How to Get Food From a Water Lily Plant

Make believe you are lost in the wilderness. It's been two days since you've had any clue as to where you are. Truly, you are stuck in a dangerous and very real survival situation. Your first task is to find fresh water--no problem, as there's a small stream running into a lake nearby. Next, you'll need some sort of shelter--an hour of work and you've got one made using sticks, leaves and rocks. Now it's time to ease that rumbling in your stomach by finding food. The trouble is, you have no idea how. Luckily for you, you're lost in a temperate zone, and that lake is very likely to have water lily plants growing at its surface--and that means sustenance is near!

Things You'll Need

• Water
• Pot
• Fire

Instructions

1. Learn well how to identify a water lily plant. Water lily rhizomes grow in the mud of lakes and marshes and their leaves are large, triangular, green, and float on the surface of the water. Water lily plants possess flowers that are usually white, though they can also be red and sometimes even violet.

2. Locate a water lily plant.

3. Harvest the water lily flowers. These are edible raw, though you can also cook them by throwing them into a pot of boiling water over a fire for several minutes.

4. Harvest the water lily seeds. Leave them out in the sun to dry then, once parched well, grind them to make flour.

5. Harvest the water lily rhizomes. Then peel off the hard, outer layer. The fleshy stuff that remains can be eaten right away (after a good rinsing with fresh water) or sliced thinly, parched in the sun, then eaten.

Tips & Warnings

• Boil a thick water lily root in water, then drink the liquid. This is a known medicine for diarrhea or, if gurgled, for a sore throat.

• If you aren't sure that what you are dealing with is, in fact a water lily plant, don't eat any part of it!