Magnolia

Scientific Name(s): Magnolia grandiflora
Abundance: common
What: flowers, leaves, maybe seeds
How: flowers pickled; leaves as tea; seeds...you're on your own!
Where: landscaping, woods
When: spring flowers, fall seeds, leaves all year
Nutritional Value:
Dangers: some sources list the seeds as edible others list them as poisonous

Medicinal Summary:
Seeds - anti-tumor; anti-inflammatory; anti-bacterial; anti-seizure; sedative (tincture)
Leaves - anti-cancer; antibacterial (tisane, tincture)

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are typically arranged alternately along the stem.

Leaf Shape: Simple, large, and broadly ovate leaves, varying in size among species.

Leaf Color: Leaves will be dark green on top and a bronze color underneath. 

Flower Structure: Magnolias are known for their large, showy flowers with multiple petals and protruding center. They give off a sweet, floral scent.

Flower Size: Flower size can be over a foot in diameter.

Flower Color: Colors range from white and cream to faint pink or yellow.

Fruit (Cone): The fruit is a cone-like structure, often reddish or brown when mature, measuring a few inches in length. Dozens of red seeds can be seen peeking out of each cone when mature.

Seed Size: Seeds are typically 1/4"-1/2 ovals, with a hard, red coat and a white/cream interior.

Bark: Mottled gray-brown and somewhat rough/wrinkled, kind of like elephant skin.

Height: Heights of mature magnolia trees can range from 15 to 80 feet, depending on the species.

Hairs: Seed pods and leaf stems are fuzzy.

Magnolia tree. Note the green tops and brown undersides of the leaves.


Magnolia flower buds.


Flower beginning to open which I feel is the best time to pick them for use.


Open flower. Soon after they open the petals begin turning brown. I don't harvest them once several petals have become spotted.


After the flower petals drop away the fuzzy seedhead is revealed.


Come fall, the red seeds begin bursting out of the seedhead. The hard, red shell covers a light-tan interior.


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.


Fifty million years ago Magnolia trees dominated the Earth. Today they are found in the southeastern United States and running down into Central and South America. Oh, how the might have fallen! Yet, there's some pleasure in knowing Texas has some of the last northern holdouts of this ancient race. Looking at these trees, with their giant, ambrosial-scented flowers and thick, leathery leaves, it's not surprising they come from the time of Eocene period, when global temperatures were much hotter than today and plant life thrived.

Look for these trees both as landscaping centerpieces as well as wild in the east Texas woods. They keep their large, somewhat oval leaves all year around. Flowers appear in mid-spring followed by the clusters of hard, red seeds in the fall. The bark is relatively smooth and gray with assorted discolorations of lichen. Mature trees can have round crowns forty feet across.

The strong scent of freshly-opened magnolia flowers can be overpowering and so the flowers themselves aren't eaten raw. Shredding the flowers then pickling using the pickled okra recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, produces something similar to pickled seaweed served at sushi joints. A number of bartenders and distilleries have been experimenting with magnolia flower infused gins to create Texas-specific cocktails.

The leaves, after drying, has a long history of herbal medicinal use to fight cancers. Testing by western science has revealed magnolia leaves contain several compounds that reduce the growth of blood vessels to tumors. Lots of work still remains in turning these into an accurate, predictable medicine.

In the fall the trees are covered with clusters of bright red seeds about the size of small jelly beans. Digging through the research on the edibility of these magnolia beans, one find them listed as both poisonous and edible.Being a scientist, I've eaten three of them so far. At the first bite they have a sweet, pleasant flavor but at the second bite my mouth tasted like it was flooded with gasoline. Bleeech! The seeds have the outer, red coat surrounding pale, tan nutmeat. I suspect that the sweet flavor comes from the coat and the gasoline flavor from the nutmeat or perhaps vice-versa. More experimentation with these beans is required.


50 Million year old! Fights cancers! Link leads to another website.

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.

Devil's Walking Stick

Scientific Name(s): Aralia spinosa
Abundance: rare
What: young shoots, young leaves
How: shoots cooked, leaves raw or cooked
Where: sunny fields
When: spring
Nutritional Value: vitamins, flavanoids, phytochemicals
Dangers: very thorny

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are compound and alternate along the stem.

Leaf Shape: Each leaf consists of numerous leaflets. Individual leaflets are ovate to lanceolate, measuring approximately 6 to 12 inches in length.

Leaf Margin: Leaflet margins are serrated with coarse teeth.

Leaf Color: Foliage is typically green.

Flower Structure: Small, white flowers are arranged in large, compound umbels at the top of the plant.

Flower Color: Flowers are generally white and appear in late summer.

Fruit (Berry-Like): The fruit is a small, dark purple to black berry, around 1/4 to 1/2 inches in diameter. Grow in umbel-like clusters. 

Bark: The bark is covered with sharp prickles, especially on younger stems.

Height: Devil's Walking Stick can grow to be 15 to 30 feet tall.

Hairs: Stems and leaves are generally smooth.

Thorns: Prickles form distinct rings around trunk and branches, unlike the randomly placed thorns of Prickly Ash/Toothach Tree.

Devil's Walking Stick trees are small, only growing about 30' tall.




Close-up of spines on young tree (found on trunk and branches). Note how the thorns grow in rings around the wood.




Leaves have a compound opposite layout.




Close-up of a single leaflet.


New leaves sprouting in late winter. This is a good time to harvest the new shoots for cooking.


Young leaves two months later, ready to be cooked.


Young leaves in the spring.




New growth is a lovely green color while the previous years' growth is gray.


In late summer Devil's Walking Stick trees produce tons of small, yellowish blooms.


Close-up of blooms.


Unripe fruit photographed in August in Houston. Ripe fruit is red but NOT edible.


Close-up of the unripe berries.


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.


Throughout central, southern and eastern United States you may encounter the spiny/thorny Devil's Walking Stick tree in sunny fields, along woodland borders, or along the woodland paths. Some may mistake this tree for the Toothache Tree (Zanthoxylum species) but that tree's thorns are randomly placed and quite thick on mature Toothache Trees whereas the Devil's Walking Stick thorns remain small (though wicked sharp!) and form rings around the trunk and branches.

The new shoots and young leaves of the Devil's Walking Stick tree can be eaten in the spring before the spines on the leaf stems stiffen. The shoots make a good celery substitute when cooked. The young leaves can be eaten raw but the usual method of preparation is to finely chop the leaves then cook. The non-edible berries form in large clusters, starting out green in mid-summer and then turn red around September. Deer love eating any of the berries they can reach.


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.

Elaeagnus

Scientific Name(s): Elaeagnaceae spp.
Abundance: common
What: berries, seeds
How: raw, jam, jelly
Where: landscaping shrub
When: early spring
Nutritional Value: Vitamins A, Bs, C, E, lycopene, flavanoids, fatty acids, and protein

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

Leaf Shape: The leaves are elliptical to ovate, with a length of 2 to 3 inches and a width of 1 to 1.5 inches.

Leaf Venation: The venation is pinnate.

Leaf Margin: The leaf margin is entire, presenting a smooth edge.

Leaf Color: The upper surface of the leaves is typically dark green with white/silver dots, while the underside is silver-gray with bronze dots. 

Flower Structure: The flowers are small, tubular, and inconspicuous, clustered in the leaf axils.

Flower Color: The flowers are often silvery-white to yellowish.

Fruit: The fruit is a small, oval drupe, about 0.5 inches in length and a red-gold, spotted coloration.

Seed: Each drupe contains a single, football-shaped seed.

Stem: The stems are brown, woody, and may have silvery spots/scales.

Hairs: The plant is covered with silvery scales, giving it a distinctive silvery appearance and usually lacks noticeable hairs. Leaves may have a slight texture to their surfacees.

Height: Silverleaf Elaeagnus is a shrub that can reach a height of 10 to 15 feet, but the height can vary based on environmental conditions.

Small elaeagnus shrub.


One wonderfully-scented elaeagnus flower appears at the base of each leaf around Thanksgiving in the Houston area.


Elaeagnus berries are ripe in mid-to-late February.




Close-up of elaeagnus's mottled-red berries


Top of elaeagnus leaf.


Bottom of elaeagnus leaf.


Standing in the front yard of many Texas house, elaeagnus bushes are a staple of suburban home landscaping. Their thick, evergreen foliage and tolerance of many growing conditions coupled with their low cost makes them attractive. In the fall their small but plentiful white/yellow flowers entice bees. In late winter/early spring the small, football-shaped berries are ready to eat. The top of elaeagnus leaves are green with gray spots while the bottom of the leaf is gray with copper-colored spots. Ripe berries are silvery with many tiny red dots. These berries are hidden towards the center of the bush rather than exposed and visible so you may not notice them unless you lift the branches to look.

The berries have a wonderful sweet/tart taste with a hint of astringency. Most people considering elaeagnus multiflora to have the best flavor. They are nutritional powerhouses loaded with a number of good compounds including a high concentration of lycopene. The seeds contain omega-3 fatty acids but they can be bitter in flavor and so unpalatable.

The flesh of the berries make a good jam, jelly, and fruit leather. There's no reason they couldn't be made into wine.


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.

Hackberry

Scientific name: Celtis spp. (occidentalis, laevigata)
Abundance: plentiful
What: berries
How: raw, dried, preserves
Where: moist, sunny areas
When: fall when berries are red, orange, or purple
Nutritional Value: calories, protein

Leaf Arrangement: Leaves are alternate along the stem.

Leaf Shape: Simple, ovate leaves with serrated margins, typically measuring 2 to 4 inches in length.

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

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

Flower Size: Individual flowers are very small, around 1/8 inch in size and green-yellow in color.

Fruit (Drupe): The fruit is a small, rounded drupe, about 1/4 inch in diameter, typically reddish-brown when ripe.

Bark: Bark is gray to brown, with a rough texture consisting of small, flat platelets stacked one atop another.  These flat warts can grow together to make corky ridges in older trees.

Height: Common hackberry can grow to be a medium to large tree, reaching heights of 40 to 60 feet.

Hairs: Leaves have a sight roughness due to microscopic hairs

Branching Pattern: The branching pattern is irregular, and the tree may have a broad, spreading crown. Wood is weak and branches often break off in high winds.

Ripe hackberry fruit.



Unripe berries


Sugar Hackberry (Celtis laevigata) tree.


Sugar Hackberry (Celtis laevigata) tree trunk.


Another Hackberry tree.


Close-up of hackberry bark "scales/warts".


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 of your ancestors owe their lives to the fruit of the hackberry tree. It is the oldest-know foraged food, going back over 600,000 years to the grave of Peking Man. Found on every continent except Antarctica, every culture that arose around hackberry trees utilized them as one of their main sources of calories...until us now. Now it is considered a "trash tree" and considered to be an annoyance. We have forgotten how it kept so many humans alive for tens of thousands of years.

The ripe fruit of hackberries are less than 1/4 inch in diameter and consist of a thin, sweet skin surrounding a large, hard seed. This edible seed is rich in protein and fats, but is extremely hard. Trying to crush the seed with your teeth can easily result in a broken tooth. You are better off crushing up the berries in a mortar & pestle to make a sweet, energizing paste. This paste can be toasted into a bar, making it nature's original "power bar". The seeds can also be crushed/blended with water, left over night and then strained to make "hackberry milk" which is similar to "almond milk". If you don't have a way to crush the seeds then just eat the skin/flesh off then spit out the seed. These berries ripen in the fall but will often remain on the trees and edible well into spring.

The wood of the hackberry tree is weak and brittle. It does not make good firewood, carving material or lumber. However, it did make acceptable archery bows. After a storm the ground beneath hackberry tree is usually littered with broken branches, making a mess. They can grow up to 80' tall in moist, sunny locations such as along lakes, ponds, or streams. Hackberries also seem to thrive in urban environments though they only live 20-30 years. Their gray bark is usually covered with lumpy, scaly wart-type growths that are made of layered sections.


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.

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.