Page 2 of this issue features a captioned slide show on how to harvest and prepare Spiderwort, and further information on how to identify the plant. Botanical, historical, and medicinal information, recipes, and links can be found on Page 3.

Tools Required: None.
Total field harvesting time: 5 minutes
Total home preparation time: 15 minutes
Yield: leaves, stems, flowers, seed pods. Roots are supposed to be edible too, but this writer has no experience with the roots.
Flavor: Bland, somewhat like asparagus.
Harvesting Tips: Harvest before it flowers for tenderest stalks, but it's still edible afterwards. Each stalk will snap off where it's tender. These would make excellent cut flowers except that each flower lasts only one day.
Storage: Keeps in refrigerator for several days. Gets tough if you freeze it whole, but you can freeze soup (See page 3).
Serving Suggestions : tops raw in salads or alone; great trail food, cook stems (with leaves or stripped) just like asparagus (steam, boil, puree for soup). Flowers can be candied. Roots are used in Indian cooking, but I've never tried it.
Notes:
Nutritional properties: Can't find info on this, but they certainly contain nutrition and fiber. Just because a plant exists doesn't mean it's been studied scientifically yet. There's a lot more research needed on planet Earth.
Medicinal properties: None that I know of. Go to Page 3 to learn more.

Spiderwort growing in a clump.
Here's a clump about 3 feet across. Some stalks are obviously older than others, as suggested by the flowering tops.
Other stalks are just beginning to bud, and some are younger still.

Spiderwort at a young age. Stems are most succulent before it flowers.

A little later than this is a good age to begin your harvest, for tenderest stems. Leave the roots in the ground and they'll come up year after year. Photo at right shows how each leaf comes out at an alternate position, on opposite sides of the round stalk. If you lay the stem down on a table, the whole thing lies flat. Also, the stem grows in nodes, like bamboo. Unfortunately, it's might be hard for some to distinguish this from many another weed until the first 3 petaled flower opens. But, since it comes back in the same place year after year, once you have a spot marked, the next year you'll be able to make a positive ID. Also, when the first flower blooms, there will likely be younger plants all around it, another way to positively ID the younger plants.

Identification:

One of the easiest weeds to identify and harvest. No look-alikes once they're flowering, but some grow in clumps, others stand alone. Flower colors range from pink to purple to lavendar to white and flower size can vary from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inch across, depending on the variety. Flower shape remains the same - three short petals only.