To the person that tasted hot peppers which is considered poison to other animals, thanks.
Fun fact: You can figure out if a plant is poisonous/toxic without snorting a fat line of it.
But how else can you tell for sure?
For a serious answer, there’s a whole process you can follow. It’s basically going from minimum exposure up through eating a small bit of it and waiting multiple hours to days between steps. If any show signs of being irritating or worse, don’t eat/use that plant. It’s slow enough that if you had to rely on it for finding your sole source of food, you’re going to have a rough, hungry time.
Something like:
- Rub a little on hardier parts of your skin, wait and see.
- Break up the plant to expose more of it and rub that on a small patch, wait and see.
- Try it on more sensitive skin areas, wait and see.
- Try holding a bit in your mouth, spit it out. Wait and see.
- Chew some up, spit it out and wait and see.
- Eat a tiny amount, wait and see.
I’m probably forgetting some steps, too. It’s genuinely very slow.
Worse yet, there are plenty of plants/fungi that would still fuck you up or kill you doing it this way, so the OP still has a point.
Yes, but not everyone wants to wipe leaves on their anus in front of others.
you can just wipe them on your arm.
Bold move to start there, but someone’s got to do it.
“Ogg eat red mushroom, then Ogg see pink mammoths for a week!”
This is actually considered a lost art, due to the adcancements in chemistry and food safety labs, but identifying edible plants is a good skill to learn:
If at any point irritation occurs such as rash, dizziness, stomache cramps, or drowziness, stop immediately. Do not attempt while preggers. I am not a medical doctor and this is not health advice.
Wait several hours between steps.
-
Collect several samples of unknown plant, make note of color, stalk, leaf, fruit/flower, and root characteristics. Preferably start with plants local fuana are seen eating.
-
Dry some of the plant.
-
Try boiling a very small portion of the plant.
-
Apply results to small patch of skin. Record results.
-
Hold some of water in mouth for a few minutes then spit. Record results.
-
Nibble on small amount of boiled plant. Record results.
-
Eat slightly larger amount of boiled plant. Record results.
-
At this stage, some plants might grillable or burnable for incense. Record results.
-
If all previous tests pass, attempt to nibble raw plant. Record results.
Do not expect to identify more than a plant or two per week, do not expect the same plant to be safe at every growth stage, environment, or season, and remember most useful plants were identified as safe to eat in the last several hundred years and that picking up a book could save you the trouble. In a survival situation, it is better to rely on rodents and fish for protein and calories, there is a reason our ancestors were ambush predators.
It took humans forever to figure out only the top portion of potatoe plants were poisonous.
Except mushrooms. That will be tasty and kill you slowly a week later.
Our ancestors weren’t just ambush predators, they were persistence hunters too. We used to literally jog animals to death because we’re able to sweat.
-
And fuck those humans who then made it illegal to use.
Hmmm what happens if i dry this plant out for a week and then chop it up and smoke it?
Thank you for your service:
Be right back; huffing radishes!
Shoutout to all the early humans who were clever enough to kill others figuring out which plants would get them high too
