Grape - Frost

Scientific name: Vitis vulpina
Abundance: uncommon
What: fruit, leaves, young tendrils
How: fruit raw, cooked, dried, preserves, wine; leaves and tendrils cooked
Where: edges of woods, ravines, fence lines.
When: winter, fruit best after frost
Nutritional Value: calories, very low in vitamins and minerals.

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

Leaf Shape: Leaves are typically palmately lobed, with three to five lobes, each lobe being broadly ovate, measuring approximately 2 to 5 inches in width.

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

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

Leaf Color: The leaves are green on top and lighter in color underneath.

Flower Structure: The flowers are small and greenish, occurring in clusters known as inflorescences, with individual diameters of about 1/8".

Flower Color: Flowers are typically greenish-yellow.

Fruit: The fruit is a grape, often small with a diameter of approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch, and purple to black when ripe.

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

Stem: The stem is typically climbing, with tendrils for support.

Hairs: Fine hairs may be present on some parts of the plant, including the stem.

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

Frost grapes, ripe in August & September in Houston.

Frost grape vine. Note the alternating leaf patter.


Close-up of a single leaf.


Frost grape vine with young 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.


Frost Grape vines are impressive climbers, using many reddish tendrils to cling and wrap themselves around trees, bushes, and fences. Their leaves look similar to Muscadine Grape leaves, being smooth and green on top and underneath. However, Frost Grapes produce fruit much later than other Texas wild grape varieties. Its small, acidic fruit appear in clusters in early fall, well past the mid-summer season of Muscadine grapes.

Frost grapes aren't edible raw until after a frost. The cold weather triggers enzyme processes that break down the acids and build up sugars, turning them quite sweet. If harvested before then sweetening occurs you are limited to making jams, jelly, or wines from the still acidic fruit. Treat them like the highly acidic Mustang Grapes. Large, healthy Frost Grape leaves can be cooked and used like regular grape leaves.

In the fall Greenbriar vines produces tight clusters of black fruit, leading to misidentification. The Greenbriar fruit are non-toxic but they lack any flavor, being mainly just rubbery and tasteless. Remember, Greenbriar vines have thorns and they also have two tendrils at the base of every leaf. Frost Grape tendril appear on two nodes in a row and then skip one or more nodes. Frost Grape fruits grow in long, dangling clusters whereas Greenbriar fruits grow in ball-shaped clusters.

Greenbriar fruit, not Frost Grape fruit.



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.


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Hericium Mushrooms

Scientific Name(s): Hericium erinaceus, H. coralloides, H. americanum
Abundance: rare
What: mushroom
How: cooked
Where: woods
When: fall, winter, spring
Nutritional Value: beneficial compounds

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Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus) form "snowball" shapes with spore tubes over 1cm long. Pick when white, not yellow/brown.






Bearded Tooth (Hericium americanum) form long-toothed "waterfalls".




Close-up of Hericium americanum spore tubes.


Past-ripe Hericium americanum turn brown but the inner white parts are still edible.


Bear's Head Tooth (Hericium coralloides) grow like H. americium but with shorter spore tubes.








Walking through hardwood forests on a cool day after rains you see an odd sight...a furry looking snowball stuck to a dead tree...or maybe something that looks like coral but far from the sea. A closer examination reveals it is a Hericium mushroom, distinctively made of a cluster of spore tubes and lacking any noticeable cap. They only grow on dead or dying wood so if one of these delicious mushrooms appears on a tree in your yard, be warned.

You want to collect these while they are white or at most slightly off-white. As they mature to a yellow/brown color they are no longer worth eating. These mushrooms must be cooked, with my favorite methods simply cutting them up into 1" pieces then sautéing them in butter until they become just a little crispy at the edges. Once cooked, their flavor is reminiscent of lobster.

Hericium mushrooms are known to contain several compounds that have been found to help with cognitive functions such as memory/recall as well as mood issues such as depression and anxiety. There's also some evidence that they reduce the plaque in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. This is an amazing family of mushrooms!


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.

Jerusalem Artichoke

Scientific name: Helianthus tuberosus
Abundance: rare
What: tubers
How: raw, cooked
Where: fields, wastelands
When: winter
Nutritional Value: carbohydrates, minerals
Dangers: may cause gas/flatulance

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

Leaf Shape: The leaves are broadly ovate to lanceolate, typically measuring about 4 to 10 inches in length and 2 to 5 inches in width.

Leaf Venation: The venation is pinnate, with a prominent central vein and several lateral veins extending towards the leaf margins.

Leaf Margin: The leaf margins are serrated or toothed.

Leaf Color: The leaves are a vibrant green color, often with a slightly lighter shade on the underside.

Flower Structure: The flowers are located at the top of the plant and in leaf axils. Each flower has about 10 to 20 petals and measures approximately 1.5 to 3 inches in diameter.

Flower Color: The flowers are usually bright yellow.

Fruit: The plant does not produce a typical fruit; instead, it forms irregular-shaped, lumpy, elongated tubers underground.

Seed: Seeds resemble tiny sunflower seeds, which is a close relative.

Stem: The stem is sturdy and rough in texture, growing up to 6 to 10 feet tall.

Hairs: There are small hairs along the stem and leaves, giving them a rough texture.

Height: The plant typically reaches heights of 6 to 10 feet.

Jerusalem artichoke plants in their preferred habitat, the sanding banks of a river.


Tubers




A single, large tuber.


Plant.


Close-up of Jerusalem artichoke leaves


Young flower buds before opening.


Jerusalem artichoke flowers.


Wild sunflower flower on left, Jerusalem artichoke flower on right.


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.


Jerusalem artichokes thrive in neglected waste areas and produce a large amount of starchy tubers. This makes them an excellent plant for guerrilla gardening in vacant lots and other urban-blighted areas. They belong to the same family as sunflowers and produce similar flowers in the late summer/fall.

As the tuber grow during the summer they are filled with a large starch molecule called inulin. Inulin tastes sweet but is a very complex carbohydrate which the human digestive system can not break down to extract any usable calories. Tubers eaten in the summer or fall will give you some minerals, a few vitamins, and some fiber but the inulin starch will just pass through the digestive track. Sidenote: some bacteria in the gut can eat this inulin and after doing so this bacteria will produce quite a bit of methane gas...which may lead to excessive flatulence.

However, after the first frost of the year the tuber starts producing a slow-acting enzyme which breaks the inulin down into simple sugars that the plant will use to grow new stalks in the spring. We can digest/metabolize these simple sugars. This means if we have to wait until late winter to harvest the tuber to get calories from them.

If possible leave the tubers in the ground during winter and just dig them up as need. This works great in Houston or other southern climates. Tubers stored in a refrigerator tend to get mushy for some reason. If you are up north store the tubers outside in a covered wooden box filled with loose, dry sand.

Jerusalem artichoke tubers were a staple food of many Native American tribes and were spread throughout North America via trade between tribes. However, they were not actively cultivated like corn, squash, beans or other well-known native crops. The tubers were buried and then the plants were usually just ignored until late winter when the natives were running low on stored food. At this time the women would go searching for field mouse homes to raid for Jerusalem artichoke tubers. The mice loved the tubers and would spend a great deal of time digging them up and stockpiling them around their nest. The women would then just steal them from the mice.

These plants are somewhat rare in the wild so if you do find them it is best just to buy 5-10 tubers from some fancy grocery store and plant them somewhere on your own property. They will then rapidly form your own stand of Jerusalem artichokes and within two years you'll have all the tubers you could want.


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Mallow - Marsh

Scientific name: Hibiscus lasiocarpos
Abundance: rare
What: roots, young leaves, flower buds,
How: Leaves, roots, stem, and flowers contain a mucilage-like material which can be used to thicken soups and stews. Flowers can be eaten raw. Young leaves can be eaten raw or cooked with other greens or boiled alone. Roots are peeled, sliced then fried. Flower buds can be raw or cooked. All parts of the plant can be made into tea, seeds are roast and ground for a coffee substitute.
Where: Moist areas
When: Young leaves in spring, summer; roots all year, flowers in summer.
Nutritional Value: Roots high in starch, rest of plant contains small amounts of vitamins and minerals

Medicinal Summary:
Root - demulcent; laxative; slows sugar transfer from stomach to blood; soothes gastrointestinal inflammations (poultice, tisane)

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

Leaf Shape: The leaves are broadly ovate, with a length of approximately 4 to 6 inches and a width of 3 to 5 inches.

Leaf Venation: The venation is palmate, with prominent veins.

Leaf Margin: The leaf margin is serrated, featuring tooth-like projections along the edge.

Leaf Color: The upper side of the leaves is typically medium to dark green, while the underside may have a lighter hue.

Flower Structure: The 5-petaled flowers are large and showy, with a diameter of about 3 to 5 inches. They are located at the terminal ends of the stems.

Flower Color: The flowers are white to pink with deeper red centers. Calyx have long, narrow protrusions wrapping up the sides of the flower buds.

Fruit: The fruit is an okra-like capsule, approximately 1" long, containing longitudinal lines of seeds attached to a central, multi-sided rib.

Seed: Immature seeds are white and soft, turning dark and hard when mature.

Stem: The stems are erect, with a woody base, supporting the large, terminal flowers. Young stems sections are green or red whereas lower, mature sections can be brown.

Hairs: The leaves, stems, sepals, and calyx are covered in fine, fuzzy hairs.

Height: Hibiscus lasiocarpos can reach a height of 3 to 6 feet, with the large flowers extending above the foliage.

Marsh mallow flowers and flower buds, both of which are edible.


Marsh mallow (plants grow up to four feet tall). Note last year's dried seedpods.




Marsh mallow leaf.


Close-up of marsh mallow leaf. Note the fine hairs which give it a velvety feel.


Marsh mallow flower.




Marsh mallow flower buds before blooming.


Note the long, narrow calyx wrapping up the sides of the buds .


Tender seedpods taste kind of like okra.


Dried marsh mallow seed pods which have split open, revealing their seeds.


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


Marsh mallows are usually found in shady, moist areas but on occasion they can be found in sunny, moist areas, too.

To make original marshmallows, peel roots and slice them into thin wafers then boil 20 minutes in minimum amount of water. Remove the root slices, add sugar or other sweetener and boil down fluid until very thick. Whip this hot fluid like egg whites then drop globs onto wax paper, after they've cooled dust them with powdered sugar.

The seeds can be roasted then ground in a coffee grinder for use as a substitute for real coffee. It tastes pretty good, though does not have any caffeine.

Young leaves and tender flower buds can be used to thicken soups, stews, curries, and other sauces. The tender flower buds can also be pickled or fried like okra. Opened flowers can be used in salads or made into tea though these are best the first day they've opened.

The dried root has been used in herbal "tobacco" substitutes.

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.