria can survive indefinitely in spore form. When conditions are favorable bacteria germinate and produce neurotoxins. Failure to properly refrigerate freshly cooked foods is an important cause of noncanned foodborne botulism cases.
In the US in 2007 there were 144 cases of botulism reported to the CDC, and 18% of those (#25) were foodborne cases. The most commonly reported food was home-canned vegetables. Ironically botulinum toxins are inactivated with five minutes of heat at 185 F.
In a review published in 1990 (West J Med Oct: 153:390-93) it states that Alaska natives have one of the highest rates of food-borne botulism in the world. Suspect foods include fermented fish heads, fish eggs, whale (muktuk), seal flipper and beaver tail. Details of food prep changes over time that may lead to this problem are detailed.
A fatal case involved a 52 YO man in the US who apparently ate commercially canned chili and who presented for medical care 2 weeks later. He ultimately died of cardiopulmonary arrest 40 days later. J Forensic Sci: November 2010: 55:6
Two cases of botulism from Italy in women from home-canned asparagus. I was unable to get the actual article but it indicated both had classic symptoms. were put on ventilators and given antitoxin, and survived (Mar 2006). One man in Australia who also ate home-canned asparagus and required antitoxin and ventilation for 4 weeks! He suffered the expected ocular symptoms and paralysis and had a respiratory arrest.
In Turkey five coworkers all ate roasted, canned mushrooms. One person died and most of the others needed ICU care for up to 32 days. Treatment was mostly supportive with ongoing care for months. Hum Exp Toxicol: 2006:25:273
A 6 month old child was switched from formula to solid foods and the mother fed him improperly-prepared home-canned “baby food” made from beef and peas leftovers by the father. The food was not put into sealed jars or processed to make it safe. He developed botulism from the food and required 6 weeks on a ventilator and other treatment but survived.

13. Where Does Your Poison Center Come Into the Picture?
Help to ID plants (or mushrooms)
Help to determine if plants are toxic
Not so helpful with recipes (!)
Available 24/7/365 to handle questions or exposures
Poison Center
It may be possible to send pictures of plants to a poison center at some point, but do not rely on this for help in all situations. Check in advance with your local poison center to see how they handle plant ID cases.
Because symptoms of plant poisoning can range from skin irritation to seizures to cardiac arrest a diagnosis may be missed until a lot of other possible reasons for an illness are ruled out. This is not a good thing because it may delay treatment that would otherwise be life-saving.
Poison center staff can make treatment recommendations for management at home or in a health-care facility if/as needed.

14. Tips for Foragers Educate yourself Learn from an expert
Get a GOOD guidebook to help ID plants
Being “pretty sure” isn’t good enough
Learn from an expert
Take classes or forage with an experienced person
Know the environment where you are foraging
Avoid areas likely to have contamination with pesticides, and soil that may be contaminated with pollutants
Be sure foraging is legal
National and state parks often do not allow harvest of plants or mushrooms for environmental reasons
I broke the law unknowingly in Alaska by picking morels in a national forest 
Be sure you are dressed for foraging with long pants, socks that will go over the pant legs, sturdy shoes, long sleeved shirt, broad-brimmed hat, and mosquito/tick spray.
If you are not sure about the identity of a wild plant, or have the slightest doubt about its edibility DON’T EAT IT. Pass it by until you have had a chance to learn more. Many edible plants have poisonous look-alikes which can lead to problems.
Any wild food has to be harvested at the proper time, in the proper season. Just because a plant is edible at one stage or season it doesn’t mean it is so at other times of the year. Always consider the resource and do not harvest more than 10% of a large patch and skip small patches entirely to ensure that the area will regrow.
My Alaska morel experience netted almost five pounds of yummy mushrooms amongst four of us who found and picked them, but I panicked when I found out it was illegal to harvest them!! I quickly hid them in my jacket and headed to the van to stash them before I was busted by park rangers…they sure were tasty when cooked up later that night though 

15. Sources for Edibles, Recipes
Going online is great
Be sure source is reliable
This site also has links to toxic plants
County ag. extension
Historical cookbooks
I have some recipes from a 1940’s cookbook that are delicious
leads to many links for food/foraging/safe or toxic plants, etc.
is good for much information as well, including a calendar of what to look for each month, and wonderful recipes for things like stinging nettle soup, elderberry fizzy drinks, dandelion jelly and braised burdock root.