Appalachian Expedition

When you step out of your tent, the rain-soaked landscape reminds you that a storm blew through camp during the night. It's a little cloudy out, but the sun is already trying to break through. Before long the rest of your teammates are awake and you gather around the fire, eating toast with butter and drinking hot tea. Now that you know a little bit about the people of Blair Mountain and have seen their natural landscape, you begin to think about the relationship between the two. Do these mountain people use the natural resources found on Blair Mountain to survive? Do the plants growing on the forest floor have a medicinal purpose? Are they edible?

Of course! The elderberry wine you had in Hetzel and the Ramp Festival are proof. Ramps (Allium tricoccum) are spicy wild onions that taste like a cross between scallions and garlic. You saw some growing two days ago in patches on the forest floor. In April, they are dug up and cooked many different ways. As you set out for the day, you wonder what other plants you've seen that are used by mountain people.

Young men harvesting ramps. Photo: Library of Congress

Harvesting mushrooms. Photo: Library of Congress

As you hike through a moist section of forest, you come across a mossy slope where two kinds of mushroom are growing. Using your field guide, you identify them as chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) and thick-footed morels (Morchella crassipes), also called "corncobs" by locals. The guide also tells you that these mushrooms can be collected in the spring and eaten.

Not too much farther along you enter a small grove of black walnut trees. All of the nuts are inside green shells. Too bad! If the shells were black, the nuts inside would be ripe enough to harvest and eat. You would even know what to do, because before beginning the expedition one of the locals from Hetzel told you how to harvest them.

Peeling a nut to eat. Photo: Library of Congress

Pawpaw fruit. Photo: John Seiler, VT

At about 1,300 feet, you recognize another plant that you identified earlier in the expedition. The kidney-shaped fruits of pawpaw (Asimina triloba) grow in clusters. They are also edible but have a flavor very different from that of persimmon. These taste more like a combination of mango and bananas. What a feast you're having!

Up ahead you see a beautiful plant with green pointed leaves and yellow sunflower-like flowers. The plant is tall and bushy, and as you get closer you notice it has rough woody stems. Using your trusted field guide you identify it as Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus). Oh! This is the plant you saw being sold in the grocery store in Ethel. At the base of the stem, growing underground, there are tubers that look like small potatoes. This is the part people eat. The label on the jar of pickled Jerusalem artichokes said that these tubers can also be eaten raw or cooked like potatoes. You've even heard some people say they can be used to make alcohol.

Before the expedition you had no idea how many different plant parts people could eat. Now, snacking on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you try to inventory what plant parts you eat during a normal day in the United States. This sandwich alone is made from the seeds of peanut and wheat plants and the fruit of a strawberry plant!

Ginseng hanging to dry after being harvested. Photo: Library of Congress

Setting out again, you realize there are uses for plants found at almost every elevation. How fortunate the early settlers were to have this knowledge passed on to them from Native Americans. Just as you are thinking this, you encounter ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) growing on a forested slope. What a treat to find this plant growing in the wild twice in one expedition! Although it is strictly regulated, there is a long tradition of "gatherin' 'seng" in this region. This is what some locals call the harvesting of ginseng. For many years, the roots of this plant have been used by people to increase energy levels.

In a partially shaded area of the forest you see a 4-foot-tall, bushlike plant with white flowers. The flowers are beautiful, grouped together on a long stick, making them look like candles. The flower is so distinctive you are able to identify the plant immediately as black cohosh (Actaea racemosa). This plant is used to treat a wide variety of conditions from mild depression and fever to nervous disorders and snakebites.

A little farther up on a slope covered with leaves, there is another kind of plant with beautiful flowers. These flowers are cup-shaped, white with a yellow center. Each plant has only one leaf growing at its base. You notice that on the plants with flowers, the leaves are rolled up, and on the plants without flowers, the leaves are unrolled. You think its bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). If you could just see the roots, which bleed a red juice when cut, you'd know for sure. A tea made from the rhizomes of bloodroot is used to treat asthma, lung ailments, laryngitis, and fevers.

After all you have learned, you are curious about how many of these same plants are used to produce medicine and vitamins in the grocery store. You decide to keep track of the medicinal plants and check when you get back home.