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Two different species of grapes blossoming next to each other, a bunching forked tendril grape on our left; a clustering single tendril grape on our right. Seen a Wickham Park . Photo by Green Deane

Forked-tendril species produce better grapes. Photo by Green Deane

Our local muscadine grapes are fickle, unreliable. Vitis munsoniana and V. rotundo rarely fruit irregularly. They can skip several years between fruitings. When they are going to fruitthey  start now with blossoms ending with grapes ripening about September.  Noticing where the grapes are blossoming now can save time this fall. Vitis munsoniana and V. rotundo are “single tendril” grapes with clusters of acidic grapes and are one of two large groups of grapes locally. The other group is forked tendril, they fruit regularly have sweet grapes that grow in a bunch. Clearly of the two one wants to find the forked tendril grape which is usually vitis aestivalis. Remember that grape seeds are teaardrop shaped. You can read about grapes here a video here. 

fermented mashed potatos.Photo by Green Deane

If you study cooking in the 1800s nothing went to waste. Many recipes from that era are basically making a meal out of leftovers. Such as turning stale bread into a pie. One trick from that time period is fermenting mashed potatoes (no not into vodka.) Mixing yogurt into mashed potatoes and letting it ferment a few days, kind of like building in sour cream. Once fermented treat/eat like yogurt. When I was growing up my mother professed to being a horrible cook while her mother — who grew up in poverty — was well-known for being a great cook. A while after I started studying 18th century cooking I realized my mother’s cooking wasn’t bad but centuries old. In fact something called The Poor man’s Meal from the depression era was something we had at least two nights a weekImagine my surprise when I saw a video of it on You Tube entitled depression era cooking! 

“Beggar’s pudding” from 1773 was stale bread repurposed for your family or the poor. I had half a loaf of homemade sour dough leftover. It was a good candidate for Beggar’s Pudding which is: Bread, sherry, ginger, currants or raisins.  In the 1700s almost any fruit could have been used and cider for sherry. Ginger was an inexpensive seasoning you could grow at home. Many recipes from the 1700s don’t include amounts. For this I used that half a loaf of bead,  a cup of marsala instead of sherry, a tablespoon of ground ginger, a teaspoon of coarse salt, a grind of nutmeg, a cup of golden raisins and a third of a cup of white sugar. Pour the hot water over the bread to soften, pour off any excess water, mix all the ingredients then put into a buttered pie dish, dot the top with butter and bake at 325F for 35 minutes. Serve cold. Brown sugar would be better

Fermenting the lighter green segmented cucumber worm. Phto by Green Deane

In Ft Pierce last week we saw a lot of ripe creeping cucumbers, Melothria pendula, so I decided to ferment some. If you look closely you’ll see a  worm being pickled. As I’m sure I’ve already consumed some  worms in the past I won’t fetch it out until the pickling process is complete. Fermenting food for preservation is a simple processed. While there can be variations, it is basically one tablespoon of non-iodized salt per cup of water. Pour the brine over the non-washed material being pickled making sure what you are pickling is kept submerged in the solution (that which pops out will mold.) Let it ferment for about three weeks. We will try these in a future class (Sorry there is only one worm to taste.) The salt discourages bad bacteria but encourages lacto bacteria which eats the carbohydrates turning them into tart acidic acid 

Fermented Spiderworts. Photo by Green Deane

Blooming strongly now are Spiderworts. Most of them have a blue blosssom. The entire plant above ground is edible. I often chop them and ferment them into a sauerkraut. They are more fiberous than cabbage making a tough sauerkraut but tasty. Occasionally you will see one with a gray  or white or red blossom. Officially there are nine different species of spiderworts locally. The one I see most often is Tradescantia ohiensis.

Foraging classes are held rain, shine, hot or cold. Photo by Nermina Krenata

Visiting two favored locations this weekend, Larago where there’s a lot of wild garlic, and mead garden which has a lot of vaiety

Saturday April 9th,Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771, 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion nest to the dog park. 

Sunday April 10th, Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  9 a.m. to noon Meet at the bathrooms.

Saturday April 16th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m. to noon Meet at the pavilion

Saturday April 23rd, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the parking lot of Ganyard St, and Bayshore Blvd. 

Saturday April 30th,Saturday April 30th Jervey Gantt Recreation Complex, 2390 SE 36th Ave., Ocala, FL, 34471.9 a.m. to noon.  Meet at the entrance to the pool, aka Aquatic Fun Center. To meet the demands of the city of Ocala, this is a free class, If you want to make a donation afterwards that is at your discretion.

Sunday May 1st, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. 9 am. to noon meet at the dog park inside the park. 

Saturday/Sunday May 7th & 8th,  Honea Path, South Carolina, classes at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. each day.

Saturday May 14th Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a. m. to noon Meet just north of the science center. 

Sunday may 15th, Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  9 a.m. to noon Meet at the bathrooms.

For more information, to pre-pay or sign up go here

Clover prefers low nitrogen soil.

Clover is one of those wild edibles that is both overstated and understated. The overstatement is from writers who offer it as a great human food full of this and that to keep us healthy. The understated part is that it can harbor a fungus that inhibits clotting and somewhere around a half-a-cup of raw leaves can make you throw up. Individual experience, of course, can vary and there are several different species of clover with different characteristics. Pictured here is a nice little White Clover which is blossoming now mostly in lawns and athletic fields. A few leaves can be eaten raw. They are high in protein for a leaf. The blossom fresh or quickly dried can be used for tea. There is also Crimson, Red, Sweet and even Tick Clover.

Oenothera laciniata, cutleaf evening primrose

There are two blossoms you might be seeing now. One is the non-edible vine Carolina jassamine (Gelsemium Sempervirens.) You will see it draping over fences and bushes. The other in the southern version of the Evening Primrose, generally considered not edible (but I haven’t proven that to myself.) The northern version of the Evening Primrose, Oenothera biennis, is called a “lost vegetable.” It was cultivated in Europe for about a century. There is a debate whether it is native to Europe or North America. Our Evening Primrose is O. laciniata, or the Cutleaf Evening-primrose. Unlike its northern sibling our local Evening Primrose does not grow tall, is a ground hugger, and is not considered edible. I have been meaning to try a little part of the blossom. A quarter of a century ago Forager Emeritus Dick Deuerling told me it was not edible. That said, Dick had texture issues and said he only ate the “good stuff.” So he could have been saying he didn’t eat it. It’s a plant I’ve been meaning to explore. The natives ate several other Evening Primroses including O. albicaulis, O. biennis, O elata ssp. hookeri, and O. triloba. Another evening Primrose you might find in the northern part of the state is O. fruticosa. It’s not considered edible, either. 

Florida Pennyroyal is also in blossom. Photo by Green Deane

If you are one to wander around sandy scrub in Florida this time of year you will see the low blooms of the Florida Pennyroyal. It’s quite an unusual plant in that it is monotypic, meaning the only plant in its genus. It’s found along the Central Florida Ridge though I have seen it also on the east coast of the state. There are a few plants in the Bahamas and maybe one or two in southern Georgia. It has the unmistakable aroma of pennyroyal. A species that looks vaguely similar, Florida Rosemary, has no noticeable strong aroma. Florida Pennyroyal used to be the third most common nectar plant in the state but fell off for some unknown reason and was replaced by Bidens alba, the Spanish Needles. Florida Pennyroyal was used extensively by the natives and has culinary uses. To read more about it go here.

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by 171-videos on a 128-GB USB, see left.  The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy especially if social order falters.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. Or you can make a $99 donation, which tells me it is for the USB (include a snail-mail address.)  I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. I had to stop making them as few programs now will read the ISO files to copy them. Burning a set also took about three hours. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Fermenting potatoeswith yogurt, make a water filter, nixtamalization at home, Stale Bread and Cod Liver Oil, Life’s a Grind, Killing Bugs with Tobacco Plugs, Eating weeds: Is it safe? Have they mutated? Not the Eastern Red Bug but the Pink Tabebuia, African Tulip Tree, Asparagus densiflorus, Green Deane’s Book… You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is my weekly newsletter #502. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Paw Paws saved and infected the Lewis and Clark expedition in September 1806 in Missouri.

Pawpaws will be fruitinging soon. Photo by Green Deane

Here in Florida we are past paw paw flowering season. They will be fruiting soon if you can find them before the woodland creatures. Unfortuntely the ripe window is only about 10 days to two weeks. Paw paws grow from Florida to southern Canada. Locally paw paw are small shrubs that remind one of their relatives, the  magnolias. In the Carolinas where I hike often paw paws are a common large tree. The fruit look like a cross between a potato and an avocade. Don’t touch the seeds then your eyes, which is perhaps what happened to three men in the expedition.

They were the favored fruit of George Washington and a famous food of the Lewis and Clark expedition.  Just before they got back to civilization the expedition ran out of food and for a week or so lived off paw paws. What follows is an 18th century recipe for the paw paw from James Townsend and son, 18th century cooking. The final results resembles a one -crust pumpkin pie. 

Remove the pulp of several paw paws. Ripe paw pawa have a custard texture think over ripe mango You want about a cup or more for the pie. We don’t eat the skin or seeds epeially not the seeds. Mash the pulp in a bowl to reduce stringiness and to make sure you have removed all the seeds. add a cup of milk or cream and one egg.  whisk to make it as smooth as possible, add spices of choice such as nutmeg and ginger and or cinnamon and a tablespoon of mild molasses. Whisk again to remove most of the lumps. Bake for 80 minutes at 250 F. degrees. Make sure it is Completely cooled off before slicing. I study 18hth century cooking because is like two things… camping cooking inside and cooking with what’s on hand or seasonally with limited kitchen tools. I have a video here. 

Blosssom end rot on a Cherokee Purple

if you are new to gardening or like me, you ignored your tomatoes though the winter they can get Blossom End rot. which is the first sign of a calcium deficiency. Calcium (or one of many forms of lime in the water can stop  the problem. Other garden plants is the nighshade family can get blossom end rot particularly eggplant.  Lye, lime or Dolomite added to the watering can is the solution. A quick inexpensive fix is go to a hispanic market and ask for CAL.  Add a tablespoon of CAL to your watering can. You only have to treat your effected  plant just once.

If you nixtamalize corn with pickling lime (CAL) you can use that water when it’s time to discard it . 

While I am having a calcium issue I am not having predatory bug isssue. To kill off the bugs I fight fire with fire, nicotine. Years ago I used plug tobacco which is too expensive now as is chewing tobacco which used to be 5 cents for a “Plug” the size of a deck of cards. Now what I do i I buy a pack of cheap cigarettes or a cheap all-tobacco cigar and boil either in two cups of water (Boiling kill off any nighshade viruses on the tobacco so you can us the concoction on tomatoes, egg plant and pepper as well as other plants.  Strain the cooked tobacco from the water and put the water in a spray bottle add a drop of two of dish soap and spray away. Most commercial plant bug spray contain nicotine as he “active” ingredient. This year I m raising some high nicotine tobacco for the expressed purpose of killing bugs “naturally.”

Picking Creeping cucumber after cutting off the blossom end.

In Ft. Pierce las week we saw a lot of “mouse cucumbers” so I brought home a pocket full and i’m turning them into pickles.  Will bring them to a future foraging classs. Fermenting cukes or cabbage or schopped piderwort is easy is easy. The basic recipe rarely varies. One tablespoon of non -iodized salt per cup of water or per pound of material. Spices of your choice (such as poor man’s pepper grass or wild garlic.) The prime mistake people make when fermenting is not assuring the material they are fermenting is kept submerged in the brine. What ever sticks out from the liquid will turn moldy. Rocks. plates glass plugs, chards of pots and baggies full of vinegar or water can be used to hold he fermenting material under the surface. your nose and taste but will tell you when they are ready. If material mole, just remove it the rest under the liquid is fine. You can watch a video about ceeping cucumbers here.

Mulberries resemble over-grown blackberries. Photo by Green Deane

Blackberries and mulberries after coming into season.They are bright red turning dark purple now and will for several weeks.   For two fruits in different genera they taste remarkably alike and ripen at about the same time locally — early April to late April.  Red Mulberries are native to North America and are the bane of many cities in that the fruit stains sidwalks. To read more about blackberries go here, a video on mulberries here

I was given a vanilla-making kit by Seminole County Master Gardeners… just add vodka. Planning ahead, it should be ready

by Chistmas;Thank you master gardeners. Your local county extension office and master gardeners are the folks to see about any cultivated plant issues you might have such as when to plant and or what bug or fungus is bothering your carefully raised greenery.

Foraging classes this weekend are on the southern part of the state. east side Saturday, west side Sunday same latitude ye different plants in season. 

Saturday April 2nd,  Dreher Park, West Palm Beach, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405., 9 a.m. to noon. Meet just north of the science museum. 

Sunday April 3rd, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon meet at the playgound

Saturday April 9th,Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771, 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion nest to the dog park. 

Sunday April 10th, Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  9 a.m. to noon Meet at the bathrooms. 

Saturday/Sunday May 7th & 8th,  Honea Path, South Carolina, classes at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. each day. 

For more information, to pre-pay or sign up go here

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by 171-videos on a 128-GB USB, see left.  The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy especially if social order falters.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. Or you can make a $99 donation, which tells me it is for the USB (include a snail-mail address.)  I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. I had to stop making them as few programs now will read the ISO files to copy them. Burning a set also took about three hours. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Fermenting potatoeswith yogurt, make a water filter, nixtamalization at home, Stale Bread and Cod Liver Oil, Life’s a Grind, Killing Bugs with Tobacco Plugs, Eating weeds: Is it safe? Have they mutated? Not the Eastern Red Bug but the Pink Tabebuia, African Tulip Tree, Asparagus densiflorus, Green Deane’s Book… You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is my weekly newsletter #501. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

In time Henbit can get a foot high.  Photo by Green Deane

When lawns aren’t mowed food grows. The weather’s been good and our winter plants are happy. In foraging classes these last two weeks weve seen Sheep’s Sorrel, Oxalis, Pellitory,  Black Medic, Wild Geraniums, Horsemint,  Chickweed  and Henbit. The latter was a favored spring time green with Native Americans because it’s mild rather than peppery. and while in the mint family it is not minty. It’s edible raw or cooked. An edible relative, “Dead Nettle” looks very similar but is more purple.  Henbit is called “Henbit” because chickens like it. It’s usually found in sunny, non-arid places. To read more about Henbit go here.  Surprisingly what we haven’t seen yet is Stinging Nettle.  Perhaps the nights have not been cool enough. Fast growing it’s usually around for a couple of months or so. 

Swinecress is an easy to identify winter mustards.

During the classes seasonal mustards were also on display. Poor Man’s Pepper Grass is everywhere. Hairy Bittercress was found nearby as was Swine Cress (article here, new video here.) Also well-represented this past week was Shepherd’s Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris, a much milder relative of Poor Man’s Pepper Grass. They have similar blossoms but differently shaped leaves and seed pods. The Shepherd’s pods look more like hearts than “purses.” One interesting aspect about Shepherd’s Purse is that I personally have never seen it growing south of the Ocala area. It’s found in 18 northern counties of Florida, one west central Florida county, Hillsborough, one southern Florida county, Dade, and throughout North America. It’s just kind of sparse in the lower half of the state. Also not see yet this season is Western Tansy Mustard. You find it in dry, sandy places like corrals. 

Wild Radish and Mustard are in blossom now. Photo by Green Deane

Driving back on the Beach Line” from our Lori Wilson Park meet up we saw miles of wild mustard growing roadside, like a light yellow hedge. Mustards like chilly weather, or at least locally they do. You can see Wild Mustards and Wild Radish not only along roadsides now but in various fields from farm land to ignored citrus groves. The two species are used interchangeably and look similar. However Wild Radishes tend to be serpentine rather than straight and tall like Wild Mustard. They also have lumpy seed pods, or, more lumpy than mustard seed pods. Usually you will find a stand of one or the other. I don’t recall finding both in the same patch. Blossom colors can range from yellow to white with streaks of purple. But the leaves always have the biggest lobe on the end farthest from the plant. Look for them in sunny areas with fertile soil. Not native they came from Eurasia in the 1700s. And note the seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to 60 years. To read more Wild Radish go here, and for Wild Mustard, here.

Our native plantain, Plantago P. virginiana. Photo by Green Deane

There are Plantains that look like tough bananas and there are Plantains that are low and leafy plants. They are not related. Just two different groups with the same common name. Low-growing Plantains can be native or non-native. The one pictured right is native, the Dwarf Plantain. As a genus the plants are well-known. The leaves are edible raw when young. As they age they become more bitter and stringy. Cooking makes them palatable up to a point. Then they move into the astringent medical realm. As such they are used on bites, stings and to help puncture wounds heal. The seeds are edible once produced and are the source of the commercial dietary fiber, psyllium. When finely ground the seeds are sold under the brand name Metamucil. There are numerous species of Plantagos (Plantains) with at least five common locally, P. virginiana, P. major, P. lanceolata and P. rugelii the latter which strongly resembles P. major. (P. rugelii is pink at the base of the stem, P. major is not.) They are all used the same way.  One problem beginning foragers have is confusing young Oakleaf Fleabane leaves for Dwarf Plantain leaves (they are both rosette-ish, low-growing green leaves, hairy with fibrous threads in the stem.) But the Dwarf Plantain is essentially a long skinny hairy leaf with a few teeth. The Oakleaf Fleabane is much fatter, has lobes, and does resemble oak leaves found on northern oaks. You can read about the Plantains here and I have a video here.  

Classes are held rain or shine (but not during hurricanes.)

Foraging Classes: Sticking to the east coast this weekend with classes in West Palm Beach and Port Orange which is near Daytona Beach. 

Saturday January 8th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m to noon, meet just north of the science center. 

Sunday January 9th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion. 

Saturday January 15th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte, meet at the parking lot at Bayshore and Ganyard, 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday January 16th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms, 9 a.m. to noon. The entrance is on South Denning. Some GPS directions get it wrong and put it on S. Pennsylvania. 

Sunday February 6th,  John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk, pavilion 1 parking lot. 9 a.m. to noon. 

For more information, to pre-pay or sign up go here.

The weather was pleasant and the turnout large for our visit to Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach last weekend. I arrived at the park about 8 a.m. and wandered around looking at plants for the 10 a.m. walk. How unusual is that behavior, looking at plants in a park? Someone called the police and said I was hiding in the bushes and carrying a rifle (all I had was a phone, not even a walking stick.) Anyway… seven officers showed up, driving across the lawn no less. I didn’t know the Town of Cocoa Beach had that many officers and on a Sunday morning no less. After no rifle was found I got a lecture about staying on the paths. 

Florida native Snowberries/Snowbells. Photo by Green Deane

The second surprise of the day were two fruiting Natal Plums, one with easy access. If the officers had arrived then my defense would have been I was removing seeds of an invasive species from a protected native habitat. As it was we had a good taste of fruit, which is actually a commercial crop. The day also had a third surprise, Snowberries/Snowbells. It was only the second time in decades I had seen them and their name embarrassingly eluded me. Snowberries are Chiococca alba, which in Greek means Snow Berries White. Oddly it’s a Florida native in the coffee family (no it is not edible, and has been used to make folks throw up.) I last saw them on Marco Island (southwest Florida.) Most references say they are found only in south Florida other say they are found around most of the state’s coast then west to Texas then southward. As they are snow white they could make an attractive plant in the right location. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by a 170-video USB. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. Or you can make a $99 donation, which tells me it is for the USB (include a snail-mail address.)  I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. I had to stop making them as few programs now will read the ISO files to copy them. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about, such as the one to the left. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: California Wild Mushroom Parties, A Good Reason To Eat Wild Garlic, Black Walnuts and Amaranth, Sea Salt and Plastic, Wild Mustard? Heavy Metals. Oriental Persimmons. What is it? Pine Cough Drops and Needles, Skullcap, Malodorous Plant? Another NJ Tree, Maypop? Roadside Plant, Unknown in Sudan, Please Help Identify, and Preserving Prickly Pear Bounty. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

Creeping Indigo is toxic to many foraging animals. Photo by Top Tropicals.com

Veterinarians annually issue a warning this time of year about a plant that is makes horses sick, Creeping Indigo, Indigofera spicata. Cold weather causes this pea relative to blossom pink, making it a little easier to see. Unfortunately it is a plant favored by horses with at least one dying and others sickened.  (This highlights that relying on instinctual means to avoid toxic plants is not too reliable for animals or man.) As with many toxic and invasive species Creeping Indigo was intentionally brought to Florida in 1925. The University of Florida imported it from Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) for agricultural experiments. When it killed one of two rabbits the testing stopped but the weed stayed (the second rabbit recovered after the Creeping Indigo was removed from its diet.)  Within eight years Creeping Indigo was raising concerns about poisoning farm animals.

That’s Green Deane as a sprout on “Ginger.” Home included five horses, rabbits, chickens, ducks, a multitude of dogs and cats and an occasional pet squirrel.

Besides horses, it is also toxic to cattle, sheep, goats, guinea pigs, the aforementioned rabbits, and birds. Pigs won’t eat it which calls into question reports that it does not bother pigs. Someone might be assuming that since pigs aren’t being reported sick from eating Creeping Indigo they aren’t bothered by it whereas it could equally be that because pigs avoid it there are no reports porcine poisoning. The prime toxin in Indigofera spicata is indospicine which “inhibits the incorporation of arginine and other amino acids in liver cells result in liver insufficiency.”

This is my weekly newsletter #489. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Jewels of Opar sound right out of a movie.

Learning wild edibles has a sense of discovery to it. One day a friend said she had an edible in her yard with a strange name: The Jewels of Opar. If that sounds like something out of a Indiana Jones movie you’re close. It was novel with the Indiana Jones of his day: Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. It was the fifth book of Edgar Rice Burroughs and appeared in 1916. The plant is supposedly native to warmer areas of the United States. However, Dr. Daniel Austin did not include it in this 909-page book Florida Ethnobotany. 

Related to Purslane Jewles of Opar are used in similar ways. One source, Cornucopia II, calls it the Caruru and Flameflower and says: “The leaves and stems are blanched and used in green salads, cooked in soups, or eaten like purslane.”  Others call it Javense Ginger and say the long orange root cause be used that way, as a flavoring. A Chinese report says the roots can be stewed with meat. Because of that report and another we know some of the leaves nutrients.

Talium paniculatum can be used like purslane.

100 gram have 15 calories, 1.19 grams of protein, 0.31 grams of fat, 2.02 grams of fiber, 0.939 grams of carbohydrates. Potassium is 304 mg, calcium 78 mg, magnesium 61 mg, sodium 5.1 mg, iron 4.71 mg, phosphorus 0.73 mg, zinc 0.27 mg, no vitamin A or C reported but it has 1316 mcg of beta-carotene which is a vitamin A precursor. 

Botanically the Jewels of Opar are Talinum paniculatum. (tah-LINE-uhm puh-nick-you-LAH-tum.)  Talinum is new Dead Latin for a native Sengal name for the plant. Paniculatum means like a panicle. Unfortunately its reporting is sporadic, a few counties here, a few counties there, from South Carolina to Texas. No doubt it is more wide-spread but has not be officially found by an official botanist and approved by an official botanical state committee. It is listed in five areas in Florida. 

The species is somewhat tart because of oxalic acid. Hexane extract proved “outstanding” against Micrococcus luteus and Candida albicans. The species has Campesterol, stigmasterol, and sitosterol. 

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

Jewels of Opar distribution

IDENTIFICATION: Mucilaginous leaves are flat, glossy, to four inches long, half as wide, growing in thick whorls, has whispy pink flowers and dark red fruit. Roots are long and orange. 

TIME OF YEAR: Year round

ENVIRONMENT: Moist areas, well drained soil, warm weather, intolerant of frost, prefers full sun but can grow in partial shade. 

METHOD OF PREPARATION:Shoots and leaves eaten raw or in stews and soups,  Used in folk medicine extensively used ornamental. 

Canna edulis

How many species of Canna are there? There used to be perhaps 100 but now there are 20 or so, plus one Scottish island with a …ah.. population problem. And don’t misspell it Cana with one ‘N’ or you will get a cremation society.

I lived with a Taiwanese family for a while, perhaps that’s where I got my skills at cooking down home Chinese food. They grew Canna, red blossom with skinny petals (well, blossom parts that look like petals.) See above. I thought at the time the flowers were Taiwanese Canna because they looked so different in blossom than Canna found in the southern United States, which has large fat blossoms of yellow or gold. My presumption was that Canna was Asian. Come to find out everyone thought that but Canna is originally from the Americas. It went east and west and then it came back and got discovered.

Golden Canna, Canna flaccida

Canna is called a lily in common terms — Canna Lily — but it is not a lily. It’s in the order of Zingiberales which includes ginger, bananas, and marantas. The resemblance is in the leaves. How it got to be called a Canna Lily is unknown though it can be a bit orchid looking and was once called the Orchid-Flowered Canna. One can also easily see the ginger relationship just as kids in a family can look similar. Its leaves are large and green, some times brown to maroon, occasionally variegated. Blossom color varies but usually favoring the red/orange/yellow range. Hybrids are often multi-colored. The blossom is rather odd in that what attracts our eye is often modified stamen (reproductive parts) rather than true petals. But I’ll call them blossoms for convenience. Like so many plants misnamed and renamed by personality-void botanists the genus proliferated with species and varieties and cultivars until it was a mangle morass of monikers. It took two botanists two careers to sort them from a big mess to a little mess. Here’s what happened.

Canna indica

Cannas are native to the warm areas of the Americas. They were taken to warm areas of southeast Asia, then called the East Indies.  From there they went to Europe. The first named species was Canna indica, which means Canna from India. In those days that meant from the West Indies but that was overlooked and the notion arose that the Canna was from the East Indies rather than the West Indies. More so, indica today mean from India not the West Indies. Subsequent botanists “discovered” Canna in Africa and Asia thinking it came from the India. Then they were “discovered” in the Americas, for a second time. It would be centuries before there was general agreement that Canna are native Americans and that scores of different Canna species was probably only one score. (Ya gotta love academics, like doctors, oh so right and oh so wrong.)

Canna edulis roots in the Andeas

So, what of the Canna, which parts can be used? If you believe everything on the Internet the entire plant is used, seeds to rhizome. Reality is a bit different. The seeds are tough. How tough? They can stay viable for 600 years and have been used for buckshot. That’s tough. Young seeds can be ground and eaten. Unfortunately references that say mature seeds can be sprinkled on tacos was not written by anyone who ever tried it this buckshot replacement. Cooked immature seeds, however, are edible. In some species the young shoots and leaves are a cooked green — usually boiled — and in some species the root starch is edible. In fact, it is the largest plant starch, molecularly speaking, and among if not the easiest to digest. Arrowroot starch, used as a thickener, comes from a relative of the Canna, Maranta arundinacea.

Canna indica purpurea rhizome

The best-known Canna for food is Canna edulis, also called Achira. It can have a rhizome clump two feet long. At harvest time the plant is three to six feet high with alternative leaves that are a foot long and almost half a foot wide. The unisexual flowers have orange red petals and three petal-like staminodia, each of different lengths. Those lead to a three-cell seed capsule with round black seeds. Its starch has been used for food for at least 4,500 years. Canna indica roots are edible, too, as are the rhizomes of Canna coccinea. C. indica It looks similar to Canna edulis but is shorter and has brighter red flowers.

Locally the edible member of the species is Canna flaccida,  KAN-uh FLACK-sid-uh, also called Golden Canna. It’s a showy, immersed native that typically grows to four to five feet tall. Golden Canna is found in small stands at the edges of marshes, swamps, ponds and lakes. It is found throughout the southern United States. It also has been hybridized and found in household gardens around the world. Golden Canna flowers are showy yellow and usually open in the afternoon. Hybrid Golden Canna flowers are orange tinged, or have large fat petals that are orange and red (compared to the skinny red species.) The three-inch-long flowers grow in clusters at the tops of long stalks. They attach in a spiral along the stem as do the leaves. The leaf shape is oblong to elliptic, tapering bases and pointed tips. Leaves can be two six inches wide and three feet long. Veins are parallel and sharply angled. The three-part seed capsule is rough to the touch turning black. Roots are long, thin, and white. Synonyms: Canna anahuacensis, Canna flaccidum, Canna reevesii. (That’s how they ended up with 100 botanical names, nearly everyone thought they had found a different species.)

Canna root does not store well so it is best left in the ground until when you intend to use it, say within a few days. It can be eaten raw, or is often boiled. Best method of preparation is long baking. The roots are not peeled before or after baking. Once cooked they are slit and the soft, shiny starchy content scooped out. A lot of the starch can make you hiccup. In the mountains of Peru the roots are baked in ground pits with coals and hot rocks covered with dirt, usually 12 hours at least.

Propagation: Plant the small corm-like rhizome segments. Flowering plants have rhizomes tinged with purple, immature plants have white rhizomes flesh. Rhizomes of the Canna iridiflora are not eaten because it is among the few Canna that does not produce fleshy rhizomes.

Canna Island, Scotland

You will read that Canna means reed and is from a Celtic word. Partially true, and there is a Scottish island named Canna. But the Celtic word is from the Dead Latin word Canna which is from the Living Greek word Kanna. Kanna was a certain reed Greeks used to weave into mats and fences. And about Canna Island…

As detailed in my previous article it is an island, left, with about a dozen residents (in 2010)  though the Scottish government would like to increase that. The island had a rat population problem. A few years ago they got rid of the rats then had a rabbit  population problem because the rats weren’t around to keep the rabbits in check.  Bunny birth control eased that problem but the low human population remains a problem. The island is a tourist destination and at one time presumably had Canna, or more specifically local reeds.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Golden Canna, Bandana of the Everglades

IDENTIFICATION: Canna flaccida: Rhizomes fleshy. Leaves: sheath and blade hairless, narrowly ovate to narrowly elliptic, 20 to 50 inches long, base gradually narrowed into sheath, apex acute (pointed.) Inflorescences racemes, simple, bearing one-flower each, fewer than five flowers per inflorescence; Flowers pure yellow, pedicels short, sepals narrowly oblong-elliptic, petals strongly curve back, lobes narrowly oblong-elliptic, base sharply reflexed; three staminodes, broadly ovate, seed capsules irregular ellipsoid, seeds brown, nearly round.

TIME OF YEAR: Usually summer time. Roots should be harvested before the plant flowers.

ENVIRONMENT: Full sun, shallow water around six inched deep, open marshes, lake margins, ponds, savannas, ditches,  and inundated pine flatwoods. Although Canna is frost sensitive it also grows very fast and has been grown in extreme northern climates such as northern Alaska and Canada because of the long days.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Canna edulis roots are either boiled or baked, or eaten raw. Usually they are slow roasted, usually 12 hours minimum, a good oven on low heat can do that in half the time. Young shoots are eaten as a green vegetable usually cooked but I have had one Hawaiian forager tell me he eats young shoots raw. Leaves can be used to cook food in. Immature seeds cooked. Starch can be used like arrowroot. Canna flaccida roots are usually ground and washed letting the starch settle. The water is then poured off and the starch dried then ground. Cooked Canna starch can be used to make alcohol. The stems can be used to make fiber.

Among the identifying characteristics of this edible Bolete is red netting on the stem. Photo by Green Deane

We are in between mushroom seasons, so to speak. From about November to May most of the edible fungi we find grow on wood. From about June to November most of the edible fungi we find grow on the ground. May is an erratic transition month. For the summer season to start we need rain and warm ground (whereas in the fall dry and cooler stimulates some species.) Usually we get a couple of weeks of rain in May and that coaxes the mushrooms out of winter hibernation by June. Last year the lack of rain in May threw the season off badly.

This Florida Bolete defies edibility rules. Photo by Green Deane.

Thus I was not expecting to find an edible mushroom in last week’s foraging class in Port Charlotte last week (I did expect the bathrooms open but even the Port-O-Lets were locked!) Live Oak Park on Bayshore is not known for mushrooms. It’s on the cusp of being permanently too wet (thus in wet areas fungi often grow up on wood.) But we spied three Butyriboletus floridanus (BUET -ah- ree bow-LEE-tus flor-ree-DHAN-us) under a Live Oak. Though edible it brings up an edibility debate. The Bolete family in Florida is different than the Bolete Family in the rest of North America. Characteristics that can eliminate a Bolete from being edible up north don’t apply in Florida. So despite its coloring Butyriboletus floridanus is edible. I don’t think it has a common name. Maybe we can invent one (I did that for a different species and it has caught on.) This is definitely a Bolete (pores instead of gills) the cap is red and viscid, the cap and inner flesh stains blue when cut or bruised, the red stem is coarsely netted. The pores are red or orange and there are yellow drops on the pores when young. Spores olive brown. I eat the caps cooked. Lastly if we gt the several inches of rain they are predicting for this weekend maybe by next weekend the fungi will be flourishing. 

Society Garlic is not mild-mannered. Photo by Green Deane.

You like garlic or you don’t. I worked with a piano player — Dennis Stiles —  who loathed it and could detect it if you at it days earlier. Dennis, incidentally, lived to 105. My mother treated garlic … gingerly.  When I was young if a recipe called for garlic my mother would rub one clove around the edge of what ever dish the food was going to go into. That was, for her, garlic seasoning which brings us to the backward history of Society Garlic which is blossoming nicely now. Settlers in South Africa considered clove garlic to be strong. Thus when going out on the town instead of eating regular garlic they had what they viewed as a milder native plant with a garlic aroma, Tulbaghia violacea. That has always struck me as odd in that Society Garlic is very intense. In my foraging classes when we pick it the aroma lingers for hours. Not native to North America and not wild but it is a common ornamental. To read more about Society Garlic go here.

Gopher Apples look like tiny oaks. Photo by Green Deane

One might argue Gopher Apples get no respect. Barely noticeable they are blossoming now if you look closely. That usually requires bending over in that the species is often less than a foot high (though they can on occasion exceed that.) As you might expect their fruit is a common food of the Florida-protected species Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus.) I must admit I have never seen a Gopher Tortoise in a patch of Gopher Apples. That may be because those reptiles prefer other species first: Broadleaf Grasses, mushrooms, saw palmetto berries, cactus pads, spurge, young pines, daisies, asters, blackberries, blueberries and Gopher Apples. They also eat carrion and manure. If you want to tell them apart the boys have long tails, girls short (probably so to not interfere with egg-laying.)   You can read about Gopher Apples here.

Foraging classes are held rain, shine, hot or cold. Photo by Nermina Krenata

Rain and closed bathrooms makes classes a challenge this week. The Saturday class in Gainesville might get rained on. Dress for we and wind.  Sunday’s class in Satasota should be dry AND the bathrooms are open.  

Saturday, May 16th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. 9 a.m. to noon. (This class date was originally at Spruce Creek in Port Orange but that had to be changed to Gainesville.)

Sunday, May 17th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday, May 23rd, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park. 9 a.m to noon. 

Sunday, May 24th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon. (There is no official bathroom at this reserve.) 

For more information, to sign up for a class, or to prepay go here. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

Changing foraging videos: My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been selling for seven years. They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy. The DVD format, however, is becoming outdated. Those 135 videos plus 15 more are now available on a 16-gig USB drive. While the videos can be run from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The150-video USB is $99 and the 135-video DVD set is now $99. The DVDs will be sold until they run out then will be exclusively replaced by the USB. This is a change I’ve been trying to make for several years (with thanks to Mike Smith.) So if you have been wanting the 135-video DVD set order it now as the price is reduced and the supply limited. Or you can order the USB. My headache is getting my WordPress Order page changed to reflect these changes. We’ve been working on it for over two weeks. However, if you want to order now either the USB or the DVD set make a $99 “donation” using the link at the bottom of this page or here.  That order form provides me with your address, the amount — $99 — tells me it is not a donation and in the note say if you want the DVD set or the USB. 

Nickerbean pods protect the gray seeds.

Botany Builder #28: Echinate, covered with spines or prickles. It is from the Dead Latin echinatus, covered with prickles. Sea urchins are in the class of Echinoidea. “Urchin” by the way is an old word for porcupines as is hedgehogs. Mischievous boys are some times called urchins. Locally one medicinal plant is echinate, and that is the Nickerbean.  Not a vine and not a tree, it is a “climbing shrub.” The Smilax is also not called a vine but a “climbing shrub.”  The Nickerbean is not edible, but does, according to herbalists, have many medicinal applications as a quinine substitute  To read more about the Nickerbean go here.  

Passiflora incarnata and unripe fruit. Photo by Green Deane

It’s June and Maypops are popping out all over. They are easy to find: Look for a vine that has three-lobed leaves and smooth, green fruit shaped like a large egg to a tennis ball. The fruit ripens to yellow near the base of the vine first. The plant, which smells like an old gym shoe, will put on new fruit until cold weather. Green fruit can be fried like green tomatoes. Sometimes the green ones have seeds mature enough to be tart. Sweet and sour seeds can be scooped out of the yellow fruit and eaten along with their white jelly-like coating. Locally our most common passion fruit is Passiflora incarnata, right. You will read on the Internet that it contains cyanide. It does not though many passion fruits do if not all but P. incarnata. It was specifically tested and definitely does not have cyanide in it’s leaves. The varying amounts of cyanide in other species of passion fruit is one reason why animals don’t eat them and one reason why you should not eat any ornamental passion fruit you may have. Instead of cyanide P. incarnata has GABA, gamma-Aminobutyric acid, which calms you down. It might be a possible anti-dote for Water Hemlock poisoning in that Water Hemlock breaks down the body’s reserve of GABA. 

The Cherry Laurel is deadly. Do not eat it. Photo by Green Deane

Mentioning cyanide many plants have it, including several edible species, Chaya for example. Mechanical breaking down of plant cells or cooking often gets rid of the cyanide which many times is bound together either with sugar or hydrogen. Sometimes the plant has to be fermented so the bacteria can eat the glucose thus freeing the cyanide to be rinsed away.  Clearly one wants the cyanide to be released outside of the body not during digestion. The toxic non-edible Cherry Laurel is a common poisonous plant with the cyanide bond. If you crush a leaf you can smell either almonds or “maraschino” cherries. That’s cyanide. However, there is one interesting fact you should keep in mind: Depending where you are only 25 to 40% of the population can smell cyanide. It’s a gene-linked thing. If you can crush several Cherry Laurel leafs and not smell almonds or “maraschino” cherries you might be one of those who cannot use their nose to detect cyanide. You can, however, look at the backside of the leaf near the stem and find two faded dots. Those can help you identify it. The fruit is also deadly. Just leave it alone. 

The white, fluffy home of dye bugs. Photo by Green Deane

You eat a lot of bugs, you just don’t know it. For example: One cactus species is called Opuntia cochenillifera. Cochenillifera in Dead Latin means “cochineal bearing” but is from the Greek word for red, “kokinos.” That’s because the cochineal insect lives off the cochenillifera cactus and others. You might find that almost interesting except you’ve eaten that exact insect or more specifically a product produced from their crushed, little dehydrated bodies: Cochineal dye, also called “Tuna Blood.” Actually, only the female cochineal bug provides the red dye and it takes some 75,000 to make one pound, 155,000 to the kilogram. Sometimes in the wild you will see a Nopales or an Opuntia mottled with white or gray, or even covered with white or gray cotton-like covering (see photo to right.) That’s a cochineal condo.  The hard part is each of the scale-like insects has to be harvested by hand, when they are around 90-days old. 

Several food and cloth dyes can be made form the little Cochineal bug.

Before artificial dyes were invented, cochineal dye was the main red dye from fabrics to food. In the 1400s, eleven cities conquered by Montezuma each paid a yearly tribute of 2,000 decorated cotton blankets and 40 bags of cochineal dye. During colonial days Mexico had a monopoly on cochineal dye and it was that country’s second largest export after silver. Cochineal went out of favor and flavor when chemical dyes came in but the organic movement and rejection of artificial dyes has brought it back. Cochineal trumps chemicals unless you’re a vegetarian who have protested its recent incursion into “natural” foods. Others oppose its use because the only religiously approved insect to consume is the locus. If you use a cosmetic — red lip stick for example — or have eaten a product with any of the following ingredients, you have used or bitten the bug as they are all different names for the same insect coloring: Cochineal Extract, Carmine, Crimson Lake (or Lac) Natural Red 4, C.I. 75470, E120, or even “Natural Coloring” when the product is any shade of red, scarlet, purple or orange. Cochineal is also one of the few water-soluble dyes that resist fading. It is used also in slide staining (you remember those pink slide from biology 101 don’t you?) There is a bug in your past, and probably your future.

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.

This is weekly newsletter 405, If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Toxic young Butterweed can make one think of mustards. Photo By Green Deane

Butterweed’s blossom does not resemble a mustard. Photo by Green Deane

It’s time for my annual warning about Butterweed. It’s a toxic plant this time of year that’s been out for a while but seems to be flushing now. I learned it as Senecio glabellus but now some are calling it Packera glabella. This plant can put you in the hospital with serious liver damage. It is not on par with deadly mushroom but it’s down the same sickening road. There was a case in Southwest Florida just a few years ago. From a forager’s point of view it can — from a distance — resemble wild mustard or wild radish. On closer inspection it clearly is not a mustard. The blossoms are not a yellow cross and the leaves are not sandpappery. Growing in wet spots, Butterweed delivers its load of alkaloid pyrrolizidines without warning. Most alkaloids are bitter. Butterweed leaves are very mild in flavor and have a pleasing texture. Mustards do not. It’s in the Aster family which is 1) huge with some 22,000 members, and 2) plants in that family usually are not toxic.  You can read more about pyrrolizidines here. 

Bulrushes have edible roots. Photo by Green Deane

An often overlooked wild edible is Bulrush, which we saw this past weekend in Sarasota. This tall sedge gets second billing to the another common watery inhabitant, cattails. While there are several species of Bulrush locally the two one sees most often are Scirpus californicus and S. validus. Used like cattails, the easiest way to tell the species of Bulbrushes apart is to look at the seed tufts location and color of the seeds which introduces an important point: The experts tell us there are no toxic sedge seeds thus if you have a sedge you have a source of edible seeds. On these species the seeds are small but are easy to harvest (if you have a boat or a canoe.) To read more about Bulrushes and to identify sedges in general go here. 

Foraging classes are held rain or shine, heat or cold. Photo by Nermina Krenata.

It will be Chamber of Commerce weather this weekend for my two foraging classes, 70s in the days, 50s at night (which is summertime weather in my native Maine.) Saturday is in Gainesville, Sunday a repeat in Largo. 

Saturday, February 15th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Sunday, February 16th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 a.m to noon. (This is to make up for an earlier class here that has scheduling issues.) 

Sunday, February 23rd, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk, pavilion 1 parking lot. 9 a.m. to noon.

Saturday, March 7th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the pavilion near the YMCA building and tennis courts.

Sunday, March 8th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon. (There are no official bathrooms at this location.) 

Saturday, March 28th, Haulover Canal, Merritt Island National Refuge, north of the Kennedy Space Center. 9 a.m. to noon. Read the instructions below. We meet the the northwest end of the canal area. 

Sunday, March 29th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange FL, meet at the pavilion. 9 a.m. to noon. 

For more information, to sign up for a class or to pre-pay go here. 

Wild Pineapple fruit ripen to golden and are soft. Photo by Green Deane

One of the odd things you can do in Florida is see plants that don’t exist. They are species the state has not collected samples of for official herbarium purposes thus they don’t officially exist. One of the non-existent plants you might be seeing this time of year is Wild Pineapple, Bromelia pinguin. I discovered it one Christmas Day some thirteen years ago and look forward to its brilliant blossoming and yellow fruit. I have since found it in several location although it is officially not anywhere. And be forewarned: Should you find this plant that does not exist it is is well-armed with spines that curve in both directions so it gets you coming and going. Also it’s edibility varies person to person so caution is advised as well. If I eat it I can’t taste anything for a few hours. Others eat the fruit without issue. To read more about the Wild Pineapple go here.  

Calliandra haematocephala, the red powder puff. Photo by Green Deane

A common flowering ornamental one sees this time of year fi we’ve had some warm interludes is Calliandra haematocephala. It’s a powder puffy shrub that’s native of Malaysia or maybe Bolivia, not exactly close countries. Called the “Red Powder Puff” it’s a small tree that was in the pea family but has been moved to the Mimosa group. As far as I can tell, it’s not edible in any way just pretty which has its own value. The name is slightly interesting in that it is all living Greek mangled by Dead Latin. Calliandra is a combination of Kallos (beautiful) and Andros (man) but is to mean — when poetically translated — “pretty stamen” (the male part of the flower which creates the powder puff.) Haematocephala means “blood head” or in this case “red head.” Thus “beautiful man blood head” or pretty “stamen red head.”  You could even stretch it to “pretty redheaded man.”

Foraging DVDs make a good gift to watch during the lifeless months of winter.

Though your foraging may drop off  during the winter it’s a great time to study wild edibles with my nine DVD set. Each  DVDs has 15 videos for 135 in all. They make a great gift. Order today. Some of these videos are of better quality than my free ones on the Internet. They are the same videos but many people like to have their own copy. I burn and compile the sets myself so if you have any issues I handle them personally. There are no middle foragers. And I’m working on adding a tenth DVD.  To learn more about the DVDs or to order them click here.

Indigofera spicata, Creeping Indigo, is toxic to horses and has caused death locally. Not edible.

Veterinarians have also issued their  annual warning about a plant that is makes horses sick locally, Creeping Indigo, Indigofera spicata. Cold weather causes this pea relative to blossom pink, making it a little easier to see. Unfortunately it is a plant favored by horses with at least one dying and others sickened.  (This highlights that relying on instinctual means to avoid toxic plants is not too reliable for animals or man.) As with many toxic and invasive species Creeping Indigo was intentionally brought to Florida in 1925. The University of Florida imported it from Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) for agricultural experiments. When it killed one of two rabbits the testing stopped but the weed stayed (the second rabbit recovered after the Creeping Indigo was removed from its diet.)  Within eight years Creeping Indigo was raising concerns about poisoning farm animals.

Green Deane as a sprout on Ginger (who in real life was a Boss Horse called Dinny.”

Besides horses, it is also toxic to cattle, sheep, goats, guinea pigs, rabbits, and birds. Pigs won’t eat it which calls into question reports that it does not bother pigs. Someone might be assuming that since pigs aren’t being reported sick from eating Creeping Indigo they aren’t bothered by it whereas it could equally be that because pigs avoid it there are no reports porcine poisoning. The prime toxin in Indigofera spicata is indospicine which “inhibits the incorporation of arginine and other amino acids in liver cells result in liver insufficiency.” I follow animal poisoning because I grew with a farm menagerie that included several horses, dogs, cats. chickens, ducks, rabbits and squirrels. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.

This is weekly newsletter 392, If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

The ornamental Firebush in bloom. Photo by Green Deane

Hamelia patens: Edible pharmaceutical

The Firebush is probably one of the most commonly planted unknown edibles. They are usually arranged in the landscape to attract butterflies and migratory or resident humming birds. However the fruit is edible — with precautions — and the plant has a long history of medicinal and industrial uses.

Red berries ripen to black. Photo by Green Deane

It would be difficult to make a better consumer lawn shrub than the Firebush. It is showy, fast-growing, evergreen, stays small, attracts birds and insects and provides an edible fruit.  It blossoms all year with tubular flowers, reddish-orange or scarlet. Even the stems of the flowers are red. The fruit is a juicy berry with a lot of little seeds. It ripens from green to yellow to red then black.  It can be eaten out of hand — more on that in a moment — made in to a syrup or wine, a particular favorite in Mexico.  It can fruit nearly all year unless damaged by cold. The berry is deceptive raw. It has an initial sweetness and grape-like texture that yields a sticky, lingering, slightly bitter aftertaste in the back of the mouth. Try one first, not a lot. See if you like it. Some people don’t taste that so it might be a genetic trait. Cooking eliminates that aftertaste. 

The Mayans called it, Ix-canan, or “guardian of the forest.” In Belize the Firebush is  used to treat a variety of skin problems including, sores, rashes, wounds, burns, itching, cuts, skin fungus, and insect stings and bites. For topical use they boiling two handful of leaves, stems and flowers in two gallons of water for 10 minutes. Once cool, it is applied liberally to the affected area. This same liquid is drank as a tea to relieve menstrual cramps. The Choco Indians in Panama drink a leaf infusion to treat fever and diarrhea; the Ingano Indians make a leaf infusion for intestinal parasites. Tribes in Venezuela chew on the leaves to lower body temperature to prevent a sun or heat stroke.  In Brazil the root is used as a diuretic, the leaves for scabies and headaches. Cubans use the leaves externally for headaches and sores while a decoction is taken internally for rheumatism. In Mexico it is used externally to stop staunch to flow of blood and heal wounds.

In the lab animal studies with Firebush leaf extracts showed analgesic, diuretic, and hypothermic actions. External use showed significant anti-inflammatory activity. The bush also antibacterial and antifungal properties against a wide range of fungi and bacteria in several. Also, incisions bathed with plant juice healed faster and stronger than no bathing or application of petroleum jelly.

The industrial use of the plant comes from it high amounts of tannins.  The hard, brown wood has also been used. Firebush’s botanical name is Hamelia patens. Hamelia honors French botanist Honri Louis Du Hamel du Monceau and is said: huh-MEE-lee-uh.  Patens, said PAY-tenz, means spreading.

Firebush Catsup

Ingredients:-
2 cups ripe berries
½ cup mild vinegar
2/3 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
½ tsp each of clove, ginger and paprika
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
Put into a saucepan the berries, vinegar and water. Boil the berries until they are soft (5 minutes). Put through a blender or food processor. Then add the sugar, spices and salt. Simmer for 3 minutes. Serve at room temperature.

Carambola and Firebush Chutney

4 cups carmbola, peeled and pipped, cut into small pieces
¼ cup ripe berries
2 cups vinegar
2 cups sugar
¼ cup finely chopped ginger

Put in a heavy saucepan vinegar and sugar and bring to boiling point. Add the carambola and ginger. Cook on low heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking to bottom of can. Add berries in the last 10 minutes of cooking to allow then to retain their shape.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Shrub or small, bushy tree to 12 ft. Young branches reddish. Leaves elliptic, oblong or elliptic-ovate, pointed, 3 to 7 in. long, more or less flushed and dotted with red or purple, and with red stalks; soft-textured, hairy. Flowers scarlet, tubular, with dark linear stripes, slender, to 1 1/2 in. long, in tassel-like, branched clusters. If the flowers are more yellow than red and without stripes it is probably the H. patens var glabra from Mexico, presumed to be edible.  Fruit ovalish, five-pointed calyx, seedy, distinct nipple.

TIME OF YEAR: Flowers and fruits year round.

ENVIRONMENT: Common in hammocks and landscaping. It prefers damp to dry. Native to Florida but can be grown along the southern gulf coast and up the west coast to southern oregon.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Ripe fruit is black, edible raw, can be made into a syrup or wine.

Gorse flowers and thorns, available all year long depending on climate.

 Ulex europaeus: Edible Gorse or Furze Pas

Gorse has edible flowers. It also has thorns… Really bad thorns.

In August 2005 an Englishman, Dean Bowen, 32, left to walk home after many drinks at the local pub. He woke up the next day in the middle of a Gorse patch.  Bowen couldn’t remember how he got there, and couldn’t find a way out of the thorny mess.

On his second day stranded in the patch he caught the attention of a passerby by using a cigarette lighter to reflect sunlight. That brought the rescue squad but they couldn’t get to him. He was surrounded, as they say, in a thorny situation. Bowen was eventually rescued by the British Royal Air Force who lifted him out by helicopter.

“I wouldn’t advise anybody to go into it [gorse bushes], you know what I mean? At first it seems fun but, before you know it, you’re like stuck,” Bowen, from Hunmanby, North Yorkshire, told the BBC after his rescue. “Whichever way I turned it seemed to be the wrong one that day.”

Bowen spent some time in the local hospital recovering from mild hypothermia and dehydration. Colin Yorke, who winched him to safety, said: “The man was in a patch of gorse brush 10-feet deep.

“We’ve no idea how he got there. He was right in the middle of the gorse. It was like he had been dropped there by a spaceship… It was certainly one of our stranger rescues.”

Gorse blossoms can make tea or wine

There is a saying: “When Gorse is out of bloom kissing is out of season.” That’s understandable since it is an evergreen that blooms year round. A spray of Gorse used to be put in bridal bouquet as an allusion to this. Pliny said Gorse was used in the collection of gold. The plant was put on stream beds to catch any gold-dust brought down by the current. It’s also been used for fuel in bakers’ ovens and in soap-making, as it contains much alkali. If the spines are crushed it is acceptable animal fodder. It has half the protein of oaks, not bad for wild fodder. Horses in particular like it especially tender young tips. 

Gorse is common in western Europe and has been naturalized in Coastal Australia, New Zealand, South America and North America. In North America it is found along the Mid-Atlantic states, the west coast from California north into Canada, and Hawaii. It can also be found inland.

The only edible part for us are the flowers which have a slight coconut aroma and almond  taste.  They’ve been used in salads, for tea and to make a non-grape wine — recipe below. The buds can be pickled like capers.  Don’t over eat them. The plant contains slightly toxic alkaloids. Soaked seeds are a flea-repellant.

Botanically known as Ulex europaeus (YEW-lex yew-row-PEE-us) Gorse is also called Furze. Ulex is Latin for some unknown ancient plant and Europaeus is of Europe. The word “gorse” comes from the Anglo -Saxon word “gorst” which is a descendant of a German word meaning barley which makes no sense at all. The word “furze” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “fyrs” which means ‘a waste’ suggesting where it grows or the litter that accumulates around it creating a fire hazard.  Gorse is on many noxious weed lists and is myrmecochoric meaning its seeds are distributed by ants.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Evergreen shrub to six feet, sometimes 10,  forming dense and impenetrable thickets, young stems green, leaves modified into green spines, 0.4-1.4 in long, young seedlings have trifoliate leaves resembling a small clover leaf. Flowers are golden yellow, 0.4-0.8 in) long, with egg-shaped bracts and has a typical pea-flower structure. NON-EDIBLE:  pod, long and dark, purplish brown, 2-3 small blackish seeds.

TIME OF YEAR: Year round if the climate agrees, heavily in spring.

ENVIRONMENT: Non-arid areas neither too hot or too cold, coasts, disturbed ground, grasslands, shrub lands, forest edges, waste places  also as a hedge and in landscaping. Can grow in some shade. Makes soil poorer.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Flowers as a trail-side nibble, or use to make tea or wine. Buds can be pickled. Do not consume a lot. Flowers have been used as a dye for Easter eggs. Flowers and roots provide a yellow dye for clothes.

Gorse Wine Recipe

* 12 cups of gorse flowers

* 1 gallon of water

* 4 cups of sugar (can substitute with honey, 3.3 pounds)

* 1 1/2 cups seedless white raisins

* 2 oranges

* 2 lemons (or 1/4 oz. citric acid)

* 2/3 cup strong tea or 8 drops grape tannin

* 2 heaping teaspoons all-purpose wine yeast

* 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

(Optional, two ounces of ginger root)

Put the flowers into the fermenting bucket immediately. Boil half the water, half the sugar and the chopped raisins together for 1 to 2 minutes, then pour over flowers. Thinly peel the rind from the oranges and the lemons, and add to the bucket. Squeeze out the juice and add that too. Add the cold tea or the tannin and stir thoroughly. Make up to 1 gallon with cold water. When tepid add yeast and yeast nutrient, stir well and cover. Ferment for 1 week, stirring daily. After 2 or 3 days, when fermenting well, add the remaining sugar and stir to dissolve. Strain through a sieve or cloth and siphon into a gallon jug or bottle. Fill up to the neck or the jug with cool, boiled water. Rack when clear, bottle and keep for six months.