I need an online resource about foraging, with B&W illustrations & uses

I want to make my own notebook/binder of plants I find on my new land so that I can look at it offline to track and remember what I find & where, and so maybe guests can browse it if they want to go exploring when they visit.
I imagine it being a 3 ring binder. I imagine sections for seasons ("It's October, what might I find in fall?").
So, I want a resource online so that I could print out 2-3 pages on each plant: description, look-alikes to avoid, culinary uses, medicinal uses, and drawings. I'd prefer black & white drawings because I'm stingy about using full pages of printer ink. Unless you can suggest another way to add good pictures? Like cut them out of a book...? Maybe I will just have to draw them myself! That's an idea, too. I guess I could take photos and get them printed somewhere... ideas welcome!

If you're thinking, "Just buy a foraging book for your area", I have a couple books on foraging, and I'm happy to have them, but they show many plants I have not found on my land. Sure, I still might find them, but I want to keep record of the ones I *definitely* know I have, and even include where I can find them on my land. I am also working on making some maps, which I would include in the binder (or a separate one) showing things I've planted & where. I've done some pseudo-gorilla gardening ("pseudo" because it's on our own land, but it's just some random lighthearted attempts; hence the rough maps so far, so I can go look for it later). I could even record other things I find myself looking up and then forgetting about, like the occasional insect. I see it again the next year and can't remember if it was a beneficial insect or a pest.
Whether plants or bugs or poops, I simply cannot remember everything about them all!

Does something like this exist? People must do this, right? Like, maybe there are templates or worksheets? I like creating this kind of thing, but it'd be handy to copy & paste from a reliable source.

Hey there!

I'm relatively new to foraging myself, yet I have found a plant identifying app. I think it is pretty nifty because it identifies the plant, sometimes, and gives me the basic information for me to look it up. I connect the dots from there and build my dossier of suspect plants lol.

Obligatory safety statement: PLEASE DOUBLE VERIFY EVERYTHING YOU FORAGE.

The foraging books: not every book is going to be rounded out with everything you find. is it native, invasive, something that hasn't been found before? there are so many variables.

I would reach out to a local horticulturist, I hate to say it, but no one is gonna know whats in your backyard better than you!


Cheers! I hope this helps a little!

Check with your state DNR or whatever it is called in your state.  Illinois produces brochures on edible plants…I imagine your state does as well.

Jack Sato wrote:Hey there!

I'm relatively new to foraging myself, yet I have found a plant identifying app. I think it is pretty nifty because it identifies the plant, sometimes, and gives me the basic information for me to look it up. I connect the dots from there and build my dossier of suspect plants lol.

Obligatory safety statement: PLEASE DOUBLE VERIFY EVERYTHING YOU FORAGE.

The foraging books: not every book is going to be rounded out with everything you find. is it native, invasive, something that hasn't been found before? there are so many variables.

I would reach out to a local horticulturist, I hate to say it, but no one is gonna know whats in your backyard better than you!


Cheers! I hope this helps a little!

I was using an app but
1 - My phone signal isn't great in the woods. We'll switch carriers eventually, but not sure if that one will work well either.
2 - I can't copy & paste and print from my phone.

And don't worry, I triple-check everything if I plan on ingesting it, particularly searching for lookalikes. Last spring I got confused between curly dock and burdock (and some other things with "dock" in them). I waited til fall when their stalks shot up tall and the dark brown stems & seeds of curly dock became very obvious! I am overly cautious, especially in an app that has random humans identifying things, thank you!

Go Botany is a resource for identifying New England plants, but it can be good for just the plants and information even if the dichotomous keys might not work for other regions. https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/ The pictures are in color though.

Also look at Native American Ethnobotany https://naeb.brit.org/ and Plants for a Future https://pfaf.org/user/default.aspx. The last one may be much closer to what you are looking for.

All resources are going to be slightly different and the uses may not line up with your experience. (Some books say black nightshade, Solanum ptycanthum, is poisonous--I eat as many as I can get every year! More recently it has been more or less proven that this statement is generally speaking false.) Maybe it is a case of filling them in with your pen as you find them and learn about them? Similar to how some herbalists keep a "materia medica" notebook.

When you are in a deeper relationship with these plants, you will not need a book to remember their uses, identification, etc.; it will be like seeing a friend, recognizing their face, and remembering their name, personality, connections, home, etc. Deepening our relationship reveals which plants agree with our digestion best and make us feel healthy and well, it reveals how they might be harvested sustainably, and so on... and it takes time! Don't worry if you can't memorize all the plants right away. It will come with time.

I would agree with Jack's statement but put it in regular case... foraging is not scary if you do it with proper respect for your life. Most poisonings, I have heard, have to do with someone eating something unidentified on a random impulse, not people trying to pick an edible plant and mistaking it.

I wish you a good foraging journey!

M Ljin wrote:Go Botany is a resource for identifying New England plants, but it can be good for just the plants and information even if the dichotomous keys might not work for other regions. https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/ The pictures are in color though.

Also look at Native American Ethnobotany https://naeb.brit.org/ and Plants for a Future https://pfaf.org/user/default.aspx. The last one may be much closer to what you are looking for.

All resources are going to be slightly different and the uses may not line up with your experience. (Some books say black nightshade, Solanum ptycanthum, is poisonous--I eat as many as I can get every year! More recently it has been more or less proven that this statement is generally speaking false.) Maybe it is a case of filling them in with your pen as you find them and learn about them? Similar to how some herbalists keep a "materia medica" notebook.

When you are in a deeper relationship with these plants, you will not need a book to remember their uses, identification, etc.; it will be like seeing a friend, recognizing their face, and remembering their name, personality, connections, home, etc. Deepening our relationship reveals which plants agree with our digestion best and make us feel healthy and well, it reveals how they might be harvested sustainably, and so on... and it takes time! Don't worry if you can't memorize all the plants right away. It will come with time.

I would agree with Jack's statement but put it in regular case... foraging is not scary if you do it with proper respect for your life. Most poisonings, I have heard, have to do with someone eating something unidentified on a random impulse, not people trying to pick an edible plant and mistaking it.

I wish you a good foraging journey!

Thank you for that wonderful statement about getting a deeper relationship with them. Yes, it is definitely true that I have gained a relationship with the few plants I have spent time with: read about them, found them, harvested the parts I wanted, saved their seeds, made them into something (plantain salve, lip balm, teas). Don't get me started on how mullein magically appeared when I needed it, though it was never on that land before! It became my best friend! But I know my brain and I really feel the need to mark down things about them. I collected dandelion root and curly burdock root, and a few months later when I was having them as a tea I thought, "why am I drinking this again, lol?"

The way I want to copy & paste is similar to writing it down myself; just pick the info I want to include. I don't care where it's found once I know it's on my property, for example. I don't need to care if Pliny the Elder used it for gout, lol... and I want other family or friends or even whoever lives on my land after me to know what they can find if they need/want to. So I think cutting & pasting to fit my needs could be useful.

Thank you for those links, I am going to check them out!