Edible Wild Plants in the Garden
Unfortunately, the potential for using edible wild plants in Australian food gardening has suffered a number of setbacks. One of the most famous is attributed to a famous botanist - Baron Ferdinand von Muller. He traveled widely throughout the State of Victoria documenting our native flora, but he saw nothing useful as food plants and so wherever he went he spread blackberry seeds. This was apparently so that no one who got lost in the bush would die of starvation. Today, wild blackberries are an uncontrolled noxious weed. The longing for familiar things from 'home' has brought us many pest, weed and vermin species. So much so, that in many places today only a trained botanist can be sure which plants are native and which are not. To simplify things, the plants covered here are grouped into four categories:
Of course, it would not be possible to present a complete list of such plants, so we will add links to plants in each category as information becomes available, so check back often. In the meantime, if you are interested in learning to identify native food plants, here are to really good references to check out: Edible Wild Plants There is also a fee downloadable report available on Cultivation of Native Food Plants in Southeastern Australia Have you tried growing a wild food plant?Do you have a story about wild food gardening? Why not share it?
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