American Black Elderberry

Sambucus canadensis

 Showy flat-topped clusters of tiny 5-petaled flowers followed by juicy purple-black berries. Leaves large, opposite, compound with 5 - 11 coarse toothed leaflets. Twigs soft, stout with a thick white pith. Green new growth, bark is distinctively warty. 3 - 13" tall

Edible: Fritters, jelly, cold drink, fruit

Barnyard Grass

Echinocola crusgalli

can grow to 60" (1.5 m) in height and has long, flat leaves which are often purplish at the base. Most stems are upright, but some will spread out over the ground. Stems are flattened at the base. The seed heads are a distinctive feature, often purplish, with large millet-like seeds in crowded spikelets.

Edible: animal fodder

Broad-leaved Plantain

Plantago major

low, homely plant. Flowers greenish white, tiny in tight slender heads. Basal rosettes

Edible: salad, cooked green

Buckhorn Plantain

Plantago lanceolata

Leaves are football shaped; about 3 to 10 inches long, and usually have short hairs (or occasionally long hairs). The leaves spiral around a very short stem, clustering around the base of plant. Flower stalks grow up to roughly to 2-1/2 feet tall. Buckhorn plantain has  leaves and shorter flower head stalks than that of broadleaf plantain, Plantago major. 

Edible: salad, cooked green

Burdock

Arctium lappa

Large,rough, slightly woolly basal leaves in first year. Bushy flowerstalks with numerous purple-flowered, thistelike burs the second

Edible: cooked green, cooked vegetable, salad, candy from flower stalks when simmered in a sugar syrup.

Catttail

Typha spp.

Extensive stands in marshes,. Leves erect, swordlike. Stems unbranched, stiff; toped by compact, clindrical heads of minute flowers; male flowers above, golden when full of pollen

Edible: young shoots, stalks,immature flower spikes, pollen, sprouts and rootstock

Uses: insulation, tinder, flour

Chicory

Cichorium intybus

Stiff, nearly naked stems with strikingly blue, stalkless flowers 1.5" Rays blue, square tipped and fringed. Basal leaves dandelion-like; sap milky.

Edible: Salad, cooked green.

Uses: roots make a coffee like beverage when roasted and ground.

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Chufa, Yellow Nut Sedge or Tiger Nuts

Cyperus esculentus

Feathery radiating flower cluster bearing numerous yellowish spikelets. Stem 3-sided. leaves light green, grasslike; basal and in a whorl at base of flower cluster.

Edible: salad, cooked vegetable, flour, coffee, cold drink.

Dandelion

Taraxacum officinale

Familiar lawn weed with solitary flowers and downy white seedballs. Leaves with sharp irregular lobes; stems milky, hollow.

Edible: Salad, cooked green, cooked vegetable, fritters, coffee out of roots.

Groundcherry

Physalis heterophylla

Coarse-leaved plants with nodding, shallow-lobed, bell like flowers, often with a dark center, that hang singly from leaf axils or forks in the stem. Leaves alternate. Sweet yellow, reddish, or purplish berrylike fruit that are enclosed in a papery bladder. 

Edible: fresh or cooked fruit, jam. 

Leaves and unripe fruit are poisonous. 

Groundnut

Apios americana

Small, twining vine with compact fragrant clusters of maroon or lilac-brown flowers on leaf axils. Leaves smooth, light green; with 5-7 ovate, sharp pointed leaflets.

Edible: tubers used as a potato

Hog Peanut

Amphicarpaea bracteata

Low twining vine with slender stems and light green, ovate leaflets. Small clusters of pale lilac to white, pealike flowers in upper leaf axils producing curved pods. Petal-less flowers on the threadlike runners near base of plant produce fleshy 1-seeded pods just below ground level.

Edible: Cooked vegetable/ bean.

Jewelweed, touch-me-not (spotted and pale)

Impatiens capensis and I. pallida

Spotted orange or pale yellow blossoms dangle jewel-like at the end of slender stalks. Stems succulent, watery; leaves look silver when under water; ripe seed pods spring open when touched gently. 3-5 ft tall.

Edible: young shoots as a cooked green in 2 changes of water

Uses: crushed stems/ leaves soothes stings and rashes

Poison Hemlock

Conium maculatum

Tall, multi-branched biennial. Stems stout, hollow, grooved, spotted with purple. Ill scented when bruised, unpleasant to taste. Root white, carrot like. 2-6ft tall.

Poisonous: similar to Wild Carrot/ Queen Anne's Lace.

Poke or Pokeweed

Phytolacca americana

Course, widely branched weedy plant with large leaves and smooth reddish stems. Flower clusters long-stalked, often paired with leaves; flowers with 5 greenish white petal-like sepals. Fruiting clusters drooping; berries glossy, purple black with red stems

Edible: young shoots like asparagus, cooked green

Poisonous: roots, seeds and mature stems and leaves are dangerously poisonous.

Wild Carrot or Queen Anne's Lace

Daucus carota

Widespread hairy-stemmed biennial. Flower clusters flat-topped, lacy; often with a single purple flower in center. Old clusters resemble birds' nests. Smells like carrots

Edible: cooked vegetable, first year roots like carrots.

Caution: early leaves resemble poison hemlock but stalks hairy

Tick Trefoil

Desmodium spp.

Erect, bushy, hairy plant with crowded, elongated terminal clusters of pink or rose-purple pea-like flowers. Showy tick-trefoil is a slender-stemmed, often bushy perennial, 2-6 ft. high. Hundreds of rose-colored, pea-like flowers occur in dense, nodding clusters at the tops of the stems. Velvety hair covers the stems and three-parted, compound leaves. Seedpods look like sunglasses that cling to animal fur or clothing.

Edible: seeds

Uses: nitrogen fixer, natural insect repellent, ground fodder

Wapato, Duck Potato or Arrowroot

Sagittaria latifolia 

Aquatic plant, 3 roundish petals and flowers are arranged in whorls of 3. Leave arrowhead-shaped to lancelike. 

Edible: potato like tubers

Wood Sorrel

Oxalis spp.

Low, delicate woodland flowers. Leaves cloverlike with 3 inversely heart-shaped leaflets that often fold along a central crease.

Edible: Salad, cold drink.

Yellow Flag

Iris psedacorus

Poisonous

Sunchoke

Helianthus tuberosus

tall coarse sunflower w/ broad, rough leaves and rough hairy stems. Upper leaves alternate, lower often opposite occasionally in whorls of 3.

Central disk of flowers yellow

Edible: tubers can substitute any potato, abundant through fall and winter whenever the ground is unfrozen.

Lamb's Quarters, Goosefoot

Chenopodium album

Erect, multi-branched weed. Stems and undersides of leaves often mealy-white. Upper leaves narrow and toothless; lower leaves roughly diamond shaped, broadly toothed. Small greenish flowers

Edible: leaves and tips like cooked greens in summer or seeds boided and ground into flour in the fall.

Amaranth

Amaranthus spp. 

Course, hairy weeds with stout stems. Leaves dull green, ovate to lane-shaped, long stalked; flower clusters dense, bristly 6-24". 2-6' tall w/ nodding flower clusters. 

Edible: cooked green, salad, flour from tiny black seeds. 

Indian Tobacco

Lobelia inflata

an annual or biennial herbaceous plant growing to 15–100 cm (5.9–39.4 in) tall, with stems covered in tiny hairs. Its leaves are usually about 8 cm (3.1 in) long, and are ovate and toothed. It has violet flowers that are tinted yellow on the inside, and usually appear in mid-summer and continue to bloom into fall

Poisonous

Bur-reed

Sparganium eurycarpum

aquatic. Stem stout, erect simple or sparingly branched, often zigzag. Basal leaves long, stiffish, bladelike; stem leaves alternate. Fruit green, in burlike spheres.

Edible: tubers like potatoes.

Soft or Common Rush

Juncus effusus

grows in large clumps about 4 ft - 5 ft tall at the water's edge along streams and ditches, but can be invasive anywhere with moist soil

Edible - can be made into tea

Used to make woven textiles (mats and seats)

Galinsoga or Shaggy Soldier

Galinsoga quadriradiata

Low weed w/ slender, forking stems. Flowerheads 1/4in across, with 5 tiny 3 lobed rays and a golden central disk. Leaves opposite, broad, coarsely-toothed; lower leaves stalked. Varies from coarsely hair to nearly hairless.

Edible: cooked green

Solomon's Plume or False Solomon's Seal

Smilacina racemosa (Maianthemum racemosum)

Oval, pointed leaves alternating along an arching stem; flowers creamy-white, in an elongate, frothy, terminal cluster. Fruit a small berry; white speckled with gold at first, ruby-red later. 

Edible: Salads, asparagus with young shoots. 

Dodder

Cuscuta

species of yellow, orange, or red (rarely green) parasitic plants. thin stems appearing leafless, with the leaves reduced to minute scales. From mid-summer to early autumn, the vines can produce small fruit that take the same color as the vine, and are approximately the size of a common pea. It has very low levels of chlorophyll; some species can photosynthesize slightly, while others are entirely dependent on the host plants for nutrition.

Poisonous parasitic

Wild Bergamot

Monarda fistulosa

Large coarse mint with showy pinkish or pale lavender flower heads, opposite leaves and square stems. Crushed leaves aromatic.

Edible: fresh or dried leaves as tea.

Honewort

Cryptotaenia americana

Branching. Leaves long-stemmed, 3 part; leaflets sharply toothed often lobed. Flowers tiny, in loose clusters. Slender, ribbed fruit. 1-3 ft tall.

Edible: seasoning, young leaves and stems as cooked greens and roots like parsnips, cooked vegetable

Shellbark Hickory or Kingnut

Carya laciniosa

Leaves of Shellbark Hickory are alternate and pinnately compound, one to two feet long, and almost always display seven wide leaflets (rarely five or nine), with fine serrations on their margins. End leaf is always the largest.

The fruits of Shellbark Hickory (the largest of the hickories) are composed of an inner sweet kernel, surrounded by a hard bony shell with four to six ribs, surrounded by a thick outer elongated husk that splits into four quarters when ripe

Edible: nuts

Wood Nettle

Laportea canadensis

Flower clusters terminal as well as in axils of upper leaves. Leaves long-stalked, alternate; ovae, with bases rounded or wedge-shaped rather than heart-shaped. 1-3.5 ft tall

Edible: cooked green, soup, tea. Spring shoots and summer tender leaves.

Virginia Mountain Mint

Pycnanthemum virginicum

Leaves narrow, toothless, broad at base, tapering to tip. branching clusters of compact, button like heads. Flowers small whitish or purplish. Square stemmed. 

Edible: fresh or dried as tea. 

Downy Serviceberry, Juneberry, Shadbush or Shadblow

Amelanchier arborea

Shrubs  or small trees. Leaves oval, sharp or blunt-tipped, toothed. Bark tight, grayish (looks like active camo) Flowers white, 5-petaled, in drooping clusters; often precede leaves. Fruit purple-black. 

Edible: fruit, jelly. use like blueberries. 

Black Huckleberry

Gaylussacia baccata

Common low to tall shrubs. Leaves elliptic, short-stalked, toothless or minutely-toothed. Twigs slender, greenish or reddish, often zigzag. Flowers bell-like; whitish, pinkish, or greenish. Berries w/ 5 calyx lobes forming a star pattern; blue or black, glossy or powdered white. 

Edible: fresh, cooked or dried fruit; jellyl. 

Low Sweet Blueberry or Blue Ridge Blueberry

Vaccinium pallidum

Common low to tall shrubs. Leaves elliptic, short-stalked, toothless or minutely-toothed. Twigs slender, greenish or reddish, often zigzag. Flowers bell-like; whitish, pinkish, or greenish. Berries w/ 5 calyx lobes forming a star pattern; blue or black, glossy or powdered white. 

Edible: fresh, cooked or dried fruit; jellyl. 

Common low to tall shrubs. Leaves elliptic, short-stalked, toothless or minutely-toothed. Twigs slender, greenish or reddish, often zigzag. Flowers bell-like; whitish, pinkish, or greenish. Berries w/ 5 calyx lobes forming a star pattern; blue or black, glossy or powdered white. 

Long peduncle

Edible: fresh, cooked or dried fruit; jellyl. 

Sourwood

Oxydendrum arboretum

Gray bark on mature trees is fissured, ridged and scaly. Finely-toothed, glossy green leaves (to 5-8” long) are reminiscent of peach. Leaves have a sour taste, hence the common name. Leaves produce consistently excellent fall color, typically turning crimson red. Waxy, lily-of-the-valley-like, white flowers bloom on slender, drooping, one-sided terminal panicles (4-8” long) in early summer. Flowers have a slight fragrance. Flower panicle stems remains in place as the flowers give way to 5-parted dry capsules that ripen to silver-gray in September.

Edible: honey is a highly prized local product.

Fish Poison, Goat's Rue, Virginia Tephrosia, or Catgut

Tephrosia virginiana

Silky whitish hairs. Flowers showy, bicolored. Leaved feather compound with numerous narrow leaflets. Seedpods long, flat, slender, hairy; seeds lentil-like. 1-2' tall. 

Poisonous: crushed stems have been used as fish poison. 

Wild Strawberry or Virginia Strawberry

Fragraria virginiana

Low plant similar to cultivated strawberries but with smaller fruit. Leaves long-stalked, with 3 coarsely-toothed leaflets. Flowers round-petaled, in flat clusters on a separate stalk from leaves. 

Edible: fresh or cooked fruit, jam, tea from leaves. 

Meadow Rose

Rosa carolina

Large group of thorny shrubs with showy, 5 petaled, pink or deep rose flowers. Fruit bright red with 5 prominent calyx lobes at end. 

Edible: Jam out of rose hips, hips and leaves into tea, fresh petals can be added to salads, made into jelly or candied. Pulpy exterior of hips can be eaten raw and persist through winter. 

Sassafras

Sassafras albidum

Medium-sized tree. Leaves 3-9" long, toothless, variable lobed between none and 3-lobed. All 3 leaf shapes usually occur on the same tree. Twigs green, often branched; mature bark red-brown, furrowed. Crushed leaves, twigs and bark aromatic. Fruit is small, blue, fleshy on red stalks

Edible: tea, seasoning, soup thickener. 

Baswood or American Linden

Tilia americana

Tall tree, leaves 5-10" long, finely-toothed, heart shaped with uneven bases, hairless. Bark dark, shallowly grooved; smooth gray on upper parts. Clusters of yellowish flowers dangle from long, conspicuously winged stalks. 

Edible: salad, tea. 

Wild Ipecac, Bowman's Root or Indian Physic

Gillenia stipulata

This plant features 1” wide, white (infrequently tinged pink) star-like flowers, each with 5 narrow, pointed, slightly reflexed petals. Flowers bloom in early summer on wiry stems rising above a foliage mound consisting of deeply cut, toothed, trifoliate, medium green leaves. Each trifoliate leaf has three linear-lanceolate leaflets (to 3.5” long), with the center leaflet being slightly larger than the lateral leaflets. Each leaf has two unusually large stipules (leaf-like bracts) at the leaf base which give the impression of each leaf having five rather than three leaflets. Leaves turn bronze-red in autumn.

Poisonous: causes vomiting

Wild Oregano, Stonemint or Common Dittany

Cunila origanoides

Highly aromatic plant with wiry, much-branched stems and stalkless leaves. Leaves hairless, dotted w/ clear spots. Flowers in tufts, 5 lobes nearly equal. Note the 2 long protruding stamens and pistil. 

Edible: tea, seasoning. 

Wild Ginger

Asarum canadense

Solitary, bell-shaped, red-brown flower with 3 spreading lobes sits on the ground between 2 stout, woolly leafstalks. Leaves in pairs; large, heart shaped. 

Edible: roots as candy, spice. 

Wild Yam

Dioscorea villosa

vine about 5-30' long that branches occasionally. Whorled and/or opposite leaves sometimes occur near the base of the vine, otherwise the leaves are alternate, palmately veined (7-11 veins per leaf) female flowers are replaced by 3-celled seed capsules that are ovoid in shape and about 1" long; these capsules are strongly 3-angled and become golden green as they mature. Each cell of the capsule usually contains 2 seeds 

Uses:used for menstrual cramps or pain, menopausal symptoms, rheumatic conditions, and gallbladder complaints.

Allegheny Blackberry

Rubus alleheniensis

Arching, thorned, 5 sided stem and cane . 3-5 palmate leaflets. Showy white 5 petaled flowers w/ juicy black fruit

Edible: Fruit, jelly, cold drink, tea from leaves and young shoots can be added to salads. 

Common Dewberry

Rubus flagellaris

Flattened, <1ft high, round brownish-red stem with a white waxy coat. Has prickles,not thorns. Mainly 3 leaflets, sometimes 5.

Edible: Fruit, jelly, cold drink, tea from leaves, young shoots in salad. 

Crabgrass

Digitaria spp.

Clumped, mat-forming annual 6-30" tall. Leaves at nodes alternating. 

Edible: Seeds for flour, porridge, or fermented to make beer. 

Evening Primrose; first year

Oenthera biennis

rough-hairy, leafy low rosette of leaves first year, flower stalk the second. 

Edible: cooked vegetable, salad or cooked green. 

Evening Primrose; second year

Oenthera biennis

reddish stem, branched. Conspicuous yellow flowers at the end of a slender calyx tube rising from a swollen ovary. Flowers 4-etaled, with an x-shaped stigma and reflexed sepals. 

Edible: not really, look for first year plants. 

Great Blue Lobelia

Lobelia siphilitica

A clump-forming perennial which features light to dark blue, tubular, 2-lipped flowers with the three lobes of the lower lip appearing more prominent than the two lobes of the upper lip. Flowers arise from the upper leaf axils forming a dense terminal raceme atop stiff, unbranched, leafy stalks typically rising 2-3' tall. Finely-toothed, lance-shaped, light green leaves (to 5" long). 

Poisonous

Partridgeberry

Mitchella repens

Small,paired, roundish evergreen leaves along the slightly woody, creeping stem; leaves often variegated with whitish lines. Pink or white 4-petaled flowers in twinlike union terminate at the stem. Fruit is a bright red, double calyxed berry. 

Edible: berries; rather tasteless but quite edible raw and persist through the winter.

White Snakeroot

Ageratina altissima

small fluffy bright white flowers (composites with rays absent) arranged in loose, flattened clusters (corymbs to 3-4” across) atop smooth stems typically rising 3-5’ tall. Blooms from late summer to frost. This is a somewhat weedy perennial that can spread aggressively by rhizomes and self-seeding. Long-stalked, sharp-toothed, taper-pointed, lance-shaped to elliptic-oval, nettle-like, dark green leaves (3-6” long) are paired along the stems.

Poisonous

 Winged Euonymus or Burning Bush

Euonymus alatus

This deciduous shrub grows to 8' tall, often wider than tall. The stems are notable fo'r their four corky ridges or "wings". The leaves are 3/4" –2 3/4" long and .5 - 1.5" broad, ovate-elliptic, with an acute apex. The flowers are greenish, borne over a long period in the spring. The fruit is a red aril enclosed by a four-lobed pink, yellow or orange capsule.

Uses: in traditional Chinese medicine to remove blood stasis, promote menstruation, remove toxic materials, subside swelling, and kill insects or parasites.

Teasel

Dipsacus spp.

Hardy Biennial. A common wayside plant that is native to North America. The little flower heads appear in mid-summer and are covered by tiny pink flowers. The flower heads then dry and become hard and covered with spines that are prickly. The foliage is spiny also and thistle-like.

Uses: A row can provide a screen between crops. The spiky dried seed heads were traditionally used by fullers (cloth finishers) to tease (hence “teasel”) fibres, card wool etc. Also used as decorative dry flowers, in crafts, to comb horses, etc. Ex Kings Seeds.

Chinkapin Oak

Quercus muehlenbergii

Leaves white-hairy below, 3-5" long. Husks and nuts smaller; nuts occur singly in husks, not flattened. Found in dry, upland woods. 

Edible: nuts roasted and eaten, ground into flour or dipped in sugar syrup to make candy. 

American Beech

Fagus grandifolia

Tall tree with smooth gray bark and coarsely-toothed elliptic leaves. Leaves 1-5" long. Fruit small triangular nuts enclosed in bur-like husk with weak spines. Buds are long, thin and spear-point like. 

Edible: Nuts roasted and eaten whole or ground into flour. Vegetable oil can be squeezed from the crushed kernels. Roasted kernels can also be used as a coffee substitute. 

Merrybells or Bellwort

Uvularia grandiflora

Bell like yellow or creamy flowers droop at the end of a forking leafy stem. Leaves parallel-veined, stalkless.

Edible: Asparagus. discard the leafy portions of the young shoots and boil for 10min. 

Pawpaw

Asimina triloba

Leaves toothless, 6-12" long, dark green above, lighter beneath. Flowers precede leaves; 6 petaled and purple. Fruit suggests stubby bananas; green, then brown when ripe. 

Edible: Fruit raw or cooked. Gather when still green, set aside for a few days to ripen to a dark brown. 

Sweet Cicely

Osmorhiza claytonii

Soft, hairy. Leaves thrice-compound, bluntly toothed, fernlike; lower leaves often over 1' long. Flowers tiny, in sparse clusters. Roots and green fruit smell of anise. 

Edible: Anise-like flavoring. 

Shagbark Hickory

Carya ovata

Leaves 8-14" long with usually 5 leaflets. Twigs stout, red-brown, hairless. Bark light-colored, very shaggy. Nuts egg-shaped with thick-walled husks that split into 4 sections. 

Edible: nuts, flower, oil from crushed kernels, sap as you would from a maple. 

White Baneberry or Doll's Eyes

Actaea pachypoda

Leaves large, divided and subdivided into sharply toothed leaflets. Flowers with very narrow petals and bushy stamens; clustered oblong at the end of a long naked stem. Berries white, on thick red stalks, tipped with a dark spot. 

Poisonous. 

Black Raspberry

Rubus occidentalis

Arching, non-climbing thorny shrubs. Generally 3 leaflets. Stems usually red and green with white powdered, round stems

Edible: Fruit, jelly, cold drink, tea from dried leaves, salad from young shoots. 

Sweet Birch or Black Birch

Betula lenta

Leaves finely double-toothed, somewhat egg-shaped with sharp tips and blunt bases. Crushed twigs smell and taste of wintergreen. Young bark dark and tight; old bark broken into irregular plates.

Edible: Syrup and sap like maple syrup, inner bark can be ground into flour, twigs can be steeped in hot water to make tea.

Wintergreen

Gaultheria procumbens

Low evergreen plant that spreads by slender underground runners. Leaves thick, shiny, oval, slightly toothed; 1-2" long. Crushed leaves smell of wintergreen. Small waxy, egg-shaped flowers dangle beneath the leaves. Fruit is a small wintergreen-flavored red berry with a star shaped impression around the calyx.

Edible: Leaves into tea, both new leaves and berries can be eaten raw and persist into the next year.

Trailing Arbutus

Epigaea repens

Low trailing shrub with oval, leathery, evergreen leaves that are 1-5" long. Stem normally brown-hairy. Flowers pink or white, clustered, tubular, with 5 flaring lobes.

Edible: The raw corolla, or flower tube, makes an excellent sour-sweet nibble or addition to salads.

Indian Cucumber-Root

Medeola virginiana

Slender stemmed with 2 whorls of leaves. Flowers greenish yellow, dangling with reflexed tips and reddish stamens. Tuber crisp, waxy looking, cucumber flavored. Berries blue and inedible

Edible: tuber that can be cut into a salad or pickled.

White Walnut or Butternut

Juglans cinerea

Large, once compound leaves that have 7-17 narrow, toothed leaflets with an end-leaf. Wider bard ridges smooth-topped, gray-shiny. Fruit oblong and sticky.

Edible: Nuts raw or candied; ground into flour, crushed and boiled for oil, sap used like maple sap, sugar.

Yellow Birch

Betula allegheniensis

Leaves finely double-toothed, somewhat egg-shaped with sharp tips and blunt bases. Crushed twigs smell and taste of wintergreen. Bark yellowish to silver-gray, peeling in narrow curls.

Edible: Syrup and sap like maple syrup, inner bark can be ground into flour, twigs can be steeped in hot water to make tea.

Chickweed

Stellaria media

Small, prostrate or erect weeds. Flowers small, mostly long stalked; petals so deeply notched or cleft they appear to be 10. Stems slender, leaves paired; generally smooth. Petals shorter than sepals, leaves ovate, long-stalked. 

Edible: Salad or cooked green; boiled for 5 min. 

Solomon's Seal

Polygonatum biflorum

Clusters of greenish yellow paired bells dangle beneath parallel-veined leaves arranged alternately along an arching stem. Berries blue-black, paired and inedible. Rootstock stout, whitish, with large circular "seals". 

Edible: Asparagus, salad, potato. The young shoots can be boiled for 10 min and served like aspargus. The whole shoots can be chopped up into salads. The starchy rootstock can be added to stews and boiled for 20min and served like potatoes. 

Greenbrier or Catbrier

Smilax spp.

Green-stemmed, mostly prickly or thorny vines climbing by tendrils that originate in the leaf axils. Leaves parallel-veined, broadly rounded or heart-shaped with smooth margins; stems rounded or angled with no central pith. Leaves persist through winter. Flowers small and greenish; fruit are small blue-black berries dusted with powder. 

Edible: Young shoots like asparagus, young shoots, leaves and tendrils edible raw or like spinach. Rootstocks can be washed, dried and ground into a jelly, thickening agent or sweetened for a cold drink. 

Sweet Birch or Black Birch

Betula lenta

Leaves finely double-toothed, somewhat egg-shaped with sharp tips and blunt bases. Crushed twigs smell and taste of wintergreen. Young bark dark and tight; old bark broken into irregular plates.

Edible: Syrup and sap like maple syrup, inner bark can be ground into flour, twigs can be steeped in hot water to make tea.

Hercules' Club or Devil's Walking Stick

Aralia spinosa

Alternate, doubly or triply pinnately compound, with very numerous leaflets; leaflets ovate to lance-ovate, pointed at the tip, tapering or rounded at the base, coarsely toothed, usually with a few prickles on the veins or the lower surface of the leaves, up to 3 inches long, up to 1 1/2 inches wide. 
Numerous in many umbrella-shaped clusters; eachflower borne on a purple, hairy stalk. 
Drupes spherical to ovoid, black-purple, up to 1/4 inch long.

Edible: The young leaves can be eaten if gathered before the prickles harden. They are then chopped finely and cooked as a potherb.

Indian Cucumber-Root

Medeola virginiana

Slender stemmed with 2 whorls of leaves. Flowers greenish yellow, dangling with reflexed tips and reddish stamens. Tuber crisp, waxy looking, cucumber flavored. Berries blue and inedible

Edible: tuber that can be cut into a salad or pickled.

White Baneberry or Doll's Eyes

Actaea pachypoda

Leaves large, divided and subdivided into sharply toothed leaflets. Flowers with very narrow petals and bushy stamens; clustered oblong at the end of a long naked stem. Berries white, on thick red stalks, tipped with a dark spot.

Poisonous.

Water Horehound or Bugleweed

Lycopus spp.

Suggests Wild Mint but odorless. Leaves light green, fine-toothed, short-stalked; narrow, tapering at both ends. Stems slender, hairless, rising from a tuberous base. 

Edible: Salad, cooked vegetable, pickle. 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Arisaema triphyllum

Flaplike spathe that curves over the club-shaped spadix is green or purplish brown and often striped. Leaves 1 or 2, on long succulent stalks, 3-parted. Fruit an egg-shaped cluster of scarlet berries. Corm walnut-sized or larger. 

Edible: Flour. The thinly sliced, thoroughly dried corms can be eaten as is, like potato chips, or ground into a pleasant cocoa-like flour. 

Warning: raw corms contain calcium oxalate which causes an intense burning sensation in the mouth