Important: Safety Warning
This page states that certain wild plants are safe to eat. Its identifications and edibility claims are more than a century old and in some cases simply wrong, and deadly look-alikes exist for many edible species. Never eat a wild plant on the strength of this text.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Snail, Edible
The edible snail of the South of Europe is found in the chalk and oolite districts of the South of England, where it is said to have been introduced from the Continent in the seventeenth century. This, however, is very doubtful. It has a shell about two inches in diameter and two inches in height, whitish or pale tawny, with four darker bands, often not very distinct. By the ancient Romans it was much esteemed as an article of food: they fattened their snails in enclosures made for the purpose, and fed them daintily on meal and boiled wine. It is still in much esteem for the table in various parts of Europe, and is occasionally used in England. The common garden snail is probably as good eating as the edible snail, though it is not so large.