The Encyclopedia of Edible Wild Plants of North America by François Couplan

The encyclopedia is really a catalog of about 4,000 North American plants that, somewhere along the way, have been said to be edible by one or more of François’ many references. Plants are organized by Phylum, Family, Genus, then Species. The catalog is enriched in a relatively few spots by the addition of François’ personal experiences.

This is sort of the grand son, or really grand nephew, of the 1919 government document “Sturtevant’s Notes on Edible Plants”. The differences being that while Sturtevant covered the world, Couplan zeros in on North America – with a more up to date sensibility. The text averages two to three genera per page. The value of this book is in its breadth, not in its depth. Looking to see if an obscure plant has some edibility? Check Couplan’s book. Want to find the Latin name of a plant and its relatives? Check Couplan’s book.

Information for any particular plant ranges from a sentence to a couple of pages. There are no photographs. This is not a field guide for ‘identifying’ plants, it’s more a reference for your home library. It does have a line drawing about every seven pages or so. It does cover many plants that are rarely found in other edibility guides.

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