Not exactly traditional foraging but I have a lot of these that grow without care in untended parts of my garden and I’ve heard they are edible. The tubers are decent size for something that isn’t a crop and I could harvest a good number pretty easily if I wanted.
However, the sources I find online that talk about their edibility don’t seem too reputable, so I’m curious if anyone has first-hand experience. Are they safe to eat in quantity? Any preparation tips?
Please share any knowledge you have!
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If you can’t find reliable information, you could cut one up and boil it and let it cool, and also cut one up and soak it in cold water for at least an hour, then test both with water quality test strips (amazon link). This should at least let you know if the roots are leaching any heavy metals or other common groundwater safety hazards (test a few different ones from different parts of your property).
After that if you still want to try it, you can go through the steps of the edibility test:
“Can I Eat That?” Answer the Question With the Universal Edibility Test.
How to Test if a Plant Is Edible
Though obviously this has risks. The point of the process is to expose yourself to any hazards very gradually - this doesn’t eliminate the hazard.
“Can I Eat That?” Answer the Question With the Universal Edibility Test.
I believe the article you are mentioning is coming with enough warning for us to understand not to use this as a foraging technic.
Test like this may be useful when starving lost in nature but certainly not as a hobbiest or even a amateur forrager.A plant tested this way may look fine but then be undigestably in combinaison with other every-day ingredient, it can react badly with a medecine you take or be just toxic enough to poison you when you eat a full portion.
As foragers we should be extremly carefull. If we are not 100 % sure what plant this is or not 100 % it is eatable, we should NOT eat it at all.
A plant tested this way may look fine but then be undigestably in combinaison with other every-day ingredient, it can react badly with a medecine you take or be just toxic enough to poison you when you eat a full portion.
This is a really good point, biochemical reactions can be unpredictable.
The plant itself is not poisonous to humans or pets:
https://www.kansaspoisoncenter.com/poisons/plants-and-mushrooms/spider-plant
https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants/chlorophytum
I checked a reliable German source as well, since I happen to speak that, and it’s definitely not poisonous:
(Gruenlilie is the common German name of the plant, ungiftig simply means not poisonous)
Also, here is a study researching the nutritional values of the plant (among others):
https://scialert.net/fulltext/fulltextpdf.php?pdf=ansinet%2Fpjn%2F2009%2F26-31.pdf
You will also find social media posts of people having tasted the roots / leaves. I won’t include those, but I’d conclude that while you can eat the plant, it probably won’t be a culinary revelation.
Though on your screenshot the page specifically states, it’s the leaves or blossoms that are not poisonous. op was asking about the roots as well. Does the page have information on that too?