Kelly Kindscher, Ph.D., Ecologist, Ethnobotanist, Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, will provide a presentation about the new edition of his book “Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie – An Ethnobotanical Guide.”

Kelly Kindscher is best known as a passionate advocate for native plants, native landscapes, and wild places. His research is focused on ethnobotany, native plants, native prairies, prairie and wetland restoration, and regional plant communities. He is a conservationist, teacher, mentor, professional wetland scientist, and environmental problem solver. He is an author of books on edible and medicinal plants and has published over 130 publications. Kelly is the senior scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey, which is his research home, and a professor in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Kansas (KU), where he mentors students and teaches Ethnobotany and the program’s senior Capstone course. He is currently working with the Arikara and Osage Tribal Nations on ethnobotany projects, with the US Forest Service on developing restoration projects in the Midwest, expanding the USDA NRCS database to include more ethnobotany, and continues to study Echinacea and other medicinal plants.

 About the book, Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie—an ethnobotanical guide (new edition)

This book is about all the native prairie plants that have been used as food by Native Americans. They are of interest today due to their history, ecology, conservation, use in restoration, and as wild foods.  This book has 433 pages (from 276 in the first edition) and documentation for 187 prairie species as food, but really 242 species, identified with related species of plums, wild onions, etc., all included. The new edition has color photos and maps (previous editions had black and white line drawings). The original 1986 version had only 123 species.  

The wild plants in this book tell stories of land, people, and food. As renowned botanist Kelly Kindscher guides us through over one hundred edible plants in this beautiful field guide, we find that foraging has always been an important part of prairie life. Before colonization, Native American women were the primary gatherers of wild plants, which were an abundant, sustainable, and delicious feature of Indigenous diets. Colonizers reduced the significance of wild plants in prairie life as they relocated Native peoples and imposed their agrarian culture on the land, but these Indigenous foodways were never truly lost. In the recent past, foraging has become a tremendously popular way for many people to connect with the earth, promote sustainability, and revive and honor cultural food traditions.

In this beautifully illustrated new edition with color photos, Kindscher explores 187 wild plants of the prairie, offering information about habitat, food use, and cultivation. Color photos and maps make this stunning book a useful foraging guide for anyone to take out into the prairie. A must-have for enthusiasts and professionals alike, Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie gives us the great opportunity to engage with the land we live in.

And if you are ordering the book online, please support our university presses and click here: https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700637027/

Please use this meeting link to register for this event:https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/T8fFYUvbTOebVqGGFcA1eQ