poisonous look alikes

[harvester]

I just thought i would mention to anyone new on the subject of wild food forraging to please do your research. So many wild edible foods have poisonous look alikes growing right in amung them! wild onions, garlic, mushrooms, and strawberries are just to name a few. Forraging can be an excellent and tasty way to supplement your families diet, but please take the time to become an expert on every item you are forraging for so you dont accidentally make a mistake. :)

[tomato204]

What plant looks like strawberry but is poisonous?

[harvester]

for the sake of ending up typing a novel about it..lol..here are a couple of links to it.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=DUIN

http://www.missouriplants.com/Yellowalt/Duchesnea_indica_page.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=65-o2qppedcC&pg=PA183&lpg=PA183&dq=Duchesnia+indica+p oisonous&source=web&ots=O7HQWzlTzd&sig=r1pcRpl83q8 GcAlRvAMHzFXIICA&hl=en&ei=ihKXSeqDNJLQsAPzrcB4&sa= X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result

Seems the real difference between the real wild strawberry and the look alike is the wild strawberry has white flowers and the look alike has yellow. some claim its deadly poisonous, some claim its mildly poisonous only giving you allergic reactions and some claim its not poisonous only tasteless. Most likely it depends on how much of it you consume, and the stage of its development along with the soil its grown in.

[tomato204]

Now you're crawfishin'. You said it was a poisonous look-alike. ;D

[bookwormom]

oh I know this strawberry look alike. I would not worry about it,it tastes like, well, uh, not really bad, but I tasted one and spit it out.

now with mushrooms you have a real leg to stand on. like my sister says,you can eat all mushrooms, but some you can eat only once. we take 19 kinds of good mushrooms. But I am cautious about new ones. Here deadly amanitas are abundant. However,mushroom hunting is not common around here, aside for the famous "dryland fish"