Photo by Michelle Spencer on Unsplash
Look out for these on your next bushwalk
We are surrounded by food and medicine in nature. From the weeds in your garden to that weird, wiry yet tough dandelion growing between the crack in the pavement can be packed full of nutrients. There are endless plants to get to know and learn, but we all need to start somewhere. Below are a few good ones to get familiar with if you are based in NSW.
Smilax glyciphylla (Sweet sarsaparilla)
A robust climber, this scrambling plant produces black fruits with hard shiny seeds. Even the leaves are sweet, just pop one in your mouth and have a chew! You can make a sweet tea by boiling a handful of the leaves. Identifiable by their 3-veined leaves, long tendrils and are usually found near water.
Melaleuca spp.Paperbarks
You might be familiar with the melaleuca genus of paperbark trees — tress with bark literally like paper! Typically I have used paperbark as a great fire-lighting tinder (or loo-roll, but that’s a blog for another time..) The nectar of their flowers can be soaked to make a cordial or eaten fresh.
Tetragona tetragonoides (Warrigal greens)
Also known as New Zealand spinach, the oval or diamond-shaped leaves are rich in oxalates and should be blanched before consuming. Their small, yellowish flowers can also be eaten. This plant grows all along the east coast commonly found on the edge of sand-meets-soil and prefers saline soil.
Lomandra longifolia (Mat rush)
Also known as spiny-head mat rush or basket grass. Just grab a handful close to the ground and pull. You’ll be rewarded with fleshy white stems which can be eaten raw or cooked. They taste like raw peas. Highly drought-tolerant, mat rush also thrives in wet environments. It smells lovely and its hardiness and versatility likely makes it a favourite of councils, as it features in many suburbs and council areas of Sydney!
Carpobrutus glaucescens (Pigface)
Finally we have carpobrutus glaucescens, more commonly known as ‘pigface’. A lovely flowering succulent found along the coast but can withstand extended dry periods. Its leaves can be cooked and used like green beans and the pink fruit which appears after flowering tastes like a sweet but salty berry. Great for rockeries, this hardy plant is low maintenance, pretty and delicious!
A word of caution:
Foraging wild plants is undertaken at your own risk, and you should never eat anything if you are not 110% sure that you have identified it correctly and know without a doubt it is safe to eat. If in doubt, go without.
There are no common characteristics of form, colouring, odour or taste, which distinguish a poisonous or harmful plant from a non-poisonous plant. But as a general rule of thumb, plants with a bitter taste, funny smell, milky sap or red seeds or berries may be poisonous.
Source: https://www.poisonsinfo.nsw.gov.au/Factsheets/Poisonous-Plants-Factsheet.aspx#:~:text=There%20are%20no%20common%20characteristics,or%20berries%20may%20be%20poisonous
Final remarks
There is so much more to these plants and I look forward to going into more detail of each of these in the future. If there are other plants you’d like me to write about, just post in the comments. I’d love to hear your thoughts and what you’re interested in!
I hope you have enjoyed this brief intro to edible plants in coastal NSW.
Until next time:)
