Grape - Mustang

Scientific name: Vitis mustangensis
Abundance: plentiful
What: fruits, leaves, young tendrils
How: fruit raw (very tart), cooked, dried, preserves, wine; leaves and tendrils cooked,
Where: Edges of woods. Mustang grape leaves are fuzzy and have a white underside.
When: summer
Nutritional Value: calories, antioxidants
Other uses: water can be obtained from the vines (see technique in grapes- muscadine post), wild yeast from the fruit
Dangers: Mustang grapes are very acidic and handling/eating large amounts of the raw fruit can cause burns to hands and mouth.

Leaf Arrangement: The leaves of Vitis mustangensis are arranged alternately along the stem.

Leaf Shape: Leaves of young vines are typically simple, palmately lobed with three to five lobes, each lobe being ovate, measuring approximately 2 to 5 inches in width. Leaves of mature vines lack the deep lobes.

Leaf Venation: Palmate venation, with veins running from the leaf base out to the tip of each leaf lobe.

Leaf Margin: The leaf margin is typically serrated or toothed.

Leaf Color: Tops of leaves are green while undersides are light gray.

Flower Structure: The flowers are small and greenish, occurring in clusters known as inflorescences. Each individual flower is 1/8" in diameter or smaller

Flower Color: Flowers are typically greenish-yellow.

Fruit: The fruit is a grape, often larger than most grape species, with a diameter ranging from approximately 1/2 to 1 inch, and usually dark purple to black when ripe. The fruit grow on long, clusters, just like store-bought grapes.

Seed: Inside the grape are small, round, and brown seeds.

Stem: The stem is typically climbing, with tendrils for support. Bases of mature mustang grape vines can be over 4" in diameter.

Hairs: Fine hairs are present on the leaves, especially the leaf underside, and on the stems.

Height: Vitis mustangensis is a climbing vine and can reach varying heights depending on its support structure.

Mustang grape vine with unripe fruit. Note that the top of the leaves are green while their underside is white/gray. Both sides of the leaf are fuzzy to the touch.




Almost-ripe Mustang grapes.

The leaves of young mustang grape vines are more deeply lobed (left) than the leaves of mature vines (right).

The lobed leaves can get quite large, depending on growing conditions.


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.


Mustang grapes are easy to tell apart by their leaves from other wild grapes. The topside are dark green and smooth while the undersides are gray and fuzzy like the nose of a horse. These grapes are the first to ripen in the summer here in Texas. Their skins are thick and tough, surrounding a very tart, gelatinous interior containing several small seeds. This acidic tartness of the mustang grape skins makes them unpleasant to eat raw and can result in acid burns on your mouth and fingers. However, this acid gives them a complex flavor when made into jam/jelly or wine. When making jelly include some skins of green/unripe grapes as a source of pectin.

I love this book for wine-making recipes: 101 Recipes for Making Wild Wines

Due to their fuzziness, the leaves less commonly used in grape leaf recipes, but there's no flavor or other reason not to use them.

Mustang grapes seem to prefer climbing along fences, old farm equipment, and other abandoned works of mankind in sunny fields.


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.

Greenbriar

Scientific name: Smilax spp.
Abundance: plentiful
What: tender vines (portion easily snapped off by hand), tendrils, tubers, leaves, berries
How: vines and tendrils are eaten raw, steamed or baked; roots are sliced, then pounded and boiled to free starch; berries eaten raw or made into jams or jelly
Where: shady forests
When: All year
Nutritional Value: tubers high in starch & minerals; leaves & stems high assorted vitamins and minerals.
Dangers: sharp thorns

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

Leaf Shape: Leaves are typically simple and vary in shape, ranging from ovate to lanceolate, depending on the species.

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

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

Leaf Color: The leaves can vary in color but are often medium to dark green. Mottling may be present on some species.

Flower Structure: Greenbriar produces clusters of small, inconspicuous flowers.

Flower Color: Flowers are typically greenish-white or greenish-yellow.

Fruit: The fruit is typically a berry, often round or oval in shape, and can be red, dark blue, or black, depending on the species. Skin is thin but tough, inside is a clear or gray/offwhite flesh that is very chewy.

Seed: Inside the berry are small seeds.

Stem: The stem is typically climbing or trailing, often with thorns or prickles, for the first 9 feet in height. Two tendrils grow from the base of each leaf. 

Root: The roots produce large, woody tubers with red-pink skins. Flesh inside the tubers will be white or faint pink when you, turning more red and tough/woody as the tuber ages. 

Hairs: Smilax are generally hairless

Height: Greenbriar is a climbing or trailing vine and can reach varying heights depending on its support structure.

Edible tip of greenbriar (bullbriar) vine.


Close-up of greenbriar (bullbriar) vine tip.


Edible tip of other Greenbriar. Note the thorns and two tendrils at base of leaf.


Greenbriars and Catbriars are the only vines with both thorns and tendrils.






Greenbriar (bullbriar) tubers and vines.


Same tuber body as above after digging up. The youngest, best tuber will be the white one next to where the vine joins the tubers.


This is an ideal Greenbriar tuber!


Some tubers turned up by a construction crew.


Close-up of greenbriar (bullbriar) tuber.


Berries in January. They have a slight sweet taste and contain 1-2 inedible seeds.




Slicing up a tuber in preparation for collecting it's starch.


Dried slices of greenbriar (bullbriar) naturally turn reddish-orange.


Leaves of different types of Catbriar. They are all palmate-veined.


Edible tip of catbriar.






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.


If there's woods near you there's likely Greenbriar in those woods! Greenbriar is one of the best wild foods available as it can be found in immense quantities all year-round, it's vine tips taste really good, they are very nutritious, and its tubers are a great source of calories. Greenbriars are the only vines that have both tendrils and thorns making them easy to identify.

To find the edible tips just pull on the greenbriar vine until you get to it's top end. You can eat any soft, tender portion of the plant (stem, leaves, and tendrils). The vines may grow as a single stalk or branch out into many vines ranging in diameter from 1/8" to over 3/4". Multiple branching vines are more common with smaller-diameter plants. These above ground portions of the plant can all be eaten raw, the leaves and tendrils can also be cooked like spinach, and the vines can cooked like asparagus.

Track the thickest vines back to their buried tubers. These tubers can form a mass up to 75 pounds but are difficult to dig due to their many long roots. Due to their highly fibrous nature, Greenbriar tubers can't be used like potatoes. The starch produced from the tubers may have an astringent, odd taste but it is rich in calories. It is exceptionally good at thickening stews and even water to the point of becoming almost Jello-like. Native Americans would slow roast the tubers under a fire for several days, then chew the cooked starch out of the tubers and spit out the fibers. The youngest tubers are the best to harvest. They will be the lightest in color though the color may be white, light pink, light purple or light yellow.

The starch was also collected by slicing the tubers into 1/4" disks, letting them dry in the sun for a few days, then crumbing the disks in a large bowl of water. The granules of starch fall to the bottom of the bowl and the fibers float to the top. The water and fibers were discarded and the starch was dried and then ground up for use as flour. It still has a bitter taste but it'll give you calories.

The tubers can also be shaved into small pieces and then boiled to make a tea. I prefer to first roast the tubers under a hot fire for a while to the point where their outer skin begins to blacken. Peel off the burned parts, dice up the rest then boil in water to make a vaguely root beer/caramel flavored tea. Getting the right amount of roasting to get this flavor requires some practice.


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.

Ground Cherry

Scientific Name(s): Physalis species
Abundance: uncommon
What: fruit
How: raw, cooked
Where: fields, borders, woods
When: summer, fall
Nutritional Value: Vitamin A, B3, C
Dangers: unripe berries can cause stomach upset, vomiting, diarrhea

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

Leaf Shape: The leaves are variable, but they are often ovate to heart-shaped, with lengths ranging from 2 to 5 inches and widths from 1 to 3 inches.

Leaf Venation: The venation is usually pinnate, with prominent lateral veins.

Leaf Margin: The leaf margins are typically toothed or lobed, adding a serrated appearance.

Leaf Color: The leaves are green, and there may be variations in color on the top and underside.

Flower Structure: The flowers are solitary or clustered in the leaf axils. Each 5-petaled flower has a bell-shaped structure with a diameter of about 1 inch and features five distinct petals.

Flower Color: The flower color is usually yellow with a brownish core, but breeding has created other colors such as red and orange.

Fruit: The fruit is a papery husk or "physalis," which encases a small berry-like fruit.

Seed: Seeds are small, round, and numerous within the berry, with colors ranging from yellow to orange.

Stem: The stems are usually green, herbaceous, and slightly hairy.

Hairs: Hairs may be present on the stems and leaves.

Height: Ground cherry plants vary in height but typically range from 1 to 3 feet, depending on the species and growing conditions.

Top view of ground cherry (Physalis pubescens) plant.




Side/under-leaf view of ground cherry plant with unripe fruit pods.


Close-up of ground cherry flower.


Close-up of unripe ground cherries still on the plant.


Ground cherries in November in Houston, TX. Notice how long and pointy the edges of the leaves have become.


Ripe ground cherry fruit.


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.


Ground cherries are members of the nightshade family, just as are their close cousins and similar tasting tomatillos. Ground cherries straddle that fine line between fruit and vegetable, and can be used both as a somewhat sour berry in tarts and other desserts as well as to make tangy sauces, salsa, and other tomato/tomatillo type foods. My mom preferred to use them as a berry in desserts, but I never really like them served that way. I think they are better in Mexican and Italian style foods.

Ground cherries easily reseed and are effortlessly grown in gardens. They do best in dappled sunlight but not full shade. If near a steady source of water such as a pond or stream they can handle full Texas sun. Loose sandy soil works best. Once the plant begins fruiting in the summer it will continue to produce up to 300 of the small, yellow berries until frost kills the plant.

The plant usually drops the fruit pod before the fruit inside is ripe. Simply pick the pod off the ground and store it in an open container on your counter until the outer pod turns from yellow to a orangish sort of color. At that point you can remove them from the husk and use them. You can leave them in their husks/fruit pods for up to three months if stored at 50F in a mesh bag.

As part of the nightshade family, these fruit have a small amount of toxicity when unripe. If eaten before they are ready they will cause very bad stomach distress.


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.

Groundnut

Scientific Name: Apios americana
Abundance: rare
What: tubers, flowers, vine tips, seedpods
How: tubers are boiled, roasted, not raw; flowers & yound seedpods cooked; vine tips raw or cooked
Where: moist areas
When: spring, summer, fall, winter
Nutritional Value: calories, protein
Dangers: 1% of the population is allergic to groundnuts

Groundnut tubers, 1-3 years old.




Groundnut vine.


Close-up of groundnut vine tip.


Close-up of groundnut stem.


Groundnut leaf (odd-pinnate).




Close-up of unopened flowers.


Close-up of opened groundnut flowers.




Groundnut seedpod. Cook before eating.


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.


Groundnuts aka hopniss are a wonderful, potato-like tubers found in moist soils all across North America, including along many Texas streams and ponds. They like river banks, where their vines will entwine anything that will support them. These vines have a rough, hairy feel to them and range in color from reddish at the base up to pale green at the newest tips. The leave are odd-pinnate which means it's a compound leaf with and five to seven (always an odd number) leaflets off the main petiole (leafstem).The purple-white flower clusters appear in late summer and continue to appear into the fall.

The edible, slow-growing tubers can be dug any time of the year as they take up to three years to reach their full size, approximately as big as a hen's egg. The individual tubers will have their highest concentration of starch in the fall, which makes them tastiest at that time. These tubers grow in chains along the roots, once you find one you can follow the root to collect many more. An single vine can produce a dozen or more tubers, most of which will be big enough to eat.

These tubers can be prepared just like potatoes which frying being my personal favorite. They are a bit more bland as well as being a little bit fibrous than regular potatoes, but salt or other seasoning helps with the flavor. Groundnut tubers are significantly higher (up to 17% by weight) in protein than potatoes, which makes them an excellent food source.

The rest of the plant is edible but the flowers, bean-like seedpods, and vine tips aren't nearly as desirable as the tubers.

Groundnuts are easy to grow in your garden or a self-watering Earth Bucket as long as you have patience and plenty of water. I have them growing in both a wet spot in my yard and an Earth Bucket as part of my permaculture food forest.

While ground nut tubers are an amazing food, approximately 1% of the population can develop allergies to them. This allergy can hit the first time they eat the tubers or any time the sit down to a meal of them after that first time. There's no good way of telling in advance if a person might be allergic, but if someone has an extreme allergy to peanuts I would hesitate in giving them any part of the groundnut plant.


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.