Poisonous Species

Plant and fungi ID apps appear to make foraging easier, but is there is a danger that some users place too much faith in them at the cost of developing their own skills?

There are over 1500 members of the carrot/parsley – or more correctly – apiaceae – family worldwide, and around 100 varieties in the UK. Including well known delights such as fennel, coriander, dill, parsley, and celery, and also some notoriously toxic species like hemlock and hemlock water-dropwort, this family presents some major gastronomic – and catastrophic – opportunities for foragers

A wee slip up with a deadly plant got me thinking… How scared should we be of poisoning ourselves with wild plants and fungi? And are we more likely to kill ourselves with things we buy in the shops…?

Often appearing on lawns and near rotten tree stumps, the common inkcap is generally less common, and certainly less worthwhile eating, than its cousin the shaggy inkcap…

Common hogweed is a startlingly delicious vegetable and an amazingly versatile wild spice – my favourite of all edible wild plants in fact. But getting to know and safely eat it is not as straightforward as many other plants on this website