First published in 1971, this re-release of Dan Jason’s Some Useful Wild Plants may be useful for some people, but it doesn’t have broad appeal. The book contains short entries on wild plants found within BC and North America. Taxonomical and common names are provided, with a brief description of physical appearance for identification purposes and nutritional or medicinal value. While some entries include wonderful illustrations of the plants, pertinent information, such as recipes or proper dosage, are mostly absent.
If you are going to re-release a guide that is intended to assist people in foraging for their own food and medicine in 2017, you need to offer a lot more than drawings of plants with brief descriptions. When advising people on what is safe to eat and what is not, giving the reader toxicity levels and information on how to properly process these plants for cooking or medicinal use is a must. People don’t want to poison themselves or eat dangerous amounts of unknown substances that could conflict with medication or pose a serious risk to their health.
Although the drawings of the plants contained here are well done, they are no substitute for colour photos, especially for the poisonous plants that are detailed toward the end of the book. People interested in foraging should be 100 percent certain that what they’re eating is safe; this book fails to provide that assurance.
I don’t think it’s harmful for someone to own this book as a guide to identifying plants out of an interest in knowing the world around them, which is why I think this book will appeal to a very small niche crowd. It’s for those readers who just want to be in the ballpark when spotting wild plants—or maybe those who have a very cavalier attitude toward their own health and don’t mind eating things that may do them harm, however minute that threat might appear to be.