Though this plant has minor amounts of vitamins and minerals, its abundance and usefulness makes up for this fact. The flowers and leaves can be made into a tea or used in salads, soups, and stews and the stems can be eaten raw, steamed, or cooked, having mucilaginous properties similar to okra. These same properties, also akin to the aloe vera plant, mean that the stems can be mashed or broken into a poultice for use on minor burns, insect bites, stings, and to help heal wounds. An easy way to use this plant is to cut it into small pieces and include it in soups and stews because not only is it nutritious, it will act as a thickening agent. Furthermore, the seeds can be roasted and ground into a powder. In fact, the flowers were once dried and powered for use as a snuff for nosebleeds. Spiderwort has also been considered of value by medical herbalists for use as an antidiarrheal, analgesic, antihelminthic (will expel parasitic worms), antiperiodic, astringent, diaphoretic (will induce perspiration), emetic, emmenagogue, expectorant, sedative, tonic, and vulnerary (wound-healing) medicine.
Another very important reason to keep this little "weed" around is because it can alert you to dangerous radiation. The cells within the stamens of the hairs of the flower of these plants are naturally blue, like the flowers. Exposure to radiation, such as ionizing gamma rays, will cause the cells to mutate and change in color to pink. These cells specifically are one of the few known tissues able to serve as an effective bioassay, or biological assessment, for levels of ambient radiation, which could just one day save your life.
So, remember to try and eat one wild food every day! If you have any questions or comments or ideas for wild food articles or recipes, please email [email protected].