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I'm on a deserted island. How can I tell which plants are poisonous?

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Re: I'm on a deserted island. How can I tell which plants are poisonous?

#21

Post by aarongough »

One thing not mentioned is what you're looking to avoid when you're conducting the UET.

When testing skin contact beware of:

* Rash

* Hypersensitivity (to touch or light)

When testing by contact with the lips and chewing beware of:

* Numbness or pain

* Spicy flavour, heat or burning sensation

* Any hint of a taste of almonds (as mentioned: Cyanide. Not a good idea)

This is by no means complete, the 'SAS Survival Guide' has some good info on this topic, though other parts of that book should be taken with a grain of salt...

Re: I'm on a deserted island. How can I tell which plants are poisonous?

#22

Post by lacrossegm »

Water is more important than food. A person can go a long time without food, but will die without water in just a few days time.

I would observe what the local animals seem to be eating.

Another trick is to take a sample and rub a bit of it on of your skin. If it causes irritation, its probably bad.

Re: I'm on a deserted island. How can I tell which plants are poisonous?

#24

Post by GiraffeNecktie »

aarongough wrote: post #21

One thing not mentioned is what you're looking to avoid when you're conducting the UET. When testing skin contact beware of: * Rash * Hypersensitivity (to touch or light) When testing by contact with the lips and chewing beware of: * Numbness or pain * Spicy flavour, heat or burning sensation * Any hint of a taste of almonds (as mentioned: Cyanide. Not a good idea) This is by no means complete, the 'SAS Survival Guid…

Don't forget to wait. Poison ivy might not show up till the next day.

Re: I'm on a deserted island. How can I tell which plants are poisonous?

#25

Post by GiraffeNecktie »

a-priori wrote: post #10

One tip I learned for berries was that if the birds don't eat them, you shouldn't either because they're almost certainly poisonous. The reverse is not true: birds can eat things you can't.

Yeah birds and other animals (even some people) can eat poison ivy. Most of us would die.

Re: I'm on a deserted island. How can I tell which plants are poisonous?

#26

Post by CWuestefeld »

a-priori wrote: post #10

One tip I learned for berries was that if the birds don't eat them, you shouldn't either because they're almost certainly poisonous. The reverse is not true: birds can eat things you can't.

Bottom line: If there's any there, it's not safe to eat it. If they're all gone, then they would have been safe.

Next chapter, how to test for witches by the flotation method.

Re: I'm on a deserted island. How can I tell which plants are poisonous?

#27

Post by fjabre »

Even with a survival manual it's easy enough to get one harmless food source mixed up with another look-alike harmful one.

It's widely speculated that this happened to Chris McCandless aka Alexander Supertramp, who hiked into the Alaskan wilderness back in the 90s to get away from it all but ended up dying from either starvation or eating something poisonous which contributed to his starvation..

I guess the point is get ready to kill some small animals and go fishing. The idea that a couple of "Castor bean seeds" could be fatal is enough for me to consider all plant life poisonous unless I'm 99% positive it's a lemon or an apple or something like that, something well known...

Re: I'm on a deserted island. How can I tell which plants are poisonous?

#28

Post by billswift »

maxklein wrote: post #6

Okay, someone a bit more intelligent than me should correct me on this: Are most poisonous plants not bitter or foul tasting? Also, apart from mushrooms, don't they usually signal their poison? Why does a plant develop poison if not to discourage animals from eating it : and if it does not signal through taste or look, how would an animal know? I know nothing about this topic, I'm actually curious.

Many wild plants are bitter while being perfectly edible - pokeweed, for example, is widely eaten despite being rather bitter without preparation (it is still edible even raw, I've munched on it often when hiking as a teen). Others are perfectly tasty while being poison, some will just make you sick, but wild almonds are supposed to taste like domestic ones, but have enough cyanide to kill a child outright.

Re: I'm on a deserted island. How can I tell which plants are poisonous?

#29

Post by billswift »

lacrossegm wrote: post #22

Water is more important than food. A person can go a long time without food, but will die without water in just a few days time. I would observe what the local animals seem to be eating. Another trick is to take a sample and rub a bit of it on of your skin. If it causes irritation, its probably bad.

Depending on climate either shelter or water is the most urgent. Most people can go weeks to months without food if they must.

Re: I'm on a deserted island. How can I tell which plants are poisonous?

#30

Post by billswift »

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #8

The simple rule I was taught that if you can find anything that moves, cook and eat it before eating unknown plants. Your odds are generally much better with animals than plants -- you can probably find dozens of examples of inedible or poisonous plants on your back yard alone, while poisonous (as opposed to venomous) animals whose poison is still dangerous after being cooked are quite rare. An even simpler rule is t…

A caution here is that some fish, especially in tropical areas, are poisonous. Any mammal or bird can be eaten, some reptiles are poisonous though - box turtles, for example, can retain poisons absorbed from their food.
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