Identification: These members of the birch family grow to 80', often much smaller. Bark smooth and gray when young, gets coarse and whitish gray when mature. The bark on Alnus rubra turns red to orange when exposed to moisture. Leaves are bright green, oval, coarsely toothed, and pointed. Male flowers are clustered in long hanging catkins; female seed capsule is ovoid cone; seed nuts small, slightly winged, and flat.
Habitat: Alder prefers moist areas. Species range from California to Alaska east to Idaho. Numerous species found across North America, often in impenetrable mazes surrounding streambeds—great bear habitat; be careful.
Food uses: Members of this genus provide a generous resource of firewood in the Northwest for savory barbecue cooking. Smoking helps preserve meat. Soak meat in a salt brine, then smoke. The bark and wood chips are preferred over mesquite for smoking fish, especially salmon. Scrape sweet inner bark (in the early spring) and eat raw, or combine with flour to make cakes.
Medicinal uses: Sweat-lodge floors were often covered with alder leaves, and switches of alder were used for applying water to the body and the hot rocks. Alder ashes used as a paste and applied with an alder chewing stick to clean teeth. Cones of subspecies A. sinuata used as medicine, as are other alder species. Spring catkins smashed to pulp and eaten as a cathartic (help move bowels). The bark mixed with other plants in decoction and used as a tonic. The decoction of the female catkins used to treat gonorrhea. A poultice of leaves applied to skin wounds and skin infections. In the Okanagan area of central Washington and British Columbia, First People used an infusion of new end shoots, new plant tops as an appetite stimulant for children. Leaf tea infusion said to be itch- and inflammation-relieving wash for insect bites and stings, poison ivy, and poison oak. Upper Tanana informants reported a decoction of the inner bark reduces fever. Infusion of bark used to wash sores, cuts, and wounds. This is still an important “warrior plant” in sweat-lodge ceremonies, a cleansing spiritual rite. For more on sweat lodges, see the DVD Native American Medicine at herbvideos.com.
Notes: Smoking meat with alder: Wood chips are soaked overnight in water, then placed on coals or charcoal to smoke meat. In 1961 I saw more than 100 Native Americans smoking fish, moose, and caribou for winter storage along a 10-mile stretch of the Denali Highway in Alaska. Local hunting rules then required any person who shot a caribou was obliged to give some of the meat to the First People, who preserved it for winter food. Fish flayed, stabbed through with a stick, and hung from wood weirs above a smoldering alder fire until smoked and dry. In hardwood-poor areas of the West, red alder burns slower than pine and is a suitable home-heating fuel. Bark may be stripped and soaked in water to make an orange to rust-colored dye.
Identification: Tall (to 160') tree; leaves alternate, toothed, straight, and parallel veined, short stalked; bark light gray and smooth; twigs slender with long narrow scaly buds. Beechnut fruit (to ¾" long) is in a spiny husk, meat protected by a tough shell—fruits fall in late summer.
Habitat: Climax species in eastern forests. Beech and hard maple end the process of succession in hardwood forests. Prefers rich soil, open forest. Chemical in plant kills most understory competitors.
Food uses: Years ago hogs roamed the eastern forests eating the nuts. Quite a feat, as the nuts, encased in a durable husk, then a shell, leave little room for meat. Tasty though. Squirrels will get to the nuts before you can. Watch a squirrel in a beech forest—it may lead you to a cache of hundreds of nuts. Good luck.
Medicinal uses: Bark decoction taken to induce abortions, also used for pulmonary problems. Leaves decocted and compressed as a poultice over wounds and sores. Leaf decoction also used over burns. Nuts eaten to treat worms, much the same as pumpkin seeds.
Identification: Grows to 120'; round top, smooth bark; light-gray young branches, becoming light brown and deeply fissured. Buds dark brown, ovoid, and flattened; leaves to 25" long and shorter, with stout petioles, compound with 11-17 oblong lance-shaped leaflets, 2"-4" long; thick-husked fruit in clusters, nut elongated as compared to a walnut.
Habitat: Southwestern Michigan stretches the northern limit of this eastern tree, from New Brunswick to Alabama, Virginia to South Dakota; more abundant in the North. Tolerates drier climates, but prefers rich, moist banks near streams and rivers.
Food uses: Biggest of the walnut family; spoils easily, however. Collect butternuts from ground, throw them in water; those that sink are worth opening. Floating nuts have had an adventurous creature in them eating the nut meat. Native Americans crushed and ground nut meats to paste as a baby food.
Medicinal uses: Juglone, in the bark, root, and seed hulls, is anticancer, antimicrobial, cathartic, and antiparasitic. Native Americans used bark decoction to treat diarrhea and as a purgative, and an infusion of buds to treat mouth sores, mouth ulcers, and cleanse breath.
Identification: American chestnut, to 180', round topped with horizontal limbs; mature branches dark brown, yellow green when young. Leaves oblong to lance shaped, with short petioles, leaves shiny green turning yellow in the fall. Nut shell covered with numerous spines, opens with first frost to bear shelled nut. Chestnuts found in botanical gardens and secret hideaways. More common is the Chinese chestnut. Do not confuse these trees with the buckeye or horse chestnut. Chestnuts may be removed from their spiny husk, then crack the protecting shell and eat fresh whole, sliced, as a meal (ground), or roasted. Try them roasted in stuffing for goose, turkey, duck, or chicken.
Habitat: Throughout eastern United States, from Maine to Florida, east to Ontario and the Mississippi River. Prefers moist forest and thrives on a variety of soils.
Food uses: Native Americans dried then ground chestnuts and used the meal to make bread. I like it in gravies, stuffing, cooked in a soup. Try roasting the nuts, then grinding them and making coffee. Tamalemasa made with ground chestnut and cornmeal—delicious. I like them mashed to meal, then mixed with dried currants and dried cranberries and cooked in my 7-grain hot cereal. Nut meats are delicious in potato soups, corn soups, and various chowders. Try them added to hominy or mixed in corn bread. Smash a few nuts and mix them in sweet potato soup or mashed potatoes.
Identification: The coconut palm is a long-lived plant (100 years), has a single trunk, 70'-90' tall, bark is smooth and gray, marked by ringed scars left by fallen palm leaf. Leaves, 12'-20' long, pinnate; consisting of linear-lanceolate, more or less recurved, rigid, bright-green leaflets. Flower arising at leaf axils and enveloped by a spathe. Flowers bear lance-shaped petals, 6 stamens, and an ovary consisting of 3 connate carpels. Fruit 2½-5 pounds in weight and as big as a human head.
Habitat: The coconut palm thrives on sandy, saline soils; it requires abundant sunlight and regular rainfall; often located just above the tidal zone along tropical and subtropical beaches—transplant to yards and gardens in same climate.
Food uses: Soft fresh endosperm (milk and soft meat) used to feed infants when mother's milk not available—often mixed with bananas. Hispanics mix corn water and soy milk with the coconut milk as a nutritious food for infants and children. Coconut milk said to prevent curdling of milk in infants. Coconut meat is nutritious and eaten raw, cooked, shredded, or sweetened.
Medicinal uses: Coconut oil used cosmetically on the skin. Hawaiian people use this as a complete body lotion, excellent for massage. Inhaling smoke from burning the fruit shells said to induce abortion. Meat rubbed on the head as a brain tonic and dried ash of meat eaten as a tonic. Endosperm considered a good food for diabetics if unsweetened. In Mexican medicine meat and milk thought useful for treating diarrhea, dysentery, colitis, gastritis, indigestion, ulcers, and hepatitis. Meat and endosperm milk considered a tonic, used to rehabilitate the physically weak. Soft flesh rubbed on acne, wrinkles; oil is a good moisturizing cosmetic lotion. Coconut milk taken with lime juice is a refrigerant (cooling), rehydrates children and adults, and lowers acidity of urine.
Identification: Tall shrubs or small trees with leaves to 5", coarse, toothed (double toothed). Nuts in a bristly husk. Often found as understory, rich soil preferred, along edges of woods, fens, and marshes.
Habitat: Beaked hazelnut is abundant in southern Michigan and Washington State—where they are cultivated. Wild strains found here and there and in between.
Food uses: You have to beat the squirrels to these, favorite nut of the fox squirrel. Remove husk, roast, and eat. Not bad raw. Nuts can be ground into nut flour; great nutritional boost to bread, pancakes, and waffles. Try cooking nuts in soups and stews and with game. Hazelnut bread is popular in Washington. Nuts dipped in honey and roasted—messy and delicious.
Medicinal uses: Native Americans infused branches and leaves to treat intestinal disorders and heart trouble. Boiled bark used to induce emesis.
Identification: Tall tree,60–90', with 5-7 hairless leaflets; compound leaves 8"-14" in length. Light-colored shedding bark indicative, often peeling (shagging) away from tree in long, narrow sheets. Buds covered with overlapping scales. Nuts egg shaped in thick yellow husk splitting to base.
Habitat: In deciduous forests of East, north to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, south to the Gulf Coast states excluding Florida, west to the plains, and east to the coast.
Food uses: Tree tapped for sap makes a unique and savory syrup, with the flavor of hickory nuts. Nuts are edible and splendid—sweet and succulent, only surpassed by butternut. Use in salads, syrups, on pancakes and waffles, and everywhere a superior nut flavor is desired.
Note: Husking and shelling nuts is difficult work but worth the effort. I purchase mine (shelled) from an Amish family for about $6 a pint. I cannot do it that cheap.
Medicinal uses: Small shoots of spring steamed as a respiratory inhalant for congestion and headaches. Spring shoots placed on hot stones in sweat lodges for soothing inhalant. Bark boiled and decoction sipped to treat arthritis—this hot bark infusion considered a panacea, treatment for general malaise as a tonic.
Identification: Medium to large wetlands tree of the North; at first appearance it looks like a typical pine or fir, needles slender to 1" in length emanating from short spurs on branch, in clusters, single or several, with nondrooping branch (whereas European larch has drooping branches); cones less than ¾" in length, almost round; bark flakes off in scales. Unlike pine and fir, larch is deciduous and loses its needles through the winter.
Habitat: Wetlands of the North, West, and Northwest, and along stream banks—prevalent along the South Shore Trail of Hyalite Reservoir in Montana. Bald cypress, a similar species, found in wet areas of the southern United States.
Food uses: Tender new shoots infused into tea or pan-fried as food. The inner bark can be scraped, dried, and pounded into flour; reconstitute with water and make flat bread.
Medicinal uses: Native Americans used the bark extraction and balsam (resin) of the plant in combination with other plants in decoction to treat acute infections such as colds, flu, fever, coughs. Various tribes utilized the bark infusion of young shoots as a laxative. Bark and wood poultice used to treat wounds and draw out infection. Inner bark infusion considered warming. The resinous balsam used as a stimulating inhalant. Leaves and bark were pounded, crushed, and used as a poultice to reduce headache. This ritual sweat-lodge plant is useful for relieving tension, backache, and headache. Needles, twig, bark wetted and applied to hot stones to produce steam. Western larch, Larix occidentalis, found west of the plains states and used in similar ways to include the decoction of the new growth as a wash for cancer. The resinous pitch of the western species mixed with animal fat and used on wounds, cuts, and burns. Larix decidua, tamarack's European cousin, is Commission E-approved for treating coughs, colds, bronchitis, and fever, and to promote resistance to acute infections.
Notes: This rot-resistant relative of cypress is used to make long-lived railroad ties. The tree's tough, fibrous, and rot-resistant roots make good sewing and basket-weaving material and were often used to sew birch bark together to make canoes. Shredded inner bark fed to horses.
Identification: Evergreen, broadleaf tree growing along the seacoast of the Northwest. Young bark is chartreuse and smooth, whole. Older bark is dark brown to red and peeling. Evergreen leaves are alternate, oval, 7" long, shiny, dark green above, lighter, whitish green beneath, hairless, and leathery. White flowers that are urn shaped to 3" long in large drooping clusters. Fruit an orange-red berry about ½" across, with a granular skin.
Habitat: Typically found in coastal areas of northern California, Oregon, offshore islands of Washington and British Columbia, in typically dry, sunny areas with a sea exposure.
Food uses: Vancouver Salish used reddish bark in decoction when cooking to dye edible camas bulbs pink. Berries cooked before eating. Also, they were stored after steaming, dried, and reconstituted in hot water before eating. Berries smashed and made into a cider-like drink. Cider claimed by Miwok as an appetite stimulant and said to resolve upset stomach. Berries are also dried and stored for later use.
Medicinal uses: Saanich and other nations used bark and leaves for treating colds, tuberculosis, to treat stomach problems, and as a postpartum contraceptive. Decoctions of plant were also used as an emetic (Concow nation), which belays one from imbibing nonchalantly. Leaves used by Cowichan of Northwest as a burn treatment, dressing. Leaf infusion used to treat stomach ulcers. Also, fresh leaves eaten off tree for relieving cramps. Chewed leaves said to relieve sore throat (chew, swallow juice, but don't swallow leaves). Leaf infusion used by Skokomish to treat colds and treat ulcers. Bark infusion used to treat diarrhea. Bark decoction used for washing sores, wounds, impetigo; said to be astringent. Bark decoction also used as a gargle for sore throat, according to Pomo and Kashaya. Karok used leaves in puberty ceremony.
Notes: The wood was used to make canoes, and the berries are used as steel-head trout bait. Berries also dried and used as beads when making bracelets and necklaces.
Identification: Leaves have the basic form of Canada's national emblem. Crowns of trees are broad and rounded in the open. Bark is smooth when young and furrows with age. Leaves are typically 3 lobed. Seeds have the characteristic helicopter-blade appearance and fly accordingly.
Habitat: Climax species in eastern forests with beech. Trees found from Ontario south to Tennessee and west to eastern parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
Food uses: The seeds are eaten but are poor tasting. Pluck the seeds from the helicopter-blade husk and cook like peas, or stir-fry. You will soon have your fill of them. Maple sugar and maple syrup from the winter and spring sap are what these trees are all about. A maple sugar mill near you has taps or information as to where to purchase them (they'll probably sell or give you a few). Use a brace and ⅜" bit to drill through the bark until you hit hardwood. Clean the hole thoroughly, and then use a hammer to drive in the tap. Sap flows best on warm, sunny days after a freezing night. Tapping begins in late January and continues until the sap runs dark, thick, and stingy in early April. With trees under 10" wide, use only 1 tap. For larger trees, drive 2 or 3 taps in a circle around the tree. Use a covered pail to collect the sap. If you are going to boil the sap down on an open fire, make certain your wood is dry and presents very little smoke. Smoke will give an undesirable flavor to the syrup. I use 3 pans over a long and narrow fire pit. I pour the sugar water from pan to pan as it cooks. Pan number 1 receives the fresh water from the trees, pan 2 will receive the reduced water from pan 1, and pan 3 receives the further-reduced water from pan 2. Pan 3 of course will have the thickest, richest water. Boil the syrup in pan 3 until it coats a spoon.
Medicinal uses: Maple syrup is a glucose-rich sugar substitute with the added benefit of numerous minerals. I prefer it as a sweetener rather than refined sugar, which has no minerals. Traditionally, maple syrup was used to flavor and sweeten cough syrups. The unfinished fresh sap is considered a mineral-rich tonic. I store a couple gallons in the freezer and keep one in the refrigerator as a flavorful and nutritious water source.
Note: Other trees tapped for sap: black walnut, white, black, and yellow birch. Grape-vine canopy can be cut (to save the tree) in the spring, and they will provide copious amounts of mineral-laden water.
White oak
Bur oak
Identification: This is a large genera with species worldwide. I prefer the acorns from oaks that have rounded instead of pointed leaf lobes. White oak (Quercus alba) and bur oak are good examples from the eastern United States. Chinkapin oak also has sweet acorns. Quercus alba has white-gray bark; evenly lobed hairless leaves 3"-9" (7-11 lobes, not pointed) and twigs that are also hairless. Acorn cup (cap) is bowl shaped covering one-third or less of acorn. Bur oak (Q. macrocarpa) is a tall tree (to 180') with leaves marked by deep indentations (1 or 2), dividing the leaves into 2 or more proportions. Leaves leathery and shiny above, hairy and whitish underneath. Acorn cups bowl shaped, with mossy (bur) fringe of elongated scales. Bark light gray, shallow grooved. Leaves 4"-10".
Habitat: Varieties of oaks are found throughout the United States: eastern forests, montane areas, California, Texas, New Mexico, Washington State. Bur oak, white oak, black oak, chinkapin, and red oaks are distributed throughout forests of the eastern United States.
Food uses: Oaks with leaves that are pointed have more tannins, and the acorns are too bitter to consume even after soaking in water. The best way to get acquainted with oaks and learn how to identify them is to visit an arboretum where oaks are labeled and identification is facilitated. Armed with this visual proof, you will be successful gathering nuts for the winter. White oak and bur oaks have sweet nut meat. Tannins in acorn meat embitter the taste. Tannins are water-soluble phenolic compounds that leach away in water, thus a water bath sweetens the nut. A quick fix in the kitchen is to puree the acorn meat in water. Use a blender and combine 1 cup of water with every cup of nut meat. Blend thoroughly. Press the water out of the nut meat through a clean pair of pantyhose, cheesecloth, or white sock. Keep in mind that a dirty white sock imparts an objectionable flavor to the nut meats. I like the acorn puree on baked potatoes, over tomato sauce, in all baking recipes, or out of hand as a snack.
Medicinal uses: White oak has tannin-rich bark. Tannins are antiseptic and astringent. Native Americans and pioneers made a tea from the bark for mouth sores, burns, cuts, and scrapes. The bark considered by many a panacea. We now know that tannins in oak and tea may provide cancer protection and are under investigation. Native Americans used bark tea for treating fevers and hives. Bark tea is astringent.
Identification: Leaflets 9-17 per leaf. End buds to 1" long with 2-3 pairs of non-overlapping yellow hairy bud scales, twigs hairless, bark closely ridged and nonpeeling. Hybrids have much bigger nut meats than wild types and grow to 160' in height. Nuts longer than wide, edible.
Habitat: This fertile-soil, bottomland dweller where temperatures are moderate and there is ample humidity, may not bear fruit for 20 years. Typically found wild along the Mississippi River, more on the west side.
Food uses: Lammes pecan chewies are my wife's favorites and may be purchased online or in Austin, Texas. I use pecans in salads, Paleo waffles, pancakes, cookies, candy, and with ham and vegetable dishes. The nut was stored for winter use.
Medicinal uses: Kiowa used a decoction of the bark to treat tuberculosis. Leaves crushed and rubbed over ringworm.
Identification: White pine grows to over 100' and displays 5 needles in clusters, typically each with a white stripe on the side; they are 3 sided, 2½"-5" long. Branches form a whorl around trunk, and the age of the tree is determined by the number of whorls. Pinecones are elongated with flexible scales. Pinyon pine grows to 20', with brown cones, typically in pairs, that are 2"-4" long. Seeds are up to in length, inside a shell.
Habitat: White pine, because of its utility, found throughout the East and as an ornamental in many western states. Pinyon pine prefers a drier climate and grows at higher altitudes in the Mountain West—especially prevalent in the Four Corners area.
Food uses: White pine needles are made into tea. Take a handful of needles, crush them, and add them to a gallon jar of water containing mountain mint, lemon thyme, and lemon balm, then squeeze in juice of ½ lemon and let infuse in refrigerator for 6 hours. Uplifting! Seeds from both white and pinyon pine eaten. Pinyon pine is the premier edible seed (pine nuts) and is mashed to a paste and mixed with berries and spices for an unusual candy treat. Seeds on all pines are edible, but many are too small to effectively gather.
Medicinal uses: Pine pitch used to seal wounds, and it is antiseptic and disinfectant.
Identification: Small tree to 30', broad, open, and flat or rounded crown. Bark thin and gray on young stems; on older trees bark darkens to reddish brown to black, forming lone narrow scaly ridges; inner bark red. Leaves alternate, simple, heart shaped, dark green above and paler beneath. Flowers April to May, irregular, light-rose colored, pealike flowers, blooming before leaves open.
Redbud and pod
Habitat: Southwestern Michigan and south, through the southern states. Understory tree of forests and stream borders in moist ground. Associated with elm, basswood, silver maple, red ash, mulberry, and hackberry. Shade tolerant.
Food uses: I eat the flowers in spring and a little later, the young fruiting bodies. The flowers are tart and go well in salads, pancakes, fruit dishes. The pods (a fruiting legume) best dipped in a batter and cooked tempura-style.
Medicinal uses: Native Americans used the inner bark and root for respiratory congestion, pulmonary congestion, whooping cough. According to Duke in his Handbook of Northeastern Indian Medicinal Plants, the Delaware nation used the inner bark infusion to prevent vomiting and to reduce fevers.
Identification: Small to medium tree with mitten-shaped leaves (and other diverse shapes), aromatic leaves and twigs. The root is fragrant and smells a bit like root beer. Flowers are yellow-green.
Habitat: Found in eastern forests, often along the edges of woods and roadsides. It is a first growth in oak-hickory forests.
Food uses: Dried leaves of spring used as file in gumbo. Crush the dried leaves of spring to powder and use as a spice. Also, spread the leaf powder on pasta, soup, cheese, and other savory dishes. For root tea, peel the root before you boil it.
Medicinal uses: Bark decoction used as a stimulant, pain reliever, astringent, and folk treatment for rheumatism. Safrole (found in leaves, roots, and bark) is touted to have a wide variety of medicinal uses including treatment of scurvy, skin sores, kidney problems, toothaches, rheumatism, swelling, menstrual disorders, and sexually transmitted diseases, bronchitis, hypertension, and dysentery.
Warning: The root oil used as an antiseptic until 1960 when USDA declared it unsafe because of the content of safrole, a carcinogenic toxin. There are no proven effects as a medicine, and because of the toxic effects of safrole, the plant extracts should not be eaten. That said, I chew the end twigs for flavor.
Notes: When camping, use twigs as a toothbrush (chew stick). Chew the end of the twig until it is bristly, and then use the bristles to clean between your teeth. Extracts are used to make perfume and root beer.
Identification: 50'-90' in height and 2'-3' in diameter with a straight, clear trunk and narrow crown. Twigs and branches are thick. Leaves alternate, pinnately compound, 12"–24" long, with 10-24 sharply oval, finely toothed, long-pointed leaflets 3"-3½" long; bright, clear yellow in autumn. Flowers are yellow-green; males in catkins 2½"-5½" long; females on short spikes near twig ends. Fruit round, 2"-2½" across, with a thick, green, nonsplitting husk; nut inside is furrowed and hard; matures in late summer to fall.
Habitat: Deep, well-drained soils; grows best in rich bottomlands, moist coves, and streamsides; grows best on the lower north- or east-facing slopes.
Food uses: In baked goods, cereals, waffles, pancakes, salads. Or eat it on the hoof out of hand. This is a daily requirement in morning oatmeal. Try crushed black walnuts mixed in maple syrup.
Notes: To remove the husk (stain-producing covering of the walnut), you may put them on a paved driveway and roll them under your shoe. Or jack up a car slightly (about 1") off the ground, engage the transmission, and let the walnuts shoot under the tire. Some people wear gloves and use a hammer to pound and tug the husk away. Before shelling, drop unshelled walnuts in a bucket of water—those that float have worms that have eaten the nut meat. Open only the ones that sink.
Medicinal uses: Cholesterol-reducing in Loma Linda University test where participants ate 20 percent of their daily calories from walnuts. Diet also, ratio of LDL/ HDL lowered by 12 percent (see Nutrition Today, vol. 30. No. 4, pp. 75-176; 1995). Walnuts may help prevent hyperthyroidism, scabies; may lessen inflammation of psoriasis and arthritis. Walnuts are rich in serotonin, mood-enhancing chemistry, and they may improve satiety by reducing cravings, thereby treating obesity. Black walnut husk extract is antifungal. An antifungal compound: Equal parts of tincture of golden seal, cinnamon, tea tree oil, and black walnut husk tincture.