Common edible wild plants

A few wild plants are widespread across temperate regions and fairly easy to recognise. They won't give you many calories, but they add vitamins and fresh greens. Only eat them if you are 100% sure of what they are, ideally after learning them in person and checking a regional field guide.

Dandelion

• A flat rosette of deeply toothed leaves, a single yellow flower on a hollow stem, and milky sap.
• Young leaves are best; older ones are bitter. Eat raw or boiled.
• Flowers can be eaten raw. Roots can be cooked or roasted.
• Look-alikes such as cat's-ear are generally harmless, but be certain anyway.

Stinging nettle

• Grows in patches in rich soil, with toothed, heart-shaped leaves in opposite pairs and stinging hairs.
• Pick the top four to six young leaves in spring, wearing gloves.
• Cooking, drying or soaking in hot water removes the sting. Use like spinach or make tea.
• Avoid older plants that have flowered; they can irritate the kidneys and gut.

Broadleaf plantain

• A low rosette of broad, oval leaves with strong parallel veins running end to end, and thin spikes of tiny flowers.
• Young leaves can be eaten raw or cooked; older leaves are tough and better boiled.
• Often found on paths and lawns, so pick away from trampled or dog-walked areas.

Clover

• Leaves in threes, often with a pale mark, and round white, pink or red flower heads.
• Flowers and young leaves can be eaten in small amounts raw, or better cooked, as large raw amounts can upset the stomach.
• Don't eat clover that has wilted or gone mouldy.

Cattail (bulrush)

• Tall reeds in shallow water, with the familiar brown, sausage-shaped seed head in summer.
• Young shoots can be peeled and eaten raw or cooked. The roots contain starch that can be extracted by crushing in water.
• Only pick from clean water. Cattails soak up pollution.
• Before the seed heads appear, young plants can be confused with yellow flag iris, which is poisonous. Iris leaves grow in a flat fan; cattail leaves wrap around each other at the base.

Before you eat any of these

• Wash well in clean water.
• Try a small amount first, in case of allergies.
• Avoid roadsides, sprayed fields and polluted ground.
• Read the guide to deadly plant look-alikes.

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