A bountiful season on the prairie

This story by Anne Tangeman was published by KU Endowment in its magazine, KU Giving.

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When the University Press of Kansas approached Kelly Kindscher three years ago about creating a new edition of his iconic first book, “Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie: An Ethnobotanical Guide,” first published in 1987, he had a simple answer for them — no.

A month later, the senior scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey and Center for Ecological Research and professor in the Environmental Studies Program changed his mind, realizing he had more to say. There were new native plant species and variants to add, a deeper understanding of plant ecology and uses to share and, he says, something more important.

“There are different cultural approaches now, and the new version better acknowledges traditional ecological knowledge,” said Kindscher, whose work over the last four decades has involved numerous, ongoing collaborations with Native American tribes through his ethnobotany research on the human uses of plants, medicinal plant research, sustainable harvests of native plants and prairie restoration work.

In addition to updating the title sections for indigenous plant names from “Indian Names” to the preferred “Native American Names,” he added plant monikers used by the Arikara, Comanche, Kansa, Plains Apache and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Tribes to the new edition.

The new edition features more than 119 additional entries on less common plant species and especially in groups of species, such as plums and onions. Descriptions of plants, uses, stories and new maps with better distribution data are paired with lush color photographs, most of which he took himself, to help the reader more accurately identify species. 

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