American Holly

Scientific Name: Ilex opaca
Abundance: common
What: leaves
How: dried then made into tea
Where: shady woods
When: spring, summer, fall, winter
Nutritional Value: flavoring
Dangers: do not consume berries

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are alternate along the stem.

Leaf Shape: Simple, evergreen leaves with a smooth, elliptical shape, typically measuring 2 to 4 inches in length. Leaves are thicker and stiffer than many other tree leaves.

Leaf Margin: Leaf margins are spiny and serrated.

Leaf Color: Foliage is glossy dark green, maintaining its color throughout the year. Underside of leaf is lighter colored than the top.

Flower Structure: Inconspicuous, small, white flowers with four petals are arranged in clusters.

Flower Size: Individual flowers are around 1/8 inch in size.

Fruit (Drupe): The fruit is a bright red drupe, around 1/4 inch in diameter, containing four nutlets.

Bark: Bark is smooth and gray on young stems, becoming grayish-brown with age.

Height: American holly can grow to be a small to medium-sized tree, reaching heights of 20 to 50 feet.

Hairs: All parts are hairless.

Branching Pattern: The branching pattern is typically dense and pyramidal, forming a compact crown.

American holly leaves and berries in winter.


Close-ups of American holly leaves. Note the lighter-colored underside.




Close-up berries. They are toxic, do not eat!


American holly trunk.


American holly tree.


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.


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


The American holly can be found all over the woods of east Texas. Growing in shade to heights up to fifty feet tall, this evergreen, pointy-leafed tree are the traditional source of Christmas wreaths. The berries are somewhat toxic and should not be eaten but the dried leaves make a pleasant, slightly wintergreen-flavored tea. Let the leaves dry for at least six weeks before using for tea. waiting this long will allow the leaves' cell walls to break down some, making it easier for the flavors to seep out.


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.

Yaupon Holly

Scientific name: Ilex vomitoria
Abundance: plentiful
What: tea from leaves
How: Dry leaves, add boiling water
Where: woods
When: all year
Nutritional Value: caffeine and antioxidants
Dangers: Avoid the berries as they taste bad. Do not mistake Yaupon holly for the toxic Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense). See below to learn how to tell them apart.

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are alternate along the stem.

Leaf Shape: Simple, evergreen leaves with a smooth, elliptical shape, typically measuring 1/2 to 1 inch in length.

Leaf Margin: Leaf margins are toothed (rounded serrations).

Leaf Color: Foliage is glossy dark green on top and lighter green underneath, maintaining its color throughout the year.

Flower Structure: Inconspicuous, small, white flowers with four petals are arranged in clusters. Often surrounded by bees.

Flower Size: Individual flowers are around 1/8 inch in size.

Fruit (Drupe): The fruit is a red to black drupe, around 1/4 inch in diameter, containing four seeds.

Bark: Bark is smooth and gray with lighter gray-white mottling.

Height: Yaupon holly can grow as a large shrub or small tree, reaching heights of 15 to 25 feet.

Hairs: All parts are hairless.

Branching Pattern: The branching pattern is typically dense and upright, forming a compact crown. Multiple trunks are common.

Female Yaupon holly with berries in the fall-winter.


Female Yaupon holly in mid-summer. Male Yaupon hollies don't produce berries.


Female Yuapon holly in the late fall.


Close-up of Yaupon holly leaves.


The leaves of Yaupon holly and Chinese privet are very similar in shape and size. An easy way to tell them apart is the leaves of the Chinese privet grow in a uniform pinnate manner. The leaves of Yaupon holly have a random, chaotic growth pattern. Just remember "chaos = caffeine"! Also note that the edges of Yaupon holly leaves are bumpy whereas Chinese privet leaves have a smooth edge.


Left: yaupon holly (SAFE)
Right: Chinese privet (TOXIC)

Closer-up picture of the leaves.

Left: yaupon holly (SAFE)
Right: Chinese privet (TOXIC)

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.


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


Most east Texas landowners consider the small, gray-trunked Yaupon holly trees to be an invasive species. However, they are native and their prolific nature just shows how well adapted they are to this region. If you're a bird watcher, planting one (or more!) of these in your yard will insure a steady stream of cardinals, finches, jays, and many other birds come to feast on Yaupon holly's red berries. But don't you eat the berries as they make humans throw up!

Yaupon holly leaves, however, are truly a gift. They are the only naturally occurring source of caffeine that grows in Texas. And it's not just caffeine they bring! The leaves are also loaded with antioxidants and all the other compounds that make traditional green tea good for you. On top of all that, tea made from the leaves has a slight, natural sweetness to it making it not just fantastically good for you but also wonderful tasting.

Yaupon holly leaves are an excellent source of caffeine. There are a few different ways to prepare yaupon holly leaves for brewing tea. The easiest and most effective method for freeing the caffeine is to air-dry them by cutting of a branch, hanging it indoors in a warm, dry area (not in direct sunlight) and let the leaves dry naturally. Most of the leaves will fall off the branch as they dry so lay a towel or something under it to catch the leaves. This method can take two weeks or more depending on the temperature and humidity. Slow-drying it like this allows naturally-occurring enzymes inside the plant cells to begin breaking holes through the cell wall. These holes allow the caffeine to escape into your hot water when making tea.

Forced-drying the leaves in a dehydrator or an oven set at 200F is popular. It is fast, usually taking just a day and this quick drying but will not allow as much caffeine to be released compared to slow air-drying. Leaves done this way are somewhat similar to green tea in mouth-appeal. It doesn't taste like green tea, but it has several similar "under-flavors", if that makes any sense.

The most complex, richest flavors comes from roasting the leaves in an oven set at 400F. I prefer to do this after the two week drying period. This requires some practice and experimentation. Lay the leaves on a cookie-sheet. There can be some overlap but each leaf needs some exposure to the air. Put the cookie-sheet in the oven and watch the leaves as they turn brown. Start with them being in the oven for just 4 minutes. The darker you let the leaves get the more roasted and complex flavors you will release. Warning: if they get too dark they'll have a scorched flavor.

Caffeine has recently been shown to help protect the brain from Alzheimer's disease, which is pretty dang awesome!!

Dried Yaupon holly leaves were smoked as part of assorted Native American rituals.


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.

Honey Locust

Scientific name: Gleditsia Triacanthos
Abundance: common
What: buds, flowers, young seed pods, seeds
How: raw or cooked in soups and stews, tea/drink
Where: sunny, arid land
When: Spring, summer.
Nutritional Value: sugar, protein, minerals
Other uses: extremely hot and fragrant firewood
Dangers: These can occasionally contain toxic, bitter tasting compounds. Only use sweet-tasting honey locusts.

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are alternate and compound, with each leaflet measuring 1 to 2 inches in length.

Leaf Shape: Bipinnately compound leaves with 20 to 30 leaflets arranged on each pinna.

Leaf Color: Foliage is typically bright green, turning yellow in the fall.

Thorns: Many honey locust trees have thorns, which can vary in size but can be up to 8 inches long.

Flower Structure: Inconspicuous, greenish-yellow flowers are arranged in clusters.

Flower Size: Individual flowers are very small, around 1/4 inch in size.

Pods (Seed Pods): The fruit is a flat, twisted pod (legume) that is dark brown when ripe, measuring 6 to 18 inches long. The inside of these pods contain a line of hard, dark beans each approximately 1/4" long, surrounded by an orange, sweet goo.

Bark: Bark is gray to brown, with deep furrows and ridges.

Height: Honey locust trees can grow to be 60 to 80 feet tall.

Hairs: Tiny, fine hairs may be found on undersides of leaflets and on skin of seed pods.

Honey locust spines on trunk of tree. Note how the spines have spines!




Honey locust leaf, compound in structure. Each of the ovals is a single leaflet portion of the full leaf.


Honey locust spines on branches along with flowers.


Close-ups of very young honey locust seed pods.




Close-up of honey locust spine.


Almost mature Honey Locust pods. At this point they can be collected for the taste good they contain.


Mature honey locust seed pod. Eat the yellow/orange "goo" between the hard seeds.


Size 12 foot next to fallen Honey Locust seedpods.


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.


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


Growing to almost 100 feet tall and living up to 120 years, Honey Locust trees are distinguished...and wicked protectors of wooded areas. Their trunks and mature branches are covered with sea urchin-like clusters of spines up to four inches long! They have a broad crown that offers lovely, dappled shade during the summer. Come fall it's compound leaves turn yellow and then drop leaving the dark gray, bumpy bark to stand stark against the winter sky.

These tall, spiky trees are often found on the edges of woods and to a lesser extent in the interior. In either case it's likely they'll be surrounded by many small honey locust saplings. The springtime flowers are beloved by bees and make an excellent honey. The young, tender pods can be cooked like green beans. The yellow/gold "goo" between the seeds inside both green and mature seedpods is sweet and tastes like honey. The hard, mature seeds can be ground into a calorie rich, gluten-free flour after removing them from the long, flat pod.


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.

Honey Mesquite

Scientific name: Prosopis glandulosa
Abundance: plentiful
What: young leaves, seed pods, seeds
How: seed pods raw, cooked; mature beans pounded into flour, made into tofu or tea. Young leaves in salad or cooked like spinach
Where: arid fields
When: late summer, early fall
Nutritional Value: carbohydrates, protein, calcium
Other uses: excellent firewood
Dangers: up to 20% of mesquite pods are infected with very dangerous aflatoxin-producing fungus. Only pick pods that are still on the tree and have not been attacked by hole-boring beetles.

Leaf Arrangement: Bipinnate compound leaves arranged alternately along the stems.

Leaf Shape: Small, elongated leaflets, measuring approximately 0.25 to 0.75 inches in length.

Leaf Color: Green to bluish-green foliage.

Leaflet Margin: Leaflets have entire margins without serrations.

Flower Structure: Small, yellow-green, inconspicuous flowers arranged in elongated spikes (racemes).

Flower Size: Individual flowers are very small, typically less than 0.2 inches.

Fruit (Pods): Long, flat, narrow, curved seed pods (legumes) measuring around 4 to 8 inches. green when immature, turning reddish-brown as they ripen.

Seed Size: Seeds within the pods are small, about 0.2 to 0.4 inches.

Bark: Bark is often rough, dark brown to gray.

Height: Mature trees can reach heights of 15 to 30 feet.

Honey mesquite tree.


Honey mesquite bark and spines.


Honey mesquite trees have compound leaves consisting of many leaflets.


Just-opened honey mesquite flowers (racemes).


More mature flowers transitioning into seedpods.


Young mesquite seed pods.


Pods almost mature.


Mature honey mesquite seed pod.


A mesquite pod picked from the ground. The hole indicates a beetle may have been infected it with dangerous aflatoxin fungus, rendering it unusable.


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.


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


Dotting (or perhaps creating!) the arid regions of Texas, mesquite trees are becoming nuisance thickets. Their huge demand for water sucks the land around them dry, preventing the growth of most other plants. The dense, aromatic wood has a long history of being used to add the distinctive taste to grilled foods. This wood burns extremely hot and can destroy chimneys and melt metal fire rings so be careful with it. Historical note, the underground roots of dead mesquite trees were considered to be an excellent source of firewood.

Mesquite seeds/seed pods are rich in protein, minerals, and fructose. This fructose makes them an exceptionally good food source for diabetics as the body does not use insulin to break down the fructose. The hard, shucked beans can be dried for storage and ground into a calorie-rich flour as needed. Be warned thought that these beans are extremely hard and require a very high-quality grain mill to crush them.

The dried beans can be roasted to make a tea/caffeine-free coffee substitute. Roast them for a few minutes at 400F then crush them before boiling to make the tea.

Pods that have fallen to the ground or which have bore-holes in them have up to a 20% chance of being infected by a aflatoxin-producing fungus. However, undamaged pods still on the tree are unlikely to have this problem. Most adults are quite resistant to aflatoxin effects but small children can be at risk. Very large doses of aflatoxin can eventually cause liver cancer.


Buy my book! Idiots Guide 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.

Horehound

Scientific Name(s): Marrubium vulgare
Abundance: uncommon
What: leaves, flowers
How: tea, candied
Where: fields, dry areas, poor soils
When: spring, early summer
Nutritional Value: flavonoids, medicinal properties
Dangers: large doses can increase blood pressure

Medicinal Summary:
Leaves - cough suppressant; expectorant; appetite stimulant; antimicrobial (tisane, lozenge, tincture)

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are arranged in an opposite-alternating pattern along the stem.

Leaf Shape: The leaves are broadly ovate to heart-shaped, typically measuring about 1 to 2 inches in length and width.

Leaf Venation: Venation is palmate, with a central vein and smaller branching veins. Veins are quite recessed on the topside of the leaf and protruding on the underside.

Leaf Margin: The leaf margins are irregularly toothed or serrated.

Leaf Color: Leaves are a grayish-green, often with a woolly texture due to dense hairs.

Flower Structure: Flowers are small, clustered in dense whorls at the leaf axils along the stem.

Flower Color: The flowers are white to pale pink, each with a tubular shape and protruding stamens.

Fruit: The fruit is a small nutlet, typically found in pairs.

Seed: Seeds are contained within the nutlets, small and hard.

Stem: The stem is square in cross-section, a common trait in the mint family, and is often covered in dense, woolly hairs.

Hairs: The plant is characterized by its woolly, grayish hairs, covering both the stems and leaves.

Height: The plant typically grows to a height of about 1 to 2 feet.

A stand of horehound plants.


An individual horehound plant.




Close-up of the horehound top and flowers.


Close-up of a horehound leaf.




Close-up of a horehound stem. Note it's fuzziness.




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.


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


Horehound has a long history of medicinal use, which, to anyone who's ever tasted a concoction containing this plant, will not find surprising. Horehound's flavor is somewhat unusual to modern tastes. If forced to describe horehound's flavor I'd say it's what happens when root beer and licorice mate.

Both fresh and dried horehound leaves can be used to make a tea. Chop up or crumble the leaves fairly finely to maximize exposed surface area, but you need to leave the pieces big enough to strain out of the finished product. The best way is to start with 1 cup fresh leaves or 1/4 cup dried leave and boil them in 2 cups of water for ten minutes, followed by straining out the leaves. As is, the resulting fluid is too strong to drink straight. The next step is to mix one part of this infusion with 2 parts boiling water. This tea can now be drank straight as a hot beverage or cooled down to make an ice tea.

The original infusion mentioned above can be turned into a pleasant and beneficial cough syrup by combining one part infusion with two parts honey. Perhaps the most famous form of horehound is in hard candies sucked to sooth coughs. To make these candies mix 1 cup of the original infusion with two cups granulated sugar and a pinch of cream of tartar. Stir these together until the sugar dissolves, then slowly cook the mixture down until its temperature reads 300 degrees Fahrenheit on a candy thermometer. At this point pour the solution out onto a non-stick or buttered tray and then as it cools cut it into bite-sized pieces as it cools.


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.