Edible wild plants

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Edible wild plants have been used by humans since time immemorial as wild vegetables , wild fruits , wild herbs or as medicinal plants . This means wild plants that grow in nature and are suitable for consumption. Depending on the species, entire plants (example: wild garlic ) or only certain parts of them (example: sea ​​buckthorn ) can be used.

Nutritional value and ingredients

Wild garlic , one of the most famous edible plants that are still often collected in the wild
Chestnuts , the fruit of the sweet chestnut , are just as often collected in the wild

Wild plants can contain many times the vitamins, proteins, minerals and trace elements of the cultivated vegetables . In contrast to cultivated plants developed by humans, wild plants are the result of continuous, evolutionary and natural development.

Many wild plants also have a health-promoting effect and are therefore also used as medicinal plants .

History of use

Edible wild plants have been the main source of food for humans for a very long time (around 99% of human history). Cultivated plants were not cultivated by humans from wild plants until the Neolithic Revolution , with wild plants still remaining a part of the diet.

The development of commercial and industrial supply has displaced both the use and knowledge of edible wild plants (at least in Western Europe). Wild plants have almost completely disappeared from people's diet in the 20th century. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the interest in edible wild plants has increased again and the wild herb kitchen is experiencing a renaissance.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rudi Beiser: Wild herbs: From the meadow to the plate - with 42 vital recipes . Trias Verlag , Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-432-10265-8 .
  2. ^ Rita Lüder: Basic course in plant identification . 8th edition. Quelle & Meyer , 2017, ISBN 978-3-494-01719-8 , pp. 87 .
  3. ↑ Steffen G. Fleischhauer, Jürgen Guthmann, Roland Spiegelberger: Edible wild plants. Identify and use 200 species . AT Verlag , Baden / Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-03800-886-6 .
  4. ↑ a b Rudi Beiser: Our edible wild plants . Franckh-Kosmos , Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-440-15910-1 .
  5. ↑ Interest in Wild Plant Park. Stuttgarter Zeitung , October 16, 2019, accessed on May 4, 2020 (German).
  6. ↑ Wild herbs enrich the menu. Frankfurter Rundschau , May 17, 2017, accessed on May 4, 2020 (German).
  7. ↑ Tasty weed. From poor people's food to delicacy: Dr. Markus Strauss on wild specialties. Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine , March 4, 2014, accessed on May 4, 2020 (German).