Rex Trulove
Have you ever taken the time to think about how many different plants you eat? That means that you eat any portion of the plant. Most people don’t even think about it.
The staggering part is that there are around 20,000 species of plants that are known to be edible for humans. That includes around 2,000 species of trees. Perhaps this doesn’t seem astounding but consider this: Around 90% of all the plant-based food that humans all around the world eat come from approximately 20 plant species. Let that sink in for a minute.
A very small percentage of people actually forage for food, but even foragers generally eat only about 250 species of plants. That leaves an untapped resource of around 19,750 species of edible plants that aren’t commonly eaten.
What’s more, science is identifying new plant species virtually every day at a rate of approximately three new species per day and it is presently unknown how many of these plant species might be edible. It wouldn’t be a stretch to figure that at least one in ten are edible. In fact, that would be quite conservative, as far as estimates go. This means that the total number of plants that are edible could easily be double or triple the number that science knows about.
This might give you something interesting to think about today.
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Have you given any thought to the number of different plants you normally eat on a daily basis?
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Yes
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No
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I didn’t know that there were that many edible plants
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Didn’t really count, but try to be diversified, 5 plants, 5 colours, 5 types.
The interesting part is that almost everywhere in the world, there are edible plants that grow wild.
So true, the wilder, the more nutrient it contains.
I have no idea nor thought about it. Will try to count in future.
Most people are totally amazed that there are that many edible plants. Of course, not all of them actually taste good, but they can be eaten.
I had no idea that there were that many edible plants. Thank you for posting.
I’ve been foraging for a long time, but I don’t know nearly that many of the edible plants, at least in regard to them being edible.