Bush Tucker - Plant Foods
NEW: Bush Tucker Plant Foods section with photos and descriptions of the plants and other foods.
My aim for this area is to feel secure and confident in my ability
to find plant based "bush tucker" natural food in my local area. That
includes actually knowing where there are food plants growing, and
what season they are edible, and
in enough quantity to be able to support life.
Recently I have added to this the aim of learning to grow my own plant
foods (that is, a vegie garden). Eventually this will include both traditional
Western (Northern-hemisphere) vegetables and also Australian "bush
tucker"
plants. Since I am living in a rental home at present this will be somewhat
limited, but I will be starting small and with the aim of learning
how to grow many kinds of food in many kinds of situations, with various
kinds of limitations on what resources are available. In my opinion,
this is a vital component of the very best kind of knowledge
that anyone could posess, given the current world
situation. For more
information, see my page on Family
and Community Farming.
My current knowledge of bush tucker plant foods is almost all theoretical.
I can currently identify over 100 bush food species from pictures in
books (assuming that the parts of the plant that I know are shown in
the picture!)
But
I would be hard pressed to know more than a handful of species in terms
of knowing where some of that species is actually growing right now,
with there being enough of it to get a decent feed from.
This
is Lomandra longifolia, or Long-Leaved Mat Rush, a common
"bush tucker" plant food. It is a very common plant in the Southeast
of Australia. It is found growing in the wild, and also it is a
very common cultivated plant, planted as an ornamental plant in
gardens and public places.
The bases of the leaves contain starch which is edible raw. You
can pull out a leaf (they can be hard to get out, be careful of
your
fingers)
and chew on the white-coloured end.
It is now featured here on its own page. |
Naming of Plants
All plants classified by botanists are given a "scienfitic name" (as
are all species classified; animal, bacteria, etc). The scientific name
consists
of two parts—the "genus" and the "species". The
genus (generic) name is written first, with a capital letter, followed
by the
species (specific)
name, beginning with a lowercase letter. For example, "Persoonia levis".
The genus (plural is "genera") is like a surname, in that the
one genus will contain plants of one or (usually) more than one species,
all with
similar characteristics. Sometimes the scientific name is written in
italics.
Most plants also have one, or more than one "common name(s)".
For example,
"Broad-Leaved Geebung". The common names are usually a lot easier
to remember. However they are not
nearly
as accurate, as not only can the same plant have more than one common
name, but completely different plants are often called by the same common
name—which can clearly lead to confusion. In the case of bush tucker,
that is, plant foods,
you really do want to be completely sure of what plant you are eating—so
it is a very good idea to get used to using the scientific/botanical
names of plants.
Bush Tucker Plant Foods Index
Get started with learning plant foods - make
yourself a task list
List of Plants for the Blue Mountains (and Sydney)
Edible Weeds
Family and Comunity Farming
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