But how else can you tell for sure?
Comment on Pioneers
LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Fun fact: You can figure out if a plant is poisonous without snorting a fat line of it.
criss_cross@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
For a serious answer, there’s a whole process you can follow. It’s basically going from minimum exposure up through eating a small bit of it and waiting multiple hours to days between steps. If any show signs of being irritating or worse, don’t eat/use that plant. It’s slow enough that if you had to rely on it for finding your sole source of food, you’re going to have a rough, hungry time.
Something like:
- Rub a little on hardier parts of your skin, wait and see.
- Break up the plant to expose more of it and rub that on a small patch, wait and see.
- Try it on more sensitive skin areas, wait and see.
- Try holding a bit in your mouth, spit it out. Wait and see.
- Chew some up, spit it out and wait and see.
- Eat a tiny amount, wait and see.
I’m probably forgetting some steps, too. It’s genuinely very slow.
Worse yet, there are plenty of plants/fungi that would still fuck you up or kill you doing it this way, so the OP still has a point.
finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yes, but not everyone wants to wipe leaves on their anus in front of others.
LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Bold move to start there, but someone’s got to do it.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
you can just wipe them on your arm.