Quick ID: Tree up to 60 ft. tall, with long spreading leaves to 9 ft. long. Yellow-white flowers in many branched clusters; fragrant. Fruit 1/4" wide. Many of these trees are planted along highway overpasses.

Eat: Strip the core to the ivory-white heart

Sea Grape, Hopwood, Horsewood -- Cocoloba Uvifera

Quick ID: Tree up to 40 ft., but generally small tree or large shrub. Leaves are thick and heart-shaped from 3 to 10 inches. New foliage is smooth and brown or bronze in color. Flowers grow in clusters. Fruit resembles grapes and are dark red or purple and ripen throughout summer.

Eat: Berries

Red Mulberry -- Morus Rubra

Eat: Berries when ripe

Yucca, Spanish Bayonet, Spanish Dagger -- Yucca Aloifolia

Quick ID: Shrub- tall, straight stem growing to 25 ft., with pointed, dagger-like leaves, which are a dark green. Flowers are a waxy tulip like, white bloom, in clusters. The fruit is cylinder shaped to 5" long, with purple skin. There are many small seeds.

Eat: Though fruit is edible, it is often bitter even when ripe. The flowers are can also be eaten once the bitter center is removed.

Blackberry, Dewberry -- Rubus Flagellaris

Eat: Berries. The leaves can be used to make tea.

Purslane -- Portulaca Oleracea

Quick ID: Ground cover - once considered a weed, this colorful, flowering succulent has stems 3 to 6 inches long and is often found in nurseries. The bright yellow or orange flowers are small with 5 petals. The fruit is a round capsule with many small black seeds.

Eat: Leaves and stems, raw or steamed.

Dandelion -- Taraxacum Officinale

Quick ID: Generally considered a nuisance weed, this ground cover is also known as an beneficial herb. The Latin name means "official remedy for illnesses". The dandelion, may not be a native plant, but should be considered naturalized. It has deep saw-toothed leaves, with yellow flowers on a single stem. The seeds are a fluffy white ball.

Eat: The entire plant can be eaten, flower, stem, leaves and root.

Jerusalem artichoke -- Helianthus Tuberosus

Quick ID: Course shrub up to eight feet tall with rough leaves and stem. Flowers are daisy like, yellow; leaves are alternate arranged ovate and tapering.

Eat: Use the tubers as a potato substitute, the carbohydrate insulin is digestible by persons who can't digest other starches. Harvest in spring before new sprouts grow.

Southern Cattail -- Typha Latifolia

Quick ID: Cattails or bulrushes are wetland plants, typically 1 to 7 m tall (T. minima is smaller: 0.5-1 m), with spongy, strap-like leaves and starchy, creeping stems (rhizomes). The leaves are alternate and mostly basal to a simple, jointless stem that eventually bears the flowers.

Eat: Cattails — The cattail has so many edible parts, it’s like a wilderness supermarket. In early spring, the young shoots and stalks can be peeled and eaten raw or boiled. In late spring, the green flower heads can be husked and boiled. In early summer, the pollen heads can be eaten raw, or dried into flour. The rootstocks are an excellent source of starch. They can be crushed, dissolved in cold water, and made into flour after draining and drying. MEDICINE: Ripe cattail flowers can be mashed and used as a salve for cuts and burns.

Saw Palmetto -- Serenoa Repens

Quick ID: It is a small palm, normally reaching a height of around 2-4 m. Its trunk is sprawling, and it grows in clumps or dense thickets in sandy coastal lands or as undergrowth in pine woods or hardwood hammocks.

Eat: The hearts at bases of leaf stalks can be cut out and eaten raw. The bases of terminal buds can be boiled and eaten like vegetables.

Goldenrod -- Solidago (Genus)

Quick ID: About 80 perennial species make up the genus Solidago, most being found in the meadows and pastures, along roads, ditches and waste areas in North America. Many species are difficult to distinguish.

Eat: Young leaves near flowers can be boiled and eaten as a potherb. Small leaves and flowers can be dried or used fresh to make anise-flavored tea. Seeds can be crushed and added to stews for thickening.

Oak Tree -- Quercus (Genus)

Quick ID: Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with a lobed margin in many species; some have serrated leaves or entire leaves with a smooth margin. The flowers are catkins, produced in spring. The fruit is a nut called an acorn, borne in a cup-like structure known as a cupule; each acorn contains one seed (rarely two or three).

Eat: Even when green, all acorns are edible and very nutritious if properly prepared. A handful of these tasty nuts has as much nutritional value as a pound of hamburger. Acorns from the white oak and the pin oak can be eaten raw. All others either have to be leached in running water for several hours or boiled in several changes of water to get rid of the harsh, bitter taste. MEDICINE: Save the left over boiled water, since it makes a powerful antiseptic for skin diseases and cuts.

Plaintain -- Plantago (Genus)

Quick ID: Plantago is a genus of about 200 species of small, inconspicuous plants commonly called plantains. They share this name with the very dissimilar plantain, a kind of banana. Most are herbaceous plants, though a few are subshrubs growing to 60 cm (23.5 in) tall. The leaves are sessile, but have a narrow part near the stem which is a pseudo-petiole. They have three or five parallel veins that diverge in the wider part of the leaf. Leaves are broad or narrow, depending on the species.

Eat: Young leaves can be boiled and eaten as a potherb. Seeds can be dried and ground into flour or dried, boiled, and served as a hot cereal.

Medicinal: Crushed leaves are a powerful remedy for minor wounds, stings, bruises, and sprains. Seeds are high in the B vitamins. Take one or two pods daily as an insect repellent.