Arrowhead:
Handsome aquatic plants, arrowheads are distinguished by their three-petaled white flowers borne in whorls of three. The plants potatolike tubers, once favored foods of many Indian peoples, are responsible for such alternate names as water nut and duck potato.

Blackberry:
Sweet berries that turn from red to black as they ripen, blackberries grow in thickets that bow over toward the ground.

Blueberry:
Thriving in poor, acidic soils where few other plants can grow, blueberries are especially common on land that has been ravaged by forest fires. Black bears, squirrels, foxes, opossums, and raccoons relish the blueberry. The berries are blue, red, purple, or black and grow on bushes with many narrow untoothed leaves.

Cattail:
The tall, sturdy stalks with cigar-shaped tips that give cattails their name are a common sight in marshlands all across the continent.

Dandelion:
Dandelions are considered by many to be pernicious weeds, but the tender young leaves are delicious in salads, and wine can be made from the flower heads.

Dewberry:
(See Blackberry)

Dock:
Found on roadsides and in fields and gardens from coast to coast, docks are ubiquitous members of the buckwheat family. Leaves vary with the species, but most docks look alike in flower and seed. In June they send up tall stems topped with spikes of small greenish flowers, which by September yield an abundant crop of reddish-brown, three-sided fruits. All parts of the plants are avidly consumed by wildlife.

• Leaves: cooked as greens
• Seeds: ground into flour
• Roots: used in tonics

Dogtooth Violet:
Dogtooth violets are members of the lily family. They are named for the shape of the small white underground bulb from which the leaves and flowers sprout.

Eelgrass:
One of the few flowering plants found in the sea, eelgrass is named fro its long, ribbon-like leaves that sway gently with the currents. Growing in dense stands in shallow waters along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, it was long regarded by fishermen as little more tan a propeller-fouling pest.

Fern:
An ancient class of plants that dominated the earth hundred of millions of years ago, ferns are indeed rather primitive looking. When the young leaves, aptly called fiddleheads, first appear, their tips are tightly coiled, and they gradually unfurl into mature fronds. The young fern fronds are gathered in the spring and eaten as vegetables.

Flax:
Imported from Europe, where it had been used for making rope, fishnets, and fabric since ancient times, flax has escaped from cultivation and now survives in fields and waste places as a graceful annual wildflower up to three feet tall. Clusters of small five-petaled sky-blue flowers open as early as February in some parts of the country, and blossoming continues until September, adding cheerful splashes of color to the sandy, well-drained sites the plant favors.

Geranium:
Whether white, pink, or purple, the flowers of the many kinds of wild geraniums found in North America always have five petals, five petals, and stamens in multiples of five. The leaves are usually lobed or deeply divided. The most distinctive features of the plants, however, are their fruits.

Geranium:
Whether white, pink, or purple, the flowers of the many kinds of wild geraniums found in North America always have five petals, five petals, and stamens in multiples of five. The leaves are usually lobed or deeply divided. The most distinctive features of the plants, however, are their fruitsÑlong beaklike capsules that have earned some species the name of cranesbill.

Ginseng:
The celebrated, supposedly man-shaped roots of these low-growing woodland herbs have long been treasured as a cure-all by Orientals, who claim them effective for treating everything from impotence to diabetes. American ginseng, a close relative of the Chinese species, once carpeted our eastern hardwood forests.

Glasswort:
Plants of salt marshes and other saline areas, the glassworts have a pleasantly salty flavor and so are often picked as salad ingredients. They can also be pickled.

Goldenrod:
American Indians valued goldenrod as a cure for numerous ailments. In fact, the plantÕs Latin name means Òto make wholeÓ. Early colonists also gathered leaves of the sweet goldenrod to brew a soothing, anise-flavored tea and used the flowers to produce a rich yellow dye.

Goosefoot:
Found along roadsides and in gardens al across North America, the goosefoots are wild relative of beets and spinach. The lower leaves on some plants look a bit like a gooseÕs foot. Plain but prolific, they bear tiny greenish flowers and produce huge crops of seed. Indians made flour from the seeds, and the leaves of one kind, lambÕs quarters, are still used as a substitute for spinach.

Ground Cherry:
Low, branching annuals, the ground cherries are adorned in summer with bell-shaped white or yellow flowers, which mature into plump, usually golden berries, each one enclosed in an inflated, papery husk. Though the cherry-sized fruits are prized by country people for use in jams and pies, the leaves and unripe fruits are poisonous.

Hawthorn:

• Winter: bare
• Spring: coarsely toothed leaves and showy white to pink flowers (resemble apple blossoms)
• Fall: the blossoms give way to clusters of small, unusually red fruits, called haws Haws are eagerly sought by grouse, pheasants, and deer.

Hazel:
Common shrubs or small trees of fencerows and woodland borders, hazels often form dense, twiggy thickets. Their branches, tough and flexible, are sometimes woven into baskets, but the plants are valued mainly for their abundant crops of tasty nuts. Also known as filbets, the fruits are enclosed in distinctive, leafy husks.

Jack-in-the-pulpit:
Also known as Indian turnip, Jack-in-the-pulpit has corms, or bulbliike roots, that long ago were cooked and eaten as vegetables by Native Americans. Inedible when raw, the corms ere also ground for poultices and dried for a variety of medicinal uses. It is hooded in spring, but produces bright fruits in autumn.

Manzanita:
Although the manzanitas rang in size from creeping mats of foliage to trees some 30 feet tall, most are vigorous evergreen shrubs. Easily recognized by their tough, twisting branches and smooth, shiny reddish bark, they often form dense virtually impenetrable thickets on arid slopes in the West. The clusters of pink or white urn-shaped flowers that droop from the twig tips in spring are later replaced by berrylike fruits that yield a tasty jelly.

Mariposa Lily:
The blooms of the mariposa lily rang in color from white to yellow, orange, scarlet, and purplish, with each of the three petals commonly marked at its base with a darker spots. The tasty bulbs of some of the mariposas were valued as food by native Americans and early settlers.

Marsh Marigold:
The marsh marigoldÕ foliage, though mildly toxic when raw, can be boiled an eaten as a potherb.

Mayapple:
The fruit of the mayapple is sometimes used to make jams and beverages, and the roots have a long history of use in folk medicine.

Mesquite:
Sweet and rich in protein, the seeds of the mesquite were once a staple in the diet of native Americans.

Milkweed:
Sturdy plants with stout stems and large oval leaves, most milkweeds are filled with poisonous, milky sap.

Mint:
Whatever the species, all the mints are characterized by square stems; oval, tooth-edged leaves borne in opposite pairs; and two-lipped tubular flowers of pale purple, pink, or white.

Mulberry:
The sweet, knobby multiple fruits of all the mulberries are shape like blackberries but range in color from white to red to black.

Nettle:
Rich in vitamin C, the young shoots of nettles, boiled to remove the irritants, make a tasty soup or vegetable. Nettles also yield a strong fiber and have been cultivated for textiles, paper, and rope.

Partridgeberry:
In winter, the partridgeberryÕs scarlet berries are edible but flavorless, which show up vividly against the plantÕs ground-hugging mat of lustrous evergreen leaves.

Passionflower:
The maypop, a lavender species of the passionflower, ranges north to Maryland and Oklahoma and produces tasty yellow fruits the size of henÕs eggs.

Plantain:
Richer than spinach in several vitamins, the tender young leaves of plantain used to be served as a potherb at family diner tables.

Queen AnneÕs Lace:
Found coast to coast, Queen AnneÕs Lace is also called wild carrot. WARNING: This plant is easily confused with Water Hemlock, a plant with deadly poison.

Raspberry:
From woodlands and waste places in the East to canyons and moist slopes in the West, the delectable, thimble-shaped fruits of wild raspberries provide welcome snacks for hikers and are also harvested for jams and other treats.

Unicorn Plant:
When young and green, the pods of the unicorn plant were eaten fresh or pickled for later use; when mature an dried, they were split into strips and woven into baskets.

Valerian:
Flourishing along roadsides, where it grows up to four feet tall, valerian has feathery leaves and produces sweetly scented clusters of tiny flowers. Belying the fragrance of its blooms are the plantÕs foul-smelling roots. Even so, valerian roots, whether native or naturalized, have traditionally been used as a sedative and are still sometimes prescribed for nervous disorders and insomnia.

Watercress:
Though watercress can survive in damp soil, it also grows as a true aquatic, with its leaves wholly or partially submerged. Its clusters of small white flowers, however, are held well above the waterÕs surface. Colonists brought watercress to America as a remedy for scurvy (the foliage is rich in vitamin C), but today it is popular as a peppery addition to salads and soups.

Wild Onion:
Odor is the identifying characteristic of the wild onionsÑwhen bruised, their leaves and bulbs are just as pungent as their cultivated relatives. The wild sorts are edible, too, and were eagerly gathered by Native Americans. Tough found in every state, wild onions are most plentiful on western mountains and plains. Growing form underground bulbs, the leaves of the wild onions are flat green straps or hollow quills, depending upon the species, and the sunbursts of blossoms that appear by midsummer range from white or greenish the purple and pink.

Wild Potato:
Related to the morning glory, the wild potato has a giant edible root, growing several feet long and weighing up to 30 pounds. This plant served as an important source of food for both native Americans and early settlers.

Mushrooms:

• horse mushroom (larger and coarser than the common mushroom)
• Amanintopsis (looks almost like the deadly poisonous Amanita, or death cup Ñ the deadly mushroom has a frill that the edible one does not)
• morel (its cups look like cone-shaped sponges, pitted like a honeycomb - grows best among leaves or wood ashes
• coral mushroom (has branching form of beautiful pink, lavender, or amber - most common in Sweden)
• golden Clavaria (beautiful honey color)
• fairy-ring mushrooms, inkcap, shaggy mane, bear's head, and the hedgehog mushrooms (flavor like nuts Ñ the inkcap first grows underneath the sod - when there is warm rain, it pushes up overnight, and by the close of the day has dripped away in an inky liquid
• Jew's Ear (imported from the South Sea Islands)
• green Russula (looks like the trumpet of a gray-green morning-glory)
• golden Peziza (shaped like a cup and lined with orange-red)
• trembling mushrooms (quivering mass like jelly)
• liver fungus (sometimes called vegetable beefsteak)