OK, a few reasons for the question.
I wanted to open another thread for people to discuss and I thought it might be a fairly neutral thread to start and might be interesting.

I wanted an idea on how familiar you are with plants.

I wanted to ask which ones are your favourites, and your least favourites out of any you tried, and why.

I wanted to ask which plants the guide books lie about the most and which your personal experience reveals that the authors never did try the plant themselves.

I wanted to find out about any plants I don't know yet that somebody else might know about and have experience using.

The same thing for different uses of the plants, I bet some people have surprising information here.
After all, there are people posting on here from a wide range of places.

I am looking for any good web sites about plants you might know too.

I tried searching for the subject with the search bar and found plant uses in responses but not in a thread.

If you want to mention inedible and useless plants that is fine too.

Those are enough reasons for the question.

Try the Plants for a Future database at http://www.pfaf.org/index.php, then type in the plant you want info about in the box on the left. It usually gives edible and medicinal parts and uses, as well as how to grow them, and sometimes how/when to harvest them.

Sue

Edible plants are notoriously regional. Knowledge about one landscape doesn't translate into knowledge about another.

I wouldn't say I am enormously familiar with edible local plants. I guess know quite a few, and I know those very few that are poisonous.

But mostly, in this part of the world, it's all about calories. Plants that produce berries or nuts or have tubers that store starch get my close attention.

If it's just another kind of lettuce, I don't care.

I kinda-sorta second Dougwalkabout. Mainly, I know diddly about plants. Why? Well, I grew up in Southern California, which is classified as a "semi-arid desert." Most of the plants we have in the area, once outside the megapolis, are scrub oak, or dry grass (the kind that goes up in massive wildfires each year). Not exactly too tough to learn them, or that they're not super edible.

In that situation, the "fruits and veggy" part of my diet was going to be pre-processed in the way of a dead animal.

Now that I'm in Michigan, I'm getting a bit better. I know what a cattail is (though not really how to prepare one), kind of learning different trees, and want to learn plants. Problem is getting someone knowledgable enough to teach, or the free time to grab a book and hit the trail for a weekend. Again, my plan is lots of fish should I need to bail out.

Useless plants: anything with the word "stinging" or "poisonous" in it's name.

I concur with Doug and MDinana.

These types of questions being asked are too general....In my own area, there are 4 very distinct ecosystems and they do not all share the same species of plants let alone edible plants. For example, off the top of my head, I can list more then 40 edible plants that can grow in any of the 4 ecosystems, yet these plants are only good for eating in certain seasons, different terrain such as valleys, alpine meadows, original growth forest, 2nd growth forest, river bottoms and benches...the list goes on.

Some that I have tried and in no certain order:

Berries of all types
Fireweed
Wild grapes
Wild onion
Milkweed
Dandelions
balsam roots
Cat tails
Bracken fern
Various lichens
Seaweeds
Chicory
Juniper

Toot! Toot! Tooot!

Ye gads, where to start...

Favorites foods would be greenbriar, saw palmetto, dollar weed, purslane, and mulberries.

Usefulness would be hibiscus, yucca, willow, and American Beautyberry.

Best all-around website for learning about edible wild plants:
Merriwether's Guide to Edible Wild Plants
This easy-to-use, picture-filled site lists seventy common edible plants, where/when to find them, how to prepare them, non-food uses of plants (cordage, bug repellent, etc), any dangers you need to be aware of, gives a list of useful books/references (including strengths and weaknesses of said references), and gives links to all the other edible wild plant sites on the web.

And it's all free!

-Blast, blowing his own horn.

Blow your horn, Blast!!!! It's music to my ears!!!!

I'm printing up the latest edition of Blast's Edibles, putting the printout into double layers of ziplock gallon sized bags, and keeping them in my Personal Support Kit!!!!

Thanks for the Toot!

I don't know the formal name, but in the northeast, the plant we call "sweet fern" has these edible white things as part of the roots that look like the shape of mini bananas. The ferns are so plentiful in the forests up here that you can get a pretty good fill of these easily. You need to clean the dirt off, but, then they are surprisingly good eating raw.

Tell me more about this plant if you can.
What I heard called sweet fern in Ontario was a shrub that had leaves like a fern but wasn't actually a fern.