Recently, I read an article about the “top survival plants” and I was disappointed to find that they were all food plants. :/ Survival situations are almost never about needing to find a food source, although, we all should strive for eating wild foods because of their superior nutrition when compared to anything you can buy at the grocery store.
Furthermore, and in classic Holistic Survival School fashion, our everyday lives are the things that most humans are trying to “survive”. Connection to our landscape, and feeling at home in our own ecosystem are vital elements to having meaning in this world.
So what plants should we know for survival situations as well everyday living? Well obviously, like all skills that are connected to the land, it depends on where you live. So instead of giving specific plants that may or may not be found in your local bio-region, I offer a list of plant characteristics that you should learn and know to keep you safe and healthy, whether you are surviving or thriving.
Note: The first 5 categories I have learned from Herbalist Matthew Wood from his book: The Earthwise Herbal.
Astringent Plant (Drying sensation)
Uses: Stops bleeding, tans animal hides.
This is my number 1 plant to know because so few people realize how powerful plant medicine can be in helping stop bleeding.
Astringency is not a taste but an action. This means astringent plants don’t have a taste (sweet, sour etc) but rather they dry out your mouth. Coffee, tea, and dry wine are the most common examples of astringency.
Plants with astringent properties are great for stopping bleeding wounds. To apply, chew up the astringent plant, and place it on the wound. I have personally used this method many times to great success. One time I was climbing a mountain barefoot in Utah (cause that’s what I do) and I sliced my foot open on a sharp rock. I was alone, 8,000ft up, and bleeding a lot. I luckily was surrounded by sagebrush (very astringent). I chewed up some leaf and applied it to my gushing cut. WOW! 15 seconds later the cut was done bleeding. Thank you sagebrush.
Examples: Goldenrod, Oak leaves & acorns, bear-corn, rose leaves, hemlock tree bark, sumac leaves, unripe persimmons, yarrow, skunkbush, witch hazel, tea.
Purifying Plant (Bitter)
Uses: Helps “clean” and purify, damp stagnant tissue
Purifying plants are the plants that help purify the damp/stagnant tissue state, that is when things should be moving in the body but are not (i.e. infectious wounds). When things start getting rancid and rotten in the body we need to find plants that taste bitter. The bitterness stimulates movement and helps purify the tissue state.
Think of a wound that is not healing. It starts to get stagnant and nasty looking. More blood and nutrients should be flowing in and more dead tissue should be flowing out. The wound may begin to smell because of infection. A bitter plant would help bring new energy into the wound and help it cleanse.
Another example is after the winter season, we are more sluggish, we ate meat and bread and cheese and dense winter foods and now we our bodies are a bit bogged down and needing some purifying. This is when we turn to our classic “spring tonic” plants, that are bitter. They help “cleanse the blood” and clean the liver. This bitter tonic is found in Appalachian folklore as well as Chinese medicine.
Examples: Burdock, yellow dock, acorns, clover, goldenseal, Oregon grape, dandelion, hops, wormwood.
Cooling Plant (Sour)
Uses: Cools your body and burnt areas
It’s summer, it’s hot, you’re sweating and you need to cool your whole body down. What tasty drink do you reach for? Lemonade of course!
There is a reason why lemonade is the classic summer drink, it’s because sour plants are naturally cooling to our bodies. The compounds in sour foods stimulate the part of our brain that is responsible for temperature regulation, which is mostly what survival is all about! Most people die in the wilds because they either get too hot or too cold.
But more applicably, I chomp and eat a ton of sour plants all during the summer months to help keep me from overheating. My favorite trail running snack is our Southern Appalachian special: leaves from the sourwood tree.
Examples: lemons, sourwood leaves, wood sorrel, some under ripened fruits (raspberry & blackberries), hawthorne berry, sumac berries, & rose hips.
Stimulating Plant (Aromatic)
Uses: “wakes up” stagnant tissues
Stimulating plants share the characteristic of smelling strongly. If you can crush up the plant and smell something, then generally speaking, you know there are aromatic rings in the plant, and that chemical structure is usually stimulating to the body. Think of aromatic foods like, garlic, horseradish, mint, they all wake you up and get your “juices moving”. These plants help combat the cold, depressed tissue state.
One classic example: It’s winter, you got a respiratory cold and even after you fought off the cold, there is still junk in your lungs. You cough and cough but you can’t get the junk moving out of the lungs. Your lungs need to be stimulated to help remove the phlegm. This is when most parents bust out the Vicks vapor rub (minty and aromatic).
Examples: mints, rose, bee balm, spicebush, rosemary, thyme, basil, lemonbalm, chamomile, fennel, garlic, onion, cedar, and pine.
Mucilaginous plant (Sweet, slimy)
Uses: Soothes and nourishes burnt skin, purifies water
Mucilaginous plants are great to know because it’s a fun word to say, and beyond that they are the medicine you need if your skin gets burned or dried by sun, fire or wind. The most famous of all mucilaginous plants is the famous Aloe Vera, but there are many more plants with similar slimy, gooey, and soothing qualities. Like Aloe, you simply apply the gooey goodness to any area that is dry and needing moisture.
Beyond healing and soothing burns, these mucilaginous plants can also purify dirty water. To purify water, chop up the mucilaginous plant and place it in the water. In time, the microscopic debris in the water will attract to the slime from the plant and will clean the water and make it less susceptible to get you sick. IMPORTANT NOTE: This technique will not work 100% so always boil wild, drinking water if possible. Check out Mexico using prickly pear for water filtration
Examples: jewelweed, cattail, prickly pear, cacti insides, plantain, okra, mullein, slippery elm inner bark, and inside of banana peels.
Tinder Plant - (breaks down into very small pieces)
Uses: Fire Starting
What plants can help you make the softest and nicest tinder for starting fire? Tinder is the foundation to a good fire and whether you’re out in the middle of nowhere in Utah or having a bonfire in your backyard, good tinder is important. Good tinder is dry and fluffy and breaks down in super fine bits when you break it up.
The finer the dust, the easier it catches. More often than not, the best tinder comes from the inner or outer bark of trees. Often the bark needs to be decayed to some extent to make it premium tinder.
Examples: Cedar (juniper) bark, basswood inner bark, pawpaw inner bark, poplar inner bark, cottonwood inner bark, cattail fluff, birch bark shavings.
Soft woods
Uses: Kindling, friction fire (bow and hand drill), carving
Soft woods are great for starting fires early in the process. Friction fires are best when made of soft woods, and it’s easier to start your fire off with sticks from soft woods. After the fire really gets going then you can switch to hard woods (see next list).
Examples: Pines, Basswood, Cedar, Tulip poplar, Cottonwood, Sassafras, Princess tree, sumac,
Hard woods
Uses: Sustained wood burning, top sockets (for bow drill kits), tools, tool handles, bows,
Hard woods burn long and hot. They make great firewood for long-term burning so you can sleep at night don’t have to stay awake to tend your fire. Furthermore, when cooking on the fire we want hot coals that last a long time for even cooking.
The hardwoods are durable and make amazing handles for tools. Japan imports Hickory from the US for their tool handles! Additionally, some hardwood species are ideal for advanced tools like bows (Osage, Ash, Elm, Hackberry)
Examples: Maple, Black Walnut, Oak, Beech, Ash, Hickory,
Cordage Plant
Uses: Rope!
Cordage is the original duct tape of ancient humans. Whenever you need to attach one thing to another, cordage is the thing you need! Cordage is useful for shelter, traps, tools, shoes, belts, fishing, nets, bags, and a million other uses. If you know your cordage plants, you are never without rope! Cordage can come from leaves, bark, roots and vines, so if you are questioning whether or not you can make cordage from something, take a strip and see if you can tie a knot on itself without breaking. If so, there is a good chance you can use it for cordage.
Examples: dogbane, milkweed, stinging nettle, tulip poplar, pawpaw, basswood (linden), and cedar, yucca, velvet leaf, spruce root, willow bark, slippery elm inner bark, grapevine, honeysuckle, bittersweet, osage roots, mulberry roots.
Cover Plant
Uses: Make cover to keep things in or keep things out
Survival is all about body temperature. People die in the wilderness because they either got too hot or too cold. So one of the biggest survival skills is to learn how to keep certain things out with cover (rain, cold, wind, sun etc) or learn how to keep things in with cover (body warmth, radiation etc).
Therefore, knowing what plants we can use to create cover is extremely important. For most of the US the cover plants we are using are the deciduous, hardwood trees that create a long-lasting leaf litter. These are tress like Oak, Hickory, Beech and Maple. Other hardwood trees like Black Walnut and Tulip poplar drop leaves that disintegrate very quickly, but if you catch them at the right time of the year you can use them for debris cover.
We can also use the bark from trees to create amazing cover very quickly. The bark from trees like basswood, elm, and tulip poplar can be slipped (peeled off) very easily when the sap of the trees is running up (late spring to early summer). Sadly, other tree species that are dying from invasive bugs and diseases can also be stripped of their bark easily (Ash, Hickory, Hemlock, Black Walnut).
Examples: Ash bark, Hickory bark, Walnut bark, Basswood bark, tulip poplar bark, pines or other evergreens (boughs are great), leaf litter from hardwood trees, and some dense grasses.
Food plants
Uses: eating and nutrition
Now that we have all of our most basic needs taken care of NOOOOW we can start looking for the tasty things in the wild.
Food is hard to come by in the wild. Most plants save their precious sugar storages but depending on the season we may come across some tasty bits. There is too much to write here about wild food plants, but ideally you are enriching your daily diet with foraged, local foods that you have gotten to know from first hand experience. But here are a few basic categories of food plants that you can keep and eye out for.
WARNING: This list is not intended to be a guide for edible or medicinal plants. Foraging can be dangerous if not done correctly.
Examples:
Greens - These are most abundant in the Spring. Chickweed, dandelion, purslane, nettle.
Roots - best harvested in late fall or winter. Examples: Burdock, cattail, chicory, day lilies.
Acorns - Oak trees are the most abundant tree in North America and the acorns are edible after some processing. They are extremely nutritious and free!
Fruits - Free fruit all warm season! Serviceberries, strawberries, blackberries, wineberries, blueberries, raspberries, huckleberries, crabapples,
Fungi- There are so many tasty fungi that grow all over. Some good basic beginners: Oyster mushrooms, chicken of the woods, lions mane, morels.
That’s MY list of plant types that are important to learn in your own ecosystem. Remember that Earth skills are very localized and this list will change with every location. If you are wanting to learn more in your own ecosystem, I recommend finding a teacher you enjoy and trust and learn from them. Humans are meant to learn face to face and in person.
If you are wanting to learn in community with other like-minded folk and form a deep connection with the plants and life around you check out Deep Remembering, our 9-month primitive skills immersion class.