The aim of this review is to present an overview of changes in the contemporary use of wild food plants in Europe, mainly using the examples of our home countries: Poland, Italy, Spain, Estonia and Sweden. We set the scene referring to the nutrition of 19th century peasants, involving many famine and emergency foods. Later we discuss such issues as children's wild snacks, the association between the decline of plant knowledge and the disappearance of plant use, the effects of over-exploitation, the decrease of the availability of plants due to ecosystem changes, land access rights for foragers and intoxication dangers. We also describe the 20th and 21st century vogues in wild plant use, particularly their shift into the domain of haute-cuisine.

This paper is an ethnobotanical review of wild edible plants gathered for consumption from the end of the 18th century to the present day, within the present borders of Poland.

This paper is an ethnobotanical review of wild edible plants gathered for consumption from the 19th century to the present day, within the present borders of Slovakia. Twenty-four sources (mainly ethnographic) documenting the culinary use of wild plants were analysed. The use of 106 species (over 3% of the Slovak flora) has been recorded. Nowadays most of them are no longer used, or used rarely, apart from a few species of wild fruits. The most frequently used plants include the fruits of Rubus idaeus, Fragaria spp., Rubus subgenus Rubus, Vaccinium myrtillus, V. vitis-idaea, Fagus sylvatica, Corylus avellana, Prunus spinosa, Pyrus spp., Malus spp., Crataegus spp. and the leaves of Urtica dioica, Rumex acetosa, Chenopodiaceae species, Cardamine amara, Glechoma spp., Taraxacum spp. and Oxalis acetosella. The most commonly used wild food taxa are nearly identical to those used in Poland, and the same negative association of wild vegetables with famine exists in Slovakia, resulting in their near complete disappearance from the present-day diet.

Humans the world over have depended on wild-growing plants in their diets for hundreds of thousands of years, and many people continue to rely on these species to meet at least part of their daily nutritional needs. Wild harvested plant foods include: roots and other underground parts; shoots and leafy greens; berries and other fleshy fruits; grains, nuts and seeds; and mushrooms, lichens, algae and other species. Use of any of these species requires special cultural knowledge regarding harvesting, preparation, cooking and other forms of processing. Many were, and are, prepared and served in mixtures or combinations. In most cases, too, the species are managed, tended or manipulated in some way to increase their productivity and availability. Many of the most widely used species are categorized as weeds—species that grow and reproduce readily in disturbed or cleared land, and are common around human settlements and agricultural areas. This paper presents case examples of edible wild plant use and the roles of these species in agroecosystems from different parts of the world and discusses similarities and differences in use across different cultures and segments of society.