Wild Parsnip, Pastinaca sativa, is an edible plant that can give you a rash worse than Poison Ivy and the redness can last for months. So if you’re around this plant and you have been sweeting avoid or approach with caution. The Potawatomi and Ojibwa both considered the root poisonous. The root can be harvested from fall to early spring eaten raw or cooked until tender, but keep in mind the rash you can get trying to harvest the root.

Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry.

Wild Parsnip Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software.Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Brill, Steve. Wild Edibles Plus. Computer Software. WinterRoot LLC. Version 1.5. 2012. Web. Feb. 15, 2014.

Fernald, Merritt Lyndon & Alfred Charles Kinsey. Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1996. Print. pg. 297

Foster, Steven and James A. Duke. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America. 2nd. ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Print. pg. 125-126

Hamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey. Cherokee Plants and Their Uses- A 400 Year History. North Carolina: Herald Publishing. 1975. Print. pg. 47

Herrick, James William. Iroquois Medical Botany. Ph.D. Thesis, New York: State University of New York, Albany 1977. Print. pg. 195, 196

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany, Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 379

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 226-227

Peterson, Lee Allen. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants; Eastern and Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. Print. pg. 66-67

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.