I was just thinking about some of the plants I encountered as a kid that we do not really see in game. Also to confirm some of the ones that are in.
I used to eat tiny lil wild strawberries that grew in my yard. So those are definitely around. Iâm not a fan of blueberries, but they definitely grew around in NH. Here is a page that has a bunch of edible plants from New England: http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/fieldbio/Edible_Plants_Ramer_Silver_Weizmann/Pages/ALL_common_name.html RASPBERRIES
Ones you do not see but that are common are blackberries and raspberries, these grow together. But did I mention they grow on thorn bushes. Briar patches, aka thorn bushes, are pretty common in NH. Iâd either have to find a good stick and make a path (press s; gotta aim for the bottom of the plant, they are springy otherwise.) or go around. Did I just say something Iâm going to regret in game laterâŠ
SKUNK CABBAGE
A relatively unknown plant is called skunk cabbage⊠not sure about the name, been a while. It has an unpleasant smell all around it. Especially if you manage to damage the plant itself. Maybe it mutated and got worse?
POISON IVY
Letâs not forget about Poison Ivy. Some of the singularly most unpleasant plants to run into. Most people donât know until well afterwards also. Without survival skill it should look like brush, with survival skill it should be another color so they know to stay away. Touch poison ivy is bad news as you will develop blisters or some other reaction. Some people donât react at all. Once again, could have potential for mutation.
CRANBERRIES
These grow in boggy and swampy conditions.
Drosera rotundifolia the Common Sundew. Found in wetlands, swamps, marshes, and particularly acidic bogs. It uses tentacles tipped in ruby red, sugary muscalige to lure and entrap insects and dissolve their proteins as an ammonia/nitrogen source. These tendrils are even capable of some limited, reactionary movement in that they curl around their prize to further ensure itâs doom. The reasoning for itâs predatory habits? Acidic soils usually inhibit nutrient uptake in plants, or leach away the nutrients into the watershed inhibiting the growth of most plants. In this post-cataclysmic landscape insects are getting more robust, and highly acidic rain is a commonality, the humble Sundew is ready to take the stage. Sundews are rich in antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory flavonoids.
Sphagnum v Peat Moss mined for centuries around the world various Sphagnum species are primitive mosses which share a high acidity tolerance with sundews, not only managing to uptake and store minerals in these conditions, but also encouraging them by releasing acids into the surrounding wetlands to drive out other competitors. Aside from their use as fuel and fertilizers they also made excellent wound packing due to antibacterial properties. Additionally, efficient evaporation off the surface serves to cool the plant considerably and itâs been used to fill and chill wine buckets or cellars without the use of ice.
Equisetum telmateia the Giant Northern Horsetail, is another useful plant that is edible when cooked (albeit long term use can affect the thyroid) and were often been used as a polishing agents (hence their alternative name, âscouring rushesâ). However the most interesting factor may be the spores borne by the strobilli (knobbly bits on the end of their stalk, the plants being little more than siliceous stalk in most cases.) The plentiful, easily-ignited spores were used as a flash powder in bygone days. Their hardy structure, spore dispersal and resilience over the eons lends them to survive even when man may not.
Not raspberries, but Iâve tithed quite a lot of blood and skin to appease the local blackberry gods
Iâm super in favor of expanding the available harvestable plants, this has pointed out that I need to make bushes/vines/trees a more extensible, so we can easily add all these varieties without having custom code for each and every one.
Raspberries? Really. Real New Englanders use proper blackberries as their combined barrier/food plant. Much bigger and more painful thorns on that variant.
Anyways, Iâve argued for a while that we need to add Dogbane (the premier thread generation plant of New England) and Cranberries and a few other plants, so would like to see this done. I eat wild grapes around here all the time (grapes and raspberries fill the nearby parks, but the grapes are the best because they are so sour and the leaves are delicious too).
Whatâs next? You going to tell me that some plants have mutated tentacles?[/quote]
at least itâs not the south east, [del]mutated[/del] kudzu[/quote]
FTFY
/Deep south native
//Donât sleep too close to Kudzu in the Summer
///On my third watch of Evil Dead II, I realized it had a vegatative tentacle rape scene.
////Need more Evil Dead references
/////no, not THAT one <_<
//////slashies4eva
http://www.umass.edu/umext/jgerber/nativeplants.pdf covers all kinds of useful New England plants Iâd love to see more than mutant poppy and our fairly thin selection of wild forage (currently!)⊠Identifying these plants âprofessionallyâ as what they are could be tied to survival skill or even to certain books (until then theyâd just be âyellow flowerâ or whatever generic nameâŠ)
That first link is all plants and trees though, just noticed there isnât a fungus among usâŠer, them And after a pretty mean googling Iâm mostly just seeing EDIBLE fungi, where I was looking for both the âfriendly and edibleâ along with the hideous and highly poisonous (for potential toxin/paralysis craftingâŠ). GIVING UP ON SHROOMS!
Hereâs a link for invasive plant life in New England⊠Considering theyâre already unloved and proliferous species, perhaps some of them are candidates for enemy-ization (goutweed and hairy jointgrass sound particularly evilâŠ): http://www.eddmaps.org/ipane/ipanespecies/current_inv.htm
In the same festive spirit hereâs a link to invasive insects (as well as a couple blights/plant dieseases/weeds) of the New England area (Viburnum Leaf Beetle and Leek Moths sound especially sinister): http://massnrc.org/pests/factsheets.htm
Every part of a dandelion is edible and nutritious. Theyâre very bitter but if you chop and boil them for 6-8 minutes without a cover then the bitter chemicals mosly dissipate. Then you have a slightly bitter but very nourishing green, much healthier then watery domestic greens.
Canât forget the âEvilnutâ aka Black Walnuts. The treesâ wood apparently makes great gunstocks and knifegrips, but I know them mostly due to their âfruitâ and its ability to shatter windshields
[quote=âGrizzlyAdamz, post:14, topic:3417â]I lile this thread.
+1 to disguising plants and tieing it to survival.[/quote]
Donât know about any lilinâ goinâ on 'round hereâŠ
I agree with the âdiscoverableâ plants ânâ stuff. Maybe even a book that teaches you what each plant is, so you donât have to grind up survival.
Like a system of trial & error? Maybe concurrentlyâŠbut we donât want to give ourselves too much info- metaknowledge could circumvent learning the hard way or investing time in survival.
So the description would be like:
âA thorny vine with red berriesâ
Vs
âA wiry thorned vine whose sparse leaves have dark red petioles, the bright red aggregate berries look unripeâ
