Plants to leave alone

Water hemlock

Wet ground: ditches, bogs, brook and pond edges. Grows to waist height with flat umbrellas of small white flowers and leaves split into narrow toothed leaflets. The base of the stem is swollen and hollow in chambers, with a yellow oily juice. One of the most poisonous plants in North America. A small bite of the root can kill.

Baneberry

Shady woods. A cluster of shiny red or white berries on a stalk above the leaves, each berry with a dark dot. Every part of the plant is poisonous.

Sheep laurel

The low shrub on the barrens and bogs, known here as goowiddy, with pink cup shaped flowers in early summer and leaves in threes. Poisonous to people and to animals. Bog laurel, with opposite leaves, is poisonous too.

The rule

1. If you cannot name it for certain, do not eat it.
2. Learn the few good plants well, from someone who knows them, and leave the rest.
3. Labrador tea has rusty wool on the underside of its leaves and rolled edges. Laurel does not. Check every leaf before you steep a cup.

Do and don't

Watch for

Notes

The barrens and bog edges hold good berries and a few plants that can kill. Knowing the bad ones by sight is worth more than knowing a dozen good ones.