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Wednesday - April 09, 2008
From: Kempner, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Edible Plants
Title: Is horseherb (Calyptocarpus vialis) edible?
Answered by: Nan Hampton
QUESTION:
Hello, I find horse-herb everywhere. Is it edible, too? Thanks!ANSWER:
Mr. Smarty Plants hasn't been able to find any information about the possible edibility of Calyptocarpus vialis (straggler daisy). None of the reference books listed below under "Bibliography" have listed it.However, we also haven't found it listed on any of our favorite toxic plant databases:
Poisonous Plants of North Carolina
Cornell University Poisonous Plants Informational Database
Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System
The City of Austin's Native and Adapted Landscape Plants says that is "somewhat deer resistant", which might indicate that it isn't very tasty—at least not to deer. You probably wouldn't get violently ill if you tried some (if it were deadly poisonous, I feel sure it would appear in at least one of those toxic databases), but you could possibly have some unpleasant reaction to it.
My advice is: Don't try it. Since it is so very common, if it were really delicious, someone would have talked about it by now.
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Bibliography
Edible and Useful Plants of Texas and the Southwest: Including recipes, harmful plants, natural dyes, and textile fibers: A Practical Guide (1999) Tull, D.Edible Plants of the Gulf South (2005) Allen, C. M.; Allen, A. W.; Winters, H. H.Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide (1990) Elias, T. S. & P. A. DykemanEncyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America (1998) Couplan, F.Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North America (1977) Peterson, L. A.Search More Titles in Bibliography
