Showing posts with label Black Fruit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black Fruit. Show all posts

Black Nightshade

Scientific Name(s): Solanum nigrum, Solanum ptychanthum, Solanum americanum
Abundance: plentiful
What: leaves, ripe berries
How: berries raw, leaves cooked
Where: yards, fields
When: summer, early fall
Nutritional Value: assorted vitamins, minerals
Dangers: small amounts of toxic alkaloid solanine can be found in green berries and even smaller amounts in leaves. 

Leaf Arrangement: The leaves are arranged alternately along the stems.

Leaf Shape: The leaves are typically ovate to rhombic, with a length ranging from 1 to 3 inches and a width of 1 to 2 inches.

Leaf Venation: The venation is pinnate.

Leaf Margin: The leaf margin is typically entire, with occasional irregularities.

Leaf Color: The leaves are green, darker green on the top with a lighter underside.

Flower Structure: The flowers are small, star-shaped with 5 backwards-pointing petals, with a diameter of approximately 1/4 inch, and are usually found in clusters.

Flower Color: Black nightshade flowers are white with a yellow center.

Fruit: The fruit is a berry, initially green with tiny, white dots and turning black when mature, with a smooth surface.

Seed: Seeds are small, disc-shaped, and numerous within the berry.

Stem: Black nightshade stems are square, green and branching. 

Hairs: Leaves and stem have fine, somewhat coarse hairs.

Height: Black nightshade typically grows to a height of 1 to 3 feet, but it can vary depending on growing conditions.

Black nightshade (Solanum ptychanthum) bush.
BlackNightshadeBush

Black Nightshade

Black Nightshade

Black Nightshade flowers. Note the backwards-pointing petals.
Black Nightshade

Close-up of black nightshade (Solanum ptychanthum) flower (white petals, yellow center.
BlackNightshadeFlower

Closeup of black nightshade (Solanum ptychanthum) fruit. Ripe fruit is black, unripe fruit is speckled green.
BlackNightshadeBerries
Don't eat the green fruit!!

Black nightshade (Solanum ptychanthum) leaves.
BlackNightshadeLeaves

Front (left) and Back (right) of leaves.
Black Nightshade

Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.
BlackNightshadeTX
This map is incomplete.

North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.
BlackNightshade

Spring up uninvited just about anywhere some bare, fertile soil waits, black nightshades with its tiny white flowers, clusters of black berries, and small leaves can grow 3’ to 4’ tall and just as wide between spring and the first frost of winter.

The leaves are lanceolate or elliptic in shape with smooth edges. Looking closely at the flowers, the petals are revealed to be folded backwards, an indication you are looking at the mellow-flavored Solanum ptychanthum aka American nightshade. The berries of this plant start out green with white spots but quickly turn black and edible. Birds love these berries which is why the plant quickly gets spread far and wide via bird poop. You'll find flowers, unripe berries, and ripe berries all at the same time on a single plants as it continuously produces its tiny fruit all summer long.

The main edible portion of Solanum ptychanthum are its leaves which I love cooked in curry sauce then poured over chicken and rice. Time spent with the amazing forager, Sam Thayer, revealed the young, tender leaves are a fine, raw addition to salads. That being said, it's still safest to cook the leaves, especially if you aren't used to eating lots of wild plants. 

The very similar-looking Solanum nigrum is one of the most popular vegetables of Asia and Southern Europe yet here in North America, where it has naturalized, it is lumped in with its much more poisonous family members such as belladonna. Its green, immature berries do contain solanine but the ripe berries are safe to eat. My preferred way of preparing them is baking in muffins and pies. 

Blackberry

Scientific name: Rubus spp.
Abundance: plentiful
What: flowers, berries
How: open mouth, insert flower/fruit, then chew
Where: Sunny wastelands, borders between woods and fields, blackberry plants grow as tall, vertical canes.
When: Spring
Nutritional Value: Vitamins K, E & C, folate, magnesium, manganese, potassium, copper, calories from sugar
Other uses: wine, jelly, tea
Dangers: sharp thorns

Medicinal Summary:
Root/Leaves - anti-diarrheal, soothes gastrointestinal inflammations, soothes skin inflammations (tisane)

Leaf Arrangement: The leaves are arranged alternately along the stems.

Leaf Shape: The leaves are typically compound and consist of three to five leaflets. Each leaflet is generally oval in shape, pointed at the tips, with a length of 2 to 4 inches and a width of 1 to 2 inches.

Leaf Venation: The venation of the leaflets is pinnate, with prominent veins running from the central midrib to the edges.

Leaf Margin: The leaflets usually have serrated or toothed margins, which can be sharp.

Leaf Color: The upper side of the leaves is dark green, while the underside may be a slightly lighter shade of green.

Flower Structure: Blackberry flowers are typically composed of five distinct petals arranged in a radial pattern. They are located in clusters at the tips of the stems.

Flower Color: The flowers can be white or pinkish-white.

Fruit: The fruit of the blackberry is an aggregate of small drupelets, forming a cluster. Each drupelet contains a seed.

Seed: The seeds are small, typically around 0.1 inches in length, and have a dark color.

Stem: The stems are long, stiff, arching canes that are often covered in fine prickles or thorns. Older stems have a square/angular shape rather than being round, with a cross section of approximately 1/4".

Hairs: The stems and leaves may have fine hairs, especially when they are young, contributing to a slightly rough texture.

Height: Blackberry plants can vary in height, but they typically grow to a height of 3 to 10 feet, with arching canes that can reach the ground and root at the tips.

Blackberry flowers
blackberry.jpg

Close-up of Blackberry flowers.
Blackberry

Close-up of unripe Blackberries.
Blackberry

Blackberries in various stages of ripeness.
Blackberry

Blackberry1

A thick Blackberry cane.
Blackberry

Close-up of the tip leaves of a Blackberry cane. Dried, they make excellent tea.

Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.
BlackberryTX

North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.
Blackberry

Blackberry brambles seem to line every roadside, abandoned wasteland, field edge and stream bank in East, Central, and Gulf Coast region of Texas. Other Texas regions also have them if enough water is present. The thorny blackberry canes makes passing through these plants a painful experience. Even the petioles of the leaves can have these spines. The canes begin producing new leaves in late winter, followed by many white flowers in March-April. The appearance of these flowers in Houston tell me it's time to do my taxes! The berries appear 6-10 weeks after the flowers. By mid-summer the blackberry canes will be brown and dried, seemingly dead though if the summer is mild the'll last into the fall.

A delicious tea can be made from blackberry flowers and/or its young leaves. I recommend using the leaves rather than flowers so as to not reduce the amount of fruit produced. For tea, pick young healthy leaves in late morning after any dew has dried but before the sun has had a chance to evaporate the volatile flavoring oils out of the leaves. Dry the leaves before use for a richer flavor. Keep the pot or mug covered so the volatile flavors stay in the tea rather than float out into your kitchen. The combination of blackberry and Yaupon holly leaves makes a most excellent and vitamin-rich tea rich.

The more sun and water the berries get the bigger and sweeter they will be. In dry or cloudy years or if growing in shady areas the berries will be small and tart. Blackberries will be at maximum ripeness when they are swollen and flat black. Shine black fruit are not quiet ripe yet and so won’t be at their maximum sweetness. These berries are fantastic raw, made into jelly, jam, or wine, boiled down into a syrup, made into cobbler or mixed into ice cream. Seriously, any dessert you have in mind can be made with blackberries!

An individual cane will only bear fruit in its second year. Once you've harvested the cane’s berries cut and dispose of the cane to make next year’s berry harvest easier. Beware of snakes and fire ant mounds hidden by the thick brambles as you pick the berries.

The technical name for this type of plant structure is a "cane" but I put it under "Vine" to make it easier to find by beginners.


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Creeping Cucumber

Scientific name: Melothria pendula
Abundance: uncommon
What: green (unripe) fruit
How: raw
Where: woods, borders, stream banks
When: spring, summer, fall
Nutritional Value: carbohydrates and protein
Dangers: The seeds/fruit contain a POWERFUL laxative when ripe, so avoid purple or black fruit, only eat light-green ones.

Leaf Arrangement: The leaves of Melothria pendula are arranged alternately along the stem.

Leaf Shape: Leaves are usually simple, ovate to cordate, measuring approximately 1 to 2 inches in length.

Leaf Venation: Palmate venation, with multiple veins running outwards from the base to the edges of each leaf.

Leaf Margin: The leaf margin is typically entire or slightly toothed.

Leaf Color: The leaves are usually medium green.

Flower Structure: The flowers are1/4" across, with 5 notched petals fused together at their bases, and occur in small clusters at leaf-stem junctions.

Flower Color: Flowers are yellow.

Fruit: The immature fruit is small, green, and ovoid, resembling miniature watermelons about 1" in length. Ripe fruit is very dark purple and also about 1" long.

Seed: Inside the fruit are small, flat, and brown seeds.

Stem: The stems have tendrils, located at the leaf-stem junction, for climbing.

Hairs: Leaves may have extremely fine hairs.

Height: Melothria pendula is a low-growing vine, typically trailing or climbing, and can reach varying heights.


Creeping Cucumber vine with unripe but edible fruit.
CreepingCucumber2

Unripe fruit (which is when you eat it), flower, tendril, and leaf.
CreepingCucumber1
The leaf is at a bad angle so you can't see it's true shape.

Close-up of Creeping Cucumber fruit at the right stage to eat.
creepingCucumberFruit2

Fruit cut in half.
CreepingCucumberFruit1

Creeping Cucumber leaf.
CreepingCucumberLeaf

Close-ups of the Creeping Cucumber flower.
CreepingCucumberFlower

Five petals fused at the bases, with a notch in the top of each.
CreepingCucumberFlower2

Ripe, purple Creeping Cucumbers, which should not be eaten!
Creeping Cucumber
Picture courtesy of Wildcat.

Busted open, the insides of ripe Creeping Cucumbers seem grape-like but with flat, pale seeds.
Creeping Cucumber

Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.
CreepingCucumberTX

North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.
CreepingCucumber

Creeping Cucumbers are tiny, delicious, cucumber-flavored fruit that look like little watermelons when young but then turn a dark purple/black when ripe. Do NOT eat the ripe (purple/black) fruit! At that stage they are an incredibly powerful laxative. Only eat the light-green, watermelony looking fruits.

These vines are found in moist areas both in sun and in shady areas. I've found them along stream banks in the deep shade of the Texas Piney Woods as well as growing along a sunny wall in downtown Houston where a sprinkler kept the soil wet. They begin growing in early spring and continue to live through the summer and fall. They can even be found through the winter if it is mild enough, but a frost usually kills them.

The unripe, light-green fruit is eaten raw without peeling and really does taste just like a cucumber. Use it anywhere you would use a cucumber, though I have not tried making pickles out of them. There's no reason pickling them shouldn't work. The vines will produce new fruit as long as it lives so it's quite common to find flowers, unripe fruit and ripe fruit all on the same vine right up until a frost hits.

I am not kidding when I say the ripe (purple/black) fruit is a powerful laxative. Its bowel-purging effects hits very rapidly and very uncontrollably and can result in serious injury to the body from dehydration.


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Dewberry

Scientific name: Rubus species
Abundance: plentiful
What: flowers, berries
How: open mouth, insert flower/fruit, then chew. seep flowers/young leaves in hot water for tea
Where: Sunny wastelands, borders between woods and fields. Dewberry plants grow as a low, horizontal ground cover.
When: Spring
Other uses: wine, jelly, tea, wine
Nutritional Value: carbohydrates, vitamin C; small amount of minerals and vitamins A & B
Dangers: sharp thorns

Medicinal Summary:
Root/Leaves - anti-diarrheal, soothes gastrointestinal inflammations, soothes skin inflammations (tisane)

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are arranged in an alternate pattern along the stem.

Leaf Shape: Leaves are compound with three to five leaflets. Each leaflet is oval-shaped, measuring approximately 1 to 3 inches in length and 0.5 to 1.5 inches in width.

Leaf Venation: Leaflet venation is pinnate, with a central vein extending through each leaflet.

Leaf Margin: Margins are finely toothed or serrated.

Leaf Color: The color of the leaves is a deep green on the upper surface and a lighter green beneath.

Flower Structure: Flowers are solitary or in small clusters, located at the ends of the stems or axils.

Flower Color: The flowers are white or light pink, with each flower having five petals, measuring about 0.5 to 1 inch in diameter.

Fruit: The fruit is a small, aggregate berry.

Seed: Each berry contains multiple small seeds, which are hard and tan in color.

Stem: The stems are trailing or arching, with many small thorns.

Hairs: The stems and underside of leaves may have fine hairs.

Height: As a trailing plant, the height is typically low to the ground.


Ripe fruit.
dewberry

Unripe fruit.
dewberry.jpg

Getting more ripe.

Dewberry flowers.
DewberryFlower1

Close-up of dewberry flower.
DewBerryFlowerRuler

Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.
DewberryTX

North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.
Dewberry

Dewberry vines can be found overrunning just about any sunny or shady open area. The dewberry plant creeps along the ground as a thorny vine as opposed to blackberries which grow in the form of an upright cane. Dewberries are common along Texas roadsides, fields, abandoned land, and woodland paths. The vines are quite thin, having diameters not much larger than the a pencil lead, but are tough and grow into impassable mats. The sweetest fruits will be found in areas that receive full sun but also plenty of water.

A delicious tea can be made from dewberry flowers in the spring and its young leaves spring/summer/fall. I recommend using the leaves rather than flowers so not to reduce the amount of fruit produced. For tea pick young healthy leaves in late morning after any dew has dried but before the sun has had a chance to evaporate the volatile flavoring oils out of the leaves. Dry the leaves before use for a richer flavor as that will allow the cell walls to break down some, allowing the flavoring agents to escape the cells into your cup. The combination of dewberry and yaupon holly leaves makes a most excellent and vitamin-rich tea rich.


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Elderberry

Scientific name: Sambucus canadensis
Abundance: common
What: flowers, berries
How: the flowers can be eaten raw or fried as fritters, the berries are best when cooked into muffins/pancakes/waffles, made into jam or wine
Where: edges, wet areas
When: summer
Nutritional Value: Vitamin A & C, calcium, iron, sterols, and flavonoids.
Dangers: all other parts of plant (bark, leaves, wood) are poisonous. Berry clusters must be flat, kind of like cauliflower, not rounded like a globe. Compounds in elderberry flowers and berries can disrupt chemotherapy drugs.

Medicinal Summary:
Flowers, Berries - immune system stimulant (syrup, tincture, tisane)

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are opposite, arranged in pairs along the stem.

Leaf Shape: Compound leaves with 5 to 11 leaflets. Each leaflet measures around 2 to 4 inches in length.

Leaf Margin: Leaflet margins are serrated with fine teeth.

Leaf Color: Foliage is typically dark green.

Flower Structure: Large, flat-topped clusters of tiny, fragrant, white flowers known as umbels.

Flower Color: Flowers are typically creamy white and bloom in late spring to early summer. The flowers have five petals, with a diameter of the individual flower being 1/4". 

Fruit (Berry-Like): The fruit is a small, dark purple to black berry, around 1/4 to 1/3 inches in diameter growing in umbel-like clusters.

Bark: Young stems are smooth and green, while older stems are gray with small, dark spots. Beneath the bark is a soft, white pith.

Height: American elderberry can grow to be 5 to 12 feet tall.

Hairs: Stems and leaves are generally smooth.

Growth Form: American elderberry has a multi-stemmed, shrub-like growth form.

Stands of elderberry can be 12'-14' tall.
elderberry1.jpg

Elderberry 7-20-2015

Elderberries along a stream bank.
Elderberry

The flowers start out as small, light-green balls then open up into white/cream flowers with five petals.
Elderberry

The flower clusters are shaped kind of like cauliflower in an "umbel" (aka umbrella shape).
Elderberry

Flowers (edible).
elderberryflowers.jpg

Close-up of flowers after harvesting.
ElderberryFlowers

ElderberryFlowers

Dark purple-black fruit (edible dry or cooked, not raw).
Elderberries.jpg

Elderberries

Close-up of compound (multi-leaflets) leaves (topside).
ElderberryLeaves

Close-up of compound leaves (underside).
Elderberry

By the end of summer the leaves can become very complex.
Elderberry

Stem/trunk of Elderberry. The spots where from leaves growing from the stem in previous years.
ElderberryStem

Getting ready to make a batch of Grandpa's "Cure's what ails ya!" (Godzilla movie not required). Directions below.
Elderberry

Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.
Elderberry

North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.
Elderberry

Stands of elderberry are most common along streams and other moist areas. Standing approximately 10 feet tall with compound leaves and green-to-gray, bumpy bark and white pithy interiors, elderberries are distinctive shrubs or small trees. The cauliflower-shaped clusters of white flowers appear in early spring, flowered by clusters of green and then dark purple berries. The plant will continue to produce flower clusters through the summer and berries into early fall. One has to be quick to gather the berries as birds love them!

The elderberry flowers are a good raw snack, eaten right off the tree. Other popular uses include adding the flowers to muffins, pancakes, frosting and batter-frying them into fritters. They can also be used to flavor assorted non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks.

The berries do NOT taste great raw due to the presence of a rather off-putting volatile oil. However, drying or cooking the berries drives off this chemical resulting in a really good flavor. Add the berries raw or dried berries to pancakes, muffins or other batter-style cooked goods. Elderberry jam and jelly is an old-time favorite. Of course, the most popular way to use elderberries is to make wine!

My grandfather used to make great elderberry wine. He also made a general illness preventative/cure medicine called "Cure's what ails ya!" from the flowers by filling a 1 quart canning 1/3 to 1/2 full with fresh elderberry flowers (no stems!) then adding 1 tablespoon of sugar, two shots of Triple Sec orange liquor and filling to jar almost to the top with vodka. The jar was sealed tightly then shook twice a day for 6-8 week. At that point the solids were strained out and the fluid transferred into a tightly capped bottle. I am NOT giving medical advice but two shoots of this was our family treatment when we felt an illness coming on. Western science suggests elderberry flowers and berries contain the immune-system stimulating molecule "Sambucol" which can also be bought over the counter in pharmacies for use in fighting viral infections. Please note that if you are on immune system suppresants, such as after an organ transplant or if you suffer from an auto-immune disease, you should avoid consuming elderberry products.

There are two plants people often mistake for elderberry, Chinese Privet (Ligustrum sinense) and Arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum). Chinese Privet is slightly toxic and has simple rather than compound leaves though they are all lined up so as to look a little like the compound leaves of elderberry, but smaller and not pointed at the end. Chinese Privet fruit appears in the fall/winter in grape-like clusters of dark, purple, somewhat football-shaped berries instead of the umbels of elderberry berry clusters.

These are Pokeweed berries which are deadly. Note that they grow in a column rather than an umbrella-shape.
PokeweedBerries

Chinese Privet berries and leaves. This plant is commonly mistaken for Elderberry but it is POISONOUS.
Privet

Chinese Privet

Arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum) produce umbel-shaped clusters of small, white flowers that look just like elderberry flowers but as with the Chinese Privet, Arrowwood leaves reveal its true identity. Arrows leaves are simple, oppositely-opposed along its branches and have toothed edges. After the flowers pass umbel-shaped clusters of grayish-purple, football-shaped berries ending in little dried flower bits appear. These fruit are edible but tasteless.

Arrowwood flowers (edibility unknown...so don't eat them).
Viburnum dentata

Arrowwood leaves (not edible).
Viburnum dentata

Arrowwood berries (edible but tasteless).
Viburnum dentata


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

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