More than 1.4 million people watch Alexis Nikole Nelson, the “Black Forager”, eat weeds on TikTok.
The 29-year-old romps through forests and hedgerows in Columbus, Ohio, featuring extreme closeups on her grin as she eats “coral fungus” or “dandelion coffee”, while teaching people how to avoid the “Tommy, no-nos!” (Alexis’s term for “poisonous”).
Earlier this month her appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show making violet lemonade prompted the New Yorker to rave that she was “building an army of florivores”.
But the rise of Nelson, who founded her channel in 2019 alongside her job as social media manager, is the topsoil on a wider movement.
Behind her are hundreds more African American “plantrepeneurs” on social media, springing up to dig out space for black people in the natural world.
