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Can we stop picking random plants and then asking for ID after the fact with some crappy photo?
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daphniahyalina is in Idaho
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Lately, I've seen so many pictures of random plants people just pulled out of their yard or something, asking if it is safe to eat. Sometimes OP will report that they already ate it and it tasted good.

If you want to get into foraging, please, for the love of God, identify the plant before you harvest it. And DEFINITELY before you eat it.

Not all poisonous plants and mushrooms taste bad. Tasting/smelling good is not an accurate indicator of safety.

Also, there is no reason in the world you need to rip the plant out of the ground just to take a photo. There are no plants that require you see the root in order to ID. People seem to forget that plants are actually alive, and there's no reason to kill a plant when you can just as easily take a photo of it undisturbed where it lives, and then come back for it later if it turns out to be edible.

I also strongly discourage identifying based on taste and smell alone. You should never identify any plants based on one metric alone. Our sensory systems aren't perfect. Olfactory hallucinations are a thing. It's easy for your brain to make you think you smell a hint of something because it looks like it should smell that way. There's a reason all plant ID keys list multiple identifying factors.

Please, it's not worth the risk. Take 5 minutes to learn the difference between onion and all of the poisonous bulbs in the lily family, using identifiers other than smell alone. And please don't assume just because it's a weed, it's completely harmless. If you don't wanna go through the trouble of learning to ID, then at the very least take a (clear) photo of the plant in the ground and post it here.

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8 months ago