Search: horsemint

Monarda punctata, Horsemint, Beebalm. Photo by Green Deane

We’ve mentioned it a few times in recent newsletters but it bares repeating: Horsemint — see above — is in season and very easy to find now. Look in grassy sandy places or along paths in always dry areas. The pleasant side of the plant is that it smells nice and makes a Thyme-like spice. The naughty side of the species is that it contains Thymol which is a relaxant. Made into a tea it calms you down. How much it calms you down depends on how much you use and your personal response to it.  You can also hang some in your house as an air freshener. You can read about Horsemint here. 

Crowfoot Grass seeds are gluten free. Photo by Green Deane

Crowfoot Grass, which is ripening now, is not native to North America. It’s from Africa where the species is used to make unleavened bread and a frothy beer. While crowfoot grass is easy to harvest — when ripe — the grains are tiny, eye of a needle size. You can collect about two quarts an hour — making them calorie positive —  and they can grow in large colonies making harvesting easy. Usually you collect the grains while sitting and using window screen plastic as a strainer.  The grains have a small amount of cyanide in them but drying and cooking drives that off. Though minute botanically they are a mouthful: Dactyloctenium aegyptium. That means ‘little comb fingers from Egypt.’ You can find Crowfoot Grass from Maine to California skipping the upper northwest side of the country.

Pandanus Fruit, also called screw pine because it twists as it grows.

The question every time you see one — left —  is which species is it? There are some 600 of them in the genus and several are edible one way or another. The one to the left is in Dreher Park. Sometimes it has a little bit of calcium oxalate in the fruit and sometimes doesn’t. So one has to taste it carefully. What you do is take a section, which is a cluster of smaller parts, and chew it. The goal is to get the juice out of it more than anything else though some pulp is edible. Last year this particular growth lightly burned my lips enough to notice but not bothersome. The young white base of the fronds are also edible Three species are commonly known as edible: Pandamus amaryllifolius, Pandanus fascicularis, and Pandanus tectorius. The latter is the most consumed of all and would be a good find. One of the more interesting things about the Pandanus is how it burns when lit. A dried Pandanus stalk can smolder for days like a baseball bat-sized cigarette. It was how some of the Aboriginals of Australia carried fire from one place to another.  Among other speces we can find in Dreher Park in the park are Coco-plums and Simpson Stoppers asl well as Java Plums. The Sea-grapes were still green. They ripen around the first of September.  The Mahoes were not yet in blossom. They are unusual in that their blossom is yellow in the morning then turn red in the afternoon. Botanist tell us that is to attract different pollinators. The blossoms also have more antioxidants in the afternoon.  

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

Foraging Classes: My deceased Miata has been replace and I’m on the road again. 

Sept 23rd, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. Meet at the parking lot at Ganyard and Bayshore, 9 a.m.

Sept 24th Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. Meet at the pavilion near the Dog Park

Sept. 30th Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246. 9 a.m. We meet at Building A next to the administration parking lot.

Oct 1st Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms, 9 a.m.

Oct  7th Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m. Meet at the pavilion near the pump house

Oct 8th Red Bug Slough , Sarasota. 9 a.m. Because of rennovations, we have to meet at a different location at Red Bug Slough in Sarasoata. Normally it is at 5200 S. Beneva Road. Instead we will have to park at Gypsy Street and South Lockwood Ridge Road. Gypsy can be reached by Camphor Ave which runs south of Proctor west of Beneva.

Oct 14th Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405, 9 a.m. meet just north of the science center.

Oct 15th  Blanchard Park,  2451 Dean Rd, Union Park, FL 32817 9.a.m. met at the pavilion by the tennis courts

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

White Beautyberries. Photo by Green Deane

Are the berries to the left edible or not? Ninety-nine plus percent of white berries are not edible. White berries are a huge warning flag saying stay away. But there are exceptions.  I can think of a few wild white berry species in the world that are edible, some in North America and one in Africa. But what of the berries pictured left? They are white American Beautyberries. Usually they are magenta when ripe. These are stark white. I have eaten a few. They taste like the colored ones. A few years ago I had a woman in New Jersey write to me and report she eats them all the time and makes jelly out of them. That’s not an official endorsement but it is about as close as one can get to knowing if they are edible. There are at least four species of Beautyberries that can spontaneously produce white berries, and there might be a man-made cultivar or two. The shrub at left had magenta colored berries for several years then went one for one year then back to colored berries. To read more about them click here. 

The nose doesn’t always know.

The aroma of a wild food is the most flexible of all descriptions. This is for two reasons: Noses differ and plants differ. Taste is also quite flexible but aroma variations beat taste out. When you read in a foraging guide, or even in my articles, that a plant smells like such-and-such know that the description is quite subjective. There are several local species that elicit different descriptions even when noses are whiffing the same sample. One low-growing fruit — the Gopher Apple — has been described as smelling like pink bubble gum, a new plastic shower curtain, or no aroma at all. The smelly spice Epazote ranges in opinions from citrusy to floor varnish to industrial cleaner. Even among non-edibles the olfactory estimations can vary such as with the toxic Laurel Cherry. Some think its cyanide smells like almonds, other think they smell maraschino cherries, some can’t smell the cyanide at all (it depends on your genes.) In guide books a reported aroma is just that, a guide. It is not always for certain by any means. There’s room for aromatic latitude.

Carl Linnaeus had a dirty mind.

Plant Pronunciations: What’s really important is knowing the plant and whether you can eat it or not. What you call it is secondary. Common names are okay as long as you know many plants can have the same common name. “Indian Potato” comes to mind. There are two problems with common names. You and someone else could be talking about the “Indian Potato” but actually be talking about two different species. Also every plant — in theory — has one botanical name but can have virtually dozens of common names. Many times it is just easier to remember the one botanical name. Dead Latin was chosen for the naming plants because … well… it’s dead, non-changing, non-evolving. Perhaps it was also chosen by academics as a way to keep Latin from disappearing completely. Another possibility was they wanted to use naughty descriptions and if in Latin most wouldn’t know how lewd some names are. But know even when Latin was spoken it had regional accents and far flung Latin became French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian. At home it became Italian. There is no etched-in-granite correct way to pronounce botanical names. Hmmmm…. take Vagus. It can be said like the city, Los Vegas, or vah-GOOSE. It means literally “wandering.” And of course there are different pronunciations botanical names in American English vs British English such as with the pine genus (PINE-us, vs. PEEN-iss.)

Pedanius Dioscorides

Many “Latin” plant names are mangled Greek. Take the genus Dioscorea, the true yams. Dead Latin has it dye-oh-SCORE-ree-ah. That makes my ears hurt. It’s named after a Greek physician, Dioscorides, 40-90 AD. So I prefer thee-oh-score-REE-dez which closer to the Greek way of saying it. The only time the botanical name is truly important is to make sure the two of you are discussing the same plant. This happened recently when I received an email from Singapore about how to use the Skunk Vine.  There are several Skunk Vines (like Indian Potatoes, Hog Plums et cetera.) As we were exchanging information about Paederia foetida without the botanical name that would have been difficult. Scientific names of any species can be a personal hurdle. And some times you don’t have a choice. The majority of mushrooms do not have a common names. You just have to bite the Boletus. 

You get the USB, not the key.

150-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. 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. That will take you to an order form. 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. 

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.

Now being printed is EatTheWeeds, the book. It should have 275 plants, 350-plus pages, index and color photos. Several hundred have been preordered on Amazon. And it is being printed as I write. Most of the entries include a nutritional profile. Officially it will be published Dec. 5th (to suit the publisher publicity demands) apparently to appeal to the winter market.

This is weekly newsletter #573. 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.

Fruit foraging in Port Charlottte Photo by Green Deane

There was much fruit to harvest during our foraging class in Port Charlotte last Sunday. Not pictured is Natal Plum or surinam cherry. Most abundant was cocoaplums though in few weeks the Java Plum with out fruit them all. The mangos are on the back side of their season. The podocarpus arils will ripen now to mid-august, twin berries will fruit for several months and the ground cherry will have a fall season. The invalasive Brazilian Pepper berries will be around for several months. 

Ripening Twallow Plums. Photo by Green Deane

I need to record a video this week about Tallow Plum. A shrub near me is ripening and I haven’t done a video on that species. First I had to find my movie camera and then the charging cord. As I am out in the country I have no idea how easily the video will upload but I’ll solve that when it happens. The tallow plum has tasty fruit and is easy to identify. For decades I found them only in coastal location but in the last few years I have found them inland at three location, Ft. Mead, The West Orange Bike Trail and in Lithia. Recently in Melbourne at Wickham Park we did not see any though they are usually found there.

Monarda punctata, Horsemint, Beebalm. Photo by Green Deane

Wild mints can be prima donnas: Once on stage they hate to get off.  Locally we would expect to see Horsemint, Monarda punctata in full bloom by September but it has pushed the season and can be found now. The species can also flower for several months. This week I saw a nice stand along a bike trail in south Vousia County, exactly where one would expect to find it: On a dry bank up from the trail. You can also find it in the same area near roads especially roads that cut through a sand hill. Look for the showy pink bracts. If you want to read about Horsemint you can go here.

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

Foraging Classes: 

August 5th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m. Meet at the pavilion by the pump house. At this location I always get either poison ivy or ticks. Dress carefully.

August 12th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. Meet at the bathrooms 9 a.m. This class will be attended by the company publishing my book (see below) to create some publicity material. 

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

Pindo Palm can fruit almost anytime. Photo by Green Deane

When something is ripe or ready to be harvested varies, a window of a few weeks is normal for most species but often can be extended. Pindo Palms can demonstrate that. I normally start looking for Pindo Palm fruit at the end of spring. Memorial Day reminds me their season is coming soon. By June I am usually eating some here and there. We are now early-August and I had my first Pindo Palm fruit today in Central Florida. The palm’s fruit is one of my favorite wild edibles. I definitely do not have a sweet tooth — in fact I carry the gene for fruit sugar intolerance — but Pindo Palm fruit is one I really like so I keep a close eye on them. While they like late spring and early summer you can find an odd one here and there fruiting around Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day. They are also a hearty palm and can take a lot of cold temperatures. The transluscent kernel in the seed is also edible and has a strong coconut flavor. It is also easy to remove unlike the kernel of the Queen Palm. 

Sugarberries/Hackberries are starting to ripen.

There is a tree you should be scouting for now so when the fruit ripens next month you’ll have some already located. As in real estate so in foraging: Location, location, location. Hackberries (also widely know as Sugarberries) like to be near but not in fresh water. You can often find them about 10 feet above the local water table but I’ve seen them as low as three feet. Usually you can find them up the bank from the water. Older Hackberry bark will often be warty, sometimes heavily so. Leaves have uneven shoulders, and on the back side of the leaf notice three prominent veins at the base, unusual for tree leaves. The small-pea sized fruit is green now but will ripen this month or early September into a burnt orange. The entire fruit is edible though the seed is hard. To read more about them go here.

You get the USB, not the key.

150-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. 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. That will take you to an order form. 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. 

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.

Now being printed is EatTheWeeds, the book. It should have 284 plants, 350-plus pages, index and color photos. Several hundred have been preordered on Amazon. Most of the entries include a nutritional profile. Officially it will be published Dec. 5th (to suit the publisher demands) apparently to appeal to the winter market but can be delivered by mid-October

This is weekly newsletter #568. 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.

Ripe persimmons are dark orange and soft. Photo by Green Deane

Persismmon leaves as a tea are very high in vitamin C. photo by Green Deane

Perhaps it will be a “banner” year for Persimmons, locally. All the persimmon trees I’ve seen this year are fruiting well. When will they ripen? I have found ripe ones as early as late July and as late ones in early January, I aim for October first.  Persimmons are much maligned because they are astringent until extremely ripe. From the tree’s perspective it does not want the fruit carried away by animals that can taste sweet until the seeds are ready to germinate. So the fruit stays non-palatable to most creatures until the last moment. The fruit seemingly turn sweet overnight. No frost is needed. As Forager Dick Deuerling  used to say the best persimmons are the ones you have to fight the ants for.  Remember, the place to look for Persimmons trees are along edges…. edges of forests, edges of roads and rivers and paths. To read more about the Persimmon, which is North American’s only ebony, go here.

Kudzu is known as the plant that smothered The South. It leaves the impression that if you fell asleep in a lawn chair at noon by supper time you would be covered by Kudzu. Driving or hiking through places like North Carolina one can see steep hillsides thickly blanked with the large, herbaceous vine. But it is the botanical beast it’s purported to be? 

Kudzu leaves have hair on the margins (edges.)

What’s important to us is that nearly the entire plant is edible: Leaves, growing tips, grape-scented blossoms, young roots and older root starch. Only the seeds are not edible by humans. However the plant does support wild life and domestically goats are particularly fond of it. Turning Kudzu into goat products is profitable, tasty and sustainable.  While Kudzu can be a local problem its invasiveness has been exaggerated by regional writers.

Kudzu blossoms smell like grapes.

Kudzu was first championed during the Dust Bowl Era in the 1930’s because it was the prime plant for fighting erosion. Folks were paid to sow it on their land (no complaining then.) About a million acres were planted in the next 20 years then the program ended. Kudzu meanwhile had worked its way into southern novels and folksy observations. It became a southern cliche. In reality Kudzu occupies about one tenth of one percent of the South’s 200 million acres of forest, or 227,000 acres. Asian Privet, which is rarely commented on by anyone, occupies some 3.2 million acres, 14 times that of Kudzu. The Kudzu is spreading but at a thousandth-something rate of around 2,500 acres a year. And in time it might be significantly reduced: A few years ago a Japanese Kudzu bug was found in a garden in Atlanta (a city which is six times the size of the Kudzu infestation.) The bug was a stowaway on some plane. It is now successfully devouring Kudzu. In one test site it ate a third of the Kudzu in two years. In decades to come Kudzu might be but a bucolic memory, a quaint reference to how it used to be. To read more about Kudzu, go here.

The deeper the yellow the sweeter the plum is.

We are definitely coming into tallow plum season. We have found ripening ones in Melbourne, Ft. Pierce and near Tampa. They will fruit into the fall. Tallow plum is a fruit you eat in moderation, a few here, a few there, They do contain some hydrocyanic acid. I have read of some people boiling the leaves and eating them but that is not on my list of things to do. Although found throughout the state they seem to be easier to locate in coastal areas a few miles from shore ,and, where you find one there will be more. To learn more about the Tallow Plum go here. 

Monarda punctata, Horsemint, Beebalm. Photo by Green Deane

Wild mints can be prima donnas: Once on stage they hate to get off.  Locally we would expect to see Horsemint, Monarda punctata in full bloom by September but it has pushed the season and can be found now. The species can also flower for several months. This week I saw a nice stand along a bike trail in south Vousia County, exactly where one would expect to find it: On a dry bank up from the trail. You can also find it in the same area near roads especially roads that cut through a sand hill. It was also starting to look pretty in La Strange Preserve in Ft. Pierce. Look for the showy pink bracts. If you want to read about Horsemint you can go here. 

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

Foraging classes: Classes this week range from the middle of the state to the southeast coast. It warm weather, dress to stay cool while walking and have water. 

Saturday, July 30th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m.

Sunday, July 31th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. Meet just north of the science center 9 a.m.

Saturday, August 6th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233, 9 a.m. Meet at the playground. 

Sunday, August 7th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. 9 a.m.

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

Sweeping clochids off catus is another option.

Most foragers know cactus have edible parts but what does one look for, generally? First make sure it’s a pad, segmented often oval or tear-drop shaped. You do not want anything that looks serpentine. Also no white sap. White sap in plants that resemble cactus can be very deadly even after being dry many years. In one case smoke from burning desiccated Euphorbia branches killed some stranded people. They were  trying to stay warm around the fire on a cold desert night. So, pads, no white sap. While which cactus you collect (Opuntia, Nopales, or Cereus) might be the luck of the draw, the less spines the better, and the less glochids the much better. Glochids are tiny tuffs of sharp hair that hurt, are hard to dig out, and last for days. Ma Natures knows the pads and Tuna are good food so she protects them mightily. Big spines can be cut, burned or scraped off, glochids burned or washed off. Just scraping is not so successful with glochids. Wear stiff gloves without seams. Those little glochids will pass right through seams and get ya. Hint: Young pads, the ones we want anyway, often have not developed glochids. The Tuna have them so pick with tongs and sweep, wash or burn the painful spines off. Let us presume you have a spineless, glochidless young pad. What do you do with it? You can eat it raw, skin and all, or roast it or boil it. I know one restuarant that steams them (preserving color) then lightly grills them puting the pads whole on a Mexicanesque hamburgers.  With older (de-spined) pads you can still eat them raw or cook. Usually the tougher spine “eyes” are removed just like you would with a potato. And the pad can be peeled as well. Pads at a certain point become woody and too tough to eat.  The fruit, Tunas, are also edible after ridding them of glochids. They can have a raspberry flavor. The seeds are edible, too, but are extremely tough. You have to grind or roast them To read more about cactus click here.

You get the USB, not the key.

Changing foraging videos: As my WordPress pages are being updated the video set will go away.  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 36 more are now available on a USB drive. While the videos were played from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The 171-video USB is $99. If you 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 is for the USB. 

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 #517, 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.

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.

Fall poison ivy at Ft. Desoto, Fl. Photo by Green Deane

North Carolina herbalist Will Endres

His name was Will Endres and he was a North Carolina Herbalist who unfortunately died earlier this year. I remember him for two reasons. About 20 years ago he came to central Florida and wanted to see some local plants. I showed him around. He suggested I teach foraging classes, which I was very reluctant to do as I am the introvert’s introvert. The rest, as they say, is history. The other thing I leaned from him was that he ate poison ivy every spring. 

Forager Euell Gibbons was also a boxer.

That’s controversial to say the least. He was not alone. The famous forager of the last century, Euell Gibbons, left, reported he ate it every spring and I met a women in north central Florida who ate it though ”met” is the wrong verb. In fact, I was having a class near Deland. We were walking along and I said “there’s some poison ivy.” Then I heard a little voice behind me say “oh, goody, I haven’t had any yet this year.” I turned in time to see her eating poison ivy…  I don’t recommend it. 

They are not alone. The Pennsylvania Dutch (the German amish) regularly wrapped poison ivy leaves in bread and ate it. The thinking is it’s protective though I am not aware of any research on the topic. I would think it would be difficult to get volunteers. Now they are researching a vaccine for poison ivy though I imagine it would be to moderate the body’s response to it rather than reduce its method of action. 

Poison Ivy berries are also toxic. Photo by Green Deane

Poison Ivy is a complex of several oils. The plant cells have to be broken for it to release them. It may be that folks who swear by eating it do so in the early spring when the plant might not have much oil. The oil, called urushiol, is actually omega 6 fatty acids. When they touch live skin cells they cause the proteins in the cells to get sticky. That interrupts the body’s communication to the cells signaling the body to get rid of them (which makes one wonder why they couldn’t deliver urushiol to cancer cells. Native Americans used poison ivy to get rid of warts.) There is some speculation that omega 6 oils in other plants do the same thing to our gut lining producing things like Irritate Bowel Syndrome. Very few creatures get poison ivy; Humans, certain primates, and guinea pigs. Those three also don’t make their own vitamin C.  When poison ivy oil dries it become inert and is the shiny coating on Japanese utensils. Urushiol means shelack. All that said the University of Mississippi is going forward with a poison ivy vaccine. It would require yearly injections or every other year. 

Poison Sumac, note the red stems with stronger than poison ivy. Photo by Green Deane

Current thinking is you are born with a certain amount of resistance to poison ivy and each exposure reduces your resistance. At some point nearly everyone will get it. About every six weeks I hear from someone who thought they were immune and had been removing it annually from their yard for years. Those are the folks who end up in the hospital with a severe case of it. Researchers at the university think shots will “lead to desensitization and reduce or eliminate reactions to poison ivy, oak and sumac.” About one-sixth of all Americans get poison ivy every year, some 50 million people annually. Eighty-five percent of the population is definitely allergic to it and up to 15% very allergic. It grows everywhere in North America except Alaska and some Nevada deserts. There’s none in Hawaii. The oil is not contagious but can last for years on clothes or even short term on farm animals and pets. I once got poison ivy from the feathers of a mallard duck.  

If affected with poison ivy the CDC says people should seek medical attention if they have a temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, there is pus or soft yellow scabs on the rash, the itching gets worse, they have difficulty breathing and the rash spreads to eyes, mouth, genital area or more than one-fourth of the skin. A high school friend of mine at a summer camp went petting with a lass in a poison ivy patch…. they had poison ivy in places one does not want to ponder. The vaccine is going into clinical trials.

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

Foraging Classes: Sticking to the eastern part of the state this weekend, east Orlando and just north of Jacksonville. There shouldn’t be any hurricanes this weekend.

Saturday September 25th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon, meet by the tennis courts. 

Sunday September 26th, Tide Views Preserve, 1 Begonia Street, Atlantic Beach Fl 32233 (near Jacksonville Fl.) 9 a.m. to noon. Meet in the only parking lot. 

Saturday October 2nd, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 

Sunday October 3rd, 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.

Saturday October 9th, Honea Path, South Carolina, classes at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. each day. 1624 Taylor Road Honea Path, SC 29654.

Sunday October 10th, Honea Path, South Carolina, classes at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. each day. 1624 Taylor Road Honea Path, SC 29654.

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

Horsemint (Monarda punctata) will be easy to find for several weeks. Photo by Green Deane

We’ve mentioned it a few times in recent newsletters but it bares repeating one more time: Horsemint — left — is in season and very easy to find now. Look in grassy sandy places or along paths in always dry areas. The pleasant side of the plant is that it smells nice and makes a Thyme-like spice. The naughty side of the species is that it contains Thymol which is a relaxant. Made into a tea it calms you down. How much it calms you down depends on how much you use and your personal response to it.  You can also hang some in your house as an air freshener. You can read about Horsemint here. 

Our timing Saturday was near perfect. The husks of the Coastal Ground Cherry were gold, dry and papery. Inside the fruit was deep yellow to gold, tangy in taste. Ground cherries, in this case Physalis angustifolia, ripen from green to gold, getting sweeter and tangier as they go along. But they can often have a bitter aftertaste either from being under ripe or some species just retain some bitterness. A little aftertaste of bitterness is okay but the best is when there is none. Thus one always tastes a ripe ground cherry then waits a minute or so for any bitterness to appear.

As the Ground Cherry ripens the husk turns golden. Photo by Green Deane

While locally Ground Cherries can fruit nearly all year, they do produce a spring and fall crop. In cooler climes they just have one season ripening in late summer and fall. Here our fall crop tends to be better than our spring one. Spring ground cherries can rot on the plant or get damaged by insects and that is also when I tend to find more bitter ones. But this time of year brings out the best in ground cherries. One can find whole, undamaged, very ripe Ground Cherries in significant numbers. You can make a pie out of them if you can manage to get some home uneaten. Incidentally there is a second local ground cherry that resembles the Coastal Ground Cherry. It’s Physalis walteri, also known as starry-hair ground-cherry and sand cherry. It has star-shaped hairs on the lower edges of the leaf which are visible with a hand lens. Still edible, however. To read more about Ground Cherries 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 a 150-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. 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. 

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.

Southern Wax Myrtle berries. Photo by Green Deane

Humans often see beauty in dead plants from bouquets to Christmas wreaths. A woods road’s trimming in offered us an unusual view of Southern Wax Myrtle berries. Light gray they often hide in the green aromatic leaves of this shrub. However when the trimmed leaves browned it revealed the concealed berries. They can be used as a spice when dried and put in a pepper mill. And if you have a lot of them (and the need) they also produce a green wax. If you mix that wax with one quarter tallow it makes a smokeless candle that keeps away biting insects. That chandle, however, is a lot of work. But, if it is all you have to drive away insects it’s much worth it.  

This is weekly newsletter #475, 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.

To a startled Land Blue Crab a leg is as good as a tree. Photo by Green Deane

Yes, there are land crabs in Florida and the rest of the gulf coast. Water Blue Crabs  are a often seen and caught for food. Land Crabs can be more elusive. Scientifically Cardisoma guanhumi, they are generally considered to be a creature of the southern end of the state and around the gulf to Texas. In Brazil they were a major food source until over harvested. They have been officially reported as far north as Ponce Inlet, which is a little south of Daytona Beach. This specimen was seen in Princess Point Preserve about 50 miles further north… that might be a record. They are out of season from July 1 to October 31st. The limit is 20 per person per day or no more more than 20 in your possession at one time.  Also, no person shall harvest or attempt to harvest them on, upon or from the right-of-way of any federal, state or county-maintained road, whether paved or otherwise, or from any state park. Interestingly they are vegetarians but do occasionally eat each other. With one claw larger than the other they can give you a memorable pinch. Cardiosoma means heart-shaped body.

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

Foraging Classes: Visiting two areas on the east side of Florida this weekend, Port Orange and West Palm Beach. 

Saturday August 7th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. Meet at the pavilion, 9 a.m. to noon. 

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

Saturday August 14th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot in the park on Bayshore at Ganyard Street.

Sunday August 15th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. till noon. Meet at the pavilion next to the tennis courts. 

Sunday August 21st, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park.

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

Horsemint (Monarda punctata) will be easy to find for several months. Photo by Green Deane

This is the time of year to go looking for some favored and avoided wild edibles. One usually starts looking for grapes now as their season is usually full swing by early September. In Ft. Pierce last weekend we saw quite a few single-tendril grapes in season. At the above mentioned Princess Point there were ripe forked tendril grapes (which represent the two large grape groups locally.) Also Podocarpus arils are ripening and August is their usual season. They are a very common hedge species. Also easy to find this time of year is Horsemint, its pretty pink bracts make it easy to spot in sandy areas. This past week we also harvested a lot of Chanterelle mushrooms and Milk Caps, choice foraging food. On the other side of the possible menu Saw Palmettos will ripen soon.  In a word they taste like vomit. They do, however, have all the essential amino acids humans need. 

Goldenrod is ruderal. What does that mean? Read the article. Photo by Green Deane

Also seen blooming now is Goldenrod. It is a bit of a treasure hunt and disappointment. The treasure hunt is that one species is better than all the rest for tea, Solidago odora. It does grow here, has an anise flavor, but is hard to find. It’s reported in most counties but is not common. Goldenrod grows in about half of the United States, southwest to northeast. Other Goldenrod species can also be made into tea, perhaps all of them particularly for herbal applications, but they don’t taste anywhere near as good.  In fact, after the “Boston Tea Party” of 1773 halted tea imports colonialists drank Goldenrod tea and even exported some to China. It did not catch on. However, every time I see a Goldenrod I pull off a leaf and crush it hoping to detect the tell-tale anise smell. It’s a golden treasure hunt.

Pindo Palm can fruit almost anytime of year. Photo by Green Deane

When something is ripe or ready to be harvested varies. A window of a few weeks is normal for most species but often can be extended. Pindo Palms can demonstrate that. I normally start looking for Pindo Palm fruit at the end of spring. Memorial Day reminds me their season is coming soon. By June I am usually eating some here and there. We are now early-August and I had my first Pindo Palm fruit today in Central Florida. The palm’s fruit is one of my favorite wild edibles. I definitely do not have a sweet tooth — in fact I carry the gene for fruit sugar intolerance — but Pindo Palm fruit is one I really like so I keep a close eye on them. While they like late spring and early summer you can find an odd one here and there fruiting around Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day. They are also a hearty palm and can take a lot of cold temperatures. 

I find Russian Thistles in front of hotels on Daytona Beach. Photo by Green Deane

We shouldn’t forage along railroad tracks and you can blame it all on the Russian Thistle. This species, best known as the tumble weed that rolls across the wild west in movies, came with immigrants to southern South Dakota in the early 1870’s. Best guess is it contaminated their flax seed. By 1895  it reached New Jersey and California. The question was how? A professor who worked for the Department of Agriculture figured out the trains were spreading the seeds coast to coast. It was a remarkable idea at the time and brought him much fame. His solution to the unintentional distribution? Kill plants long railroad tracks. Thus began the practice of putting down some mighty and long-lasting chemicals to kill weeds sprouting amongst the iron rails. Railroad tracks are a good place to find seeds to take home and plant but not to find food. There have even been a few reported deaths from foraging along rail road tracks.

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by a 150-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. That will take you to an order form. 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. 

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.

Your donations to upgrade the EatTheWeeds website and fund a book were appreciated. A book manuscript has been turned it. It had 425 articles, 1326 plants and a third of a million words. What it will be when the publisher is done with it next year is unknown. It will be published in the spring of 2023. Writing it took a significant chunk of time out of my life from which I have still not recovered. (Many things got put off.) The next phase is to update all the content on the website between now and publication date. Also note as it states above the 135-video DVD set has been phased out for 150-video USB. Times and formats change. Which reminds me I need to revisit many plants and make some new videos. 

Creature-eaten pineapple.Photo by Green Deane

Incidentally, if you’re patient you can raise pineapples from the tops of pineapples you buy at the store. However, they have to be extremely ripe to be sweet and a lot of creatures like to eat them. Wrapping pineapple in fencing will usually stop raccoons and possums from sampling but not a bird or two. It also take a couple of years to raise them (same with bananas.) 

This is weekly newsletter #468. 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.

Chickweed is happy now. Bright green foliage in gray lawns. Photo by Green Deane

Our tasty winter green chickweed  is in its glory; lush, full, blossoming, happy to be alive. With such healthy plants it was easy to find the identifying characteristics: stretchy inner core, a single line of hair on the main stem that switches 90 degrees at the nodes, a five-petal blossom that looks like 10 petals, and uncooked chickweed tastes like raw corn. We saw a lot of it in Ocala Sunday. 

Henbit, one of the few “sweet” springtime greens. Photo by Green Deane

When lawns aren’t mowed food grows. The weather is perfect and winter plants a plenty.  We saw the large acorns of the Chestnut Oak, by far the largest locally. In abundance during our foraging classes were Sheep’s Sorrel, Oxalis, Latex Stranger Vine, Pellitory,  Black Medic, Wild Geraniums, Horsemint and Henbit. The latter was a favored spring time green with Native Americans because it’s mild rather than peppery. While in the mint family it is not minty. It’s edible raw or cooked. An edible relative, “Dead Nettle” looks similar but is more purple.  Henbit is called “Henbit” because chickens like it. It’s usually found in sunny, non-dry places. To read more about Henbit go here.  Surprisingly what we didn’t see in Stinging Nettle. 

Shepherd’s Purse Photo by Green Deane

During the class the seasonal mustards were also on display. Poor Man’s Pepper Grass was everywhere. But we also saw mild Western Tansy Mustard. Hairy Bittercress was found nearby as was a plain old mustard. 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 — photo left — 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. 

Our native Plantgo is in season.

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. They are all used the same way. (P. rugelii is pink at the base of the stem.) 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 more northern species. You can read about the Plantains here and I have a video here.    

Wild Radish are reaching peak season.

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.

Calliandra Haematocephala is toxic.

A toxic powder puff shrub we see this time of year is  a native of Malaysia. It’s a small tree that was in the pea family but has been moved to the Mimosa group. It is not edible in any way. It’s just pretty, which has its own value. The name is slightly interesting in that it is all Living Greek mangled by new 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 pretty stamen red head. You could even stretch it to “pretty redheaded man.” The common name is Red Powder Puff. 

Classes are held rain or shine.

Foraging Classes: Two classes this weekend, Saturday in West Palm Beach and Sunday in Winter Park.

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

Sunday, January 10th, Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. 9 a.m. to noon. The entrance is on the west side off Denning  not the east side off Pennsylvania. Some GPS maps are wrong. Meet near the bathrooms. 

Saturday, January 16th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the dog park pavilion. 

Sunday, January 17th, Spruce Creek, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet that the pavilion (first right after house.) 

Saturday, January 23th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion by the tennis courts. 

Sunday, January 24th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday January 30th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL, 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the dog park. 

Sunday January 31st, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon, meet in the parking lot at Ganyard and Bayshore. 

Saturday February 6th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion by the pump house. 

Sunday, February 7th, Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. 9 a.m. to noon. The entrance is on the west side off Denning  not the east side off Pennsylvania. Some GPS maps are wrong. Meet near the bathrooms.  

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

Canna can grow in a garden or a pond.

♣ Botany Builder #12. Do you remember the confusion in school over the words immigrant and emigrant? An emigrant is someone leaving a country, and an immigrant is someone entering a country. An emergent plant is one coming out of the water, such as Canna. It likes to grow in about a half a foot of water. It doesn’t like dry land and it doesn’t like deep water. It is emergent. Cattails are emergent, however some species of cattail — there aren’t that many — like to be close to shore and others like deeper water. What it really comes down to, can you get cattails from shore or do you need a canoe?

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

150-video USB or 135 video DVD set would be a good winter present and either is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been selling for seven years and are still available. They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy.  A second option is a16-gig USB that has those 135 videos plus 15 more. 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. 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 several months. 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. 

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 #439. 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.

Two and a half gallons of Jambul Wine before racking. Photo by Green Deane

Fermenting ripe Tindora into wine. This pizza-like photograph by Green Deane

Three reasons prompted me to resurrect my wine-making past: I had nothing to do when Covid hit, I saw a lot of fruit going to waste, and I could use several of these “country wines” in my foraging classes. Since April I have started Beautyberry Wine, Blueberry Wine, Loquat Wine, Pindo Palm Wine, Cactus Pad Wine, Coconut Wine, Mango Wine, Orange Wine, Lemon Wine, Lime Wine, Tangerine Wine, St. John’s Mint Wine, Pomegranate Wine, Roses Petal Champagne, Horsemint Wine, Jambul Wine, Juniper Berry Mead, Blackberry Wine, Blackberry Mead, Mushroom Wine, Star Fruit Wine, Pineapple Wine, Tomato Wine, Sumac Wine and Tindora Wine (aka Ivy Gourd, the latest experiment. I’m not a idle person.)  I’ve also done a few standards along the way like Concord Grape, Chianti, Lambrusco and Watermelon Wine (It’s sweetish and I have 12 gallons of it so I will need help emptying the bottles.) 

Pickled Florida Betony Roots. Photo by Green Deane

Like Lacto-fermentation (pickling) making wine follows a basic recipe: Material, water, sugar, yeast and time. (Making pickles it is material, water, salt, spices and a lot less time.) The Tindora Wine recipe, which I won’t know if it works until next year, took some decisions. When green Tindora tastes similar to a cucumber. Cucumbers are crispy water with a delicate flavor and aroma. A cucumber wine that tastes like cucumbers is hard to make. A strong yeast could destroy the flavor and aroma (exactly the same problem with Star Fruit Wine.) When Tindora is ripe it is more like a sweet red pepper with a different color and constituents altogether. So a yeast that treats delicate floral aromas was called for rather than a broad-shouldered one that eliminates character but produces 18% alcohol levels. I’m aiming for 12%, You need at least 8% alcohol to preserve any wine. Also what color will the final wine be? Guessing it will be a blush the sugar goal is slightly sweet so not a lot of sugar was added at the beginning. A little will be added at the end to reach a certain level of desired sweetness. Wine making is a lot of little decisions and keeping clean. One common question is if using wild fruit why not use wild yeast, after all that’s how it was done in the past. 

Again, the issue is similar to making vinegar: Use wild or cultivated bacteria to pickle; use wild or cultivated yeasts to make wine. All fermenting bacteria and yeast do other things than just make acid or alcohol. They can “throw” flavors, good and bad because they can digest more than just the carbohydrates or sugar. They can also work too slowly letting worse bacteria or yeast to take over. They can under perform by not making enough acid or alcohol to preserve whatever you are fermenting. With wild yeast and bacteria you sometimes get a great performer but more often you get a poor one. Specifically bred yeast or bacteria do not improve your chances of success but they do reduce the number of things that can go wrong. I have an article and a video on collecting wild pickling bacteria here. I have the same for cider here and here.  And lastly I started a Facebook page called Florida Wine, Bread and Beer where I post my fermenting exploits. 

Classes are held rain or shine.

Unsettled weather this time of year makes schedule making weeks ahead of time a challenge and I’m trying to fit in some private classes as well. This weekend it’s classes in Orlando and Gainesville. 

Saturday, October 24th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m to noon. Meet at the pavilion by the tennis courts by the YMCA building. 

Sunday, October 25th, 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, November 1st, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. Take exit 68 (Southern Boulevard) off Interstate 95 and go east. Entrance to the park is an immediate right at the bottom of the interstate bridge. Follow the convoluted signs to the science center (which is not where the GPS puts you.)  Park anywhere. We meet 300 feet north of the science museum near the banyan tees. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday, November 7th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte.  9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot at Bayshore and Ganyard. 

Sunday, November 8th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr. Winter Park, FL 32789. Meet near the bathrooms. The entrance to the park is off Denning not Pennsylvania as some GPS say. 

To read more about the classes, to pre-pay or sign up, go here. 

The Chinese Tallow tree is also called the Pop Corn Tree.

Is it edible? Yes, no, maybe… The Chinese Tallow tree is both banned and championed. It’s edibility is also linked to why it’s even in the United States to begin with.  The tree was imported by none other than Ben Franklin (well… he sent some seeds to a friend.)  The purpose was to use the white external seed fat for making candles which beef suet, tallow, was once used for. Hence the tree’s name in English. In theory that small coating of saturated fat on the outside of the seed is edible. It is also very stable. But there are two problems. It can be very difficult to remove and inside the seed there is an oil toxic to humans. So the fat and the oil should not mix. Some people have experimented with crushing the entire seed and heating the mash thus melting the saturated fat along with releasing the toxic oil. When they settle the edible fat and the non-edible oil are separated.  In China, where the tree is valued, they steam the white saturated fat off. The tree, while an invasive species in some areas of North America — such as Florida — is being considered as a good candidate for bio-fuel. You can read my article about it here about it here. A later magazine article about the species is here.   

Caesarweed is in the hibiscus group.

Caesarweed is a common sight locally but right now it is being a seasonal extrovert and blossoming profusely. Like the Chinese Tallow tree above, Caesar Weed is another plant intentionally imported for industrial use, in its case making fiber for burlap bags and the like. It’s not strong enough to make a sturdy rope like Skunk Vine (which is also blossoming now and was imported to make rope.) But if thrown in water and allowed to rot for a few weeks long blast fibers are left over. The tasteless flowers are edible, the seeds can be ground and used like corn starch, and the leaves have medicinal uses besides being a famine food. They are hairy and upset the tummy. You can read about Caesar Weed here or see a video I did on it here. 

We don’t have the opportunity to often use the word “windfall” in modern society as it was originally coined: A benefit caused by the wind literally knocking something down. Roman armies gathered wind-felled wood for their camp fires. 

Cambium strips are easy to harvest from downed trees. Photo by Green Deane

From a foraging point of view downed oaks don’t provide much windfall. Only the ones that were masting are of interest and they were already dropping acorns. But there are a couple of tree species worth investigating if they are blown over. One is pines. It’s an opportunity to harvest cambium and or nearly ripe cones for their seeds. It’s fairly easy to strip “fillets” off downed limbs or young trunks. And one does not have to climb the tree for the cones. A second tree worth investigating is the Chinese Elm. It’s used in landscaping intensely. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s they were planted by the millions and perhaps are the most intentionally planted tree outside of the lumber industry.  A windfall of this species brings not only young leaves and samaras within reach but also provides easy access to the tree’s cambium which is edible. Every tree’s cambium grows differently and is the “living”part of the tree. It grows in two directions at once, in and out. The inner cambium become the wood of the tree. The outer cambium becomes the bark of the tree. This gives each tree it’s distinction wood and bark. And on the Chinese Elm (all Ulmus actually) and the pine (all Pinus) the cambium is edible.

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 and are still available. They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy.  A second option is a16-gig USB that has those 135 videos plus 15 more. 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. 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 several 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. 

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.

Silk Floss Tree Bossom. Photo by Green Deane

What people actually do with plants and what people write about what people do with plants can vary greatly. Ceiba’s (SAY-bah) are a good example. There are ten trees in the tropical genus. Various parts of various species are eaten variously which makes sense as the greater Mallow Family is generally user-friendly (unprocessed cotton seed oil and ephedrine in Sida being two exceptions.)  Thus it is difficult to state specifically  what is edible on each species Ceiba. The names can also vary in English from Silk Cotton to Silk Floss to Kapok and numerous native and Spanish versions. The seed oil is edible on some species as are buds, blossoms, and young leaves on others. Even the wood ash can be used as a salt substitute. But some caution is called for as the trees have also been used to treat numerous medical conditions internally and externally. There are two species in Dreher Park in West Palm Beach where the winters are mild. I’ve seen three Ceibas planted in Orlando. One is near the West Orange Bike Trail in Winter Garden and is about 30 feet tall. They are twice that in West Palm Beach.  You can read a little more about the Silk Floss tree  here. 

This is weekly newsletter #428, 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.

Monarda punctata, Horsemint, Bee Balm, in full blossom. Photo by Green Deane

We’ve mentioned it a few times in recent newsletters but it bares repeating one more time: Horsemint — see above — is in season and very easy to find now. Look in grassy sandy places or along paths in always dry areas. The pleasant side of the plant is that it smells nice and makes a Thyme-like spice. The naughty side of the species is that it contains Thymol which is a relaxant. Made into a tea it calms you down. How much it calms you down depends on how much you use and your personal response to it.  You can also hang some in your house as an air freshener. You can read about Horsemint here. 

Crowfoot Grass seeds are gluten free. Photo by Green Deane

Crowfoot Grass, which is starting to ripen now, is not native to North America. It’s from Africa where the species is used to make unleavened bread and a frothy beer. While crowfoot grass is easy to harvest — when ripe — the grains are tiny, eye of a needle size. You can collect about two quarts an hour — making them calorie positive —  and they can grow in large colonies making harvesting easy. Usually you collect the grains while sitting and using window screen plastic as a strainer.  The grains have a small amount of cyanide in them but drying and cooking drives that off. Though minute botanically they are a mouthful: Dactyloctenium aegyptium. That means ‘little comb fingers from Egypt.’ You can find Crowfoot Grass from Maine to California skipping the upper northwest side of the country.  

Classes are held rain or shine.

Last Saturday’s plant foraging class in Gainesvile almost turned into a mushroom class because we saw so many species. There were Chanterelles by the hundreds, Indigo Milk Caps and other Milk Caps and a variety of Boletes. Sunday’s class near Daytona Beach wasn’t a washout but almost was. One dry area I checked out at 8 a.m. was by 11 — with the tide and on-shore wind — almost knee deep in water. We managed to slosh on to see out local Goji Berry in blossom. Rain might be the case with my upcoming Saturday class in Ft. Pierce. By Thursday or Friday a low that went south might come back north as a rain maker. We’ll just have to see. Whether the potential rain makes it far enough north for Sunday’s class in Palm Harbor is an unknown. I hold classes in the rain unless its reaching tropical storm or hurricane conditions.  

Saturday, September 26th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981, 9 a.m. to noon. This location does not have an official bathroom. Plan accordingly. There also may be some flooding which might alter our normal walk around the area. 

Sunday, September 27th, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Nine a.m. to noon. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk.  

Saturday, October 3rd, Mead Garden, 1500 S. Denning Dr. Winter Park, FL 32789.  9 a.m. to noon, meet by the bathrooms. Note this is Mead Garden just northeast of Orlando. Not Ft. Mead which is 90 miles further south. Also the entrance to Mead Garden is on the west side on S. Denning Drive, Winter Park. Some GPS programs put the entrance on the east side on S. Pennsylvania Avenue, Winter Park. That was decades ago.   

Sunday, October 4th, Tide Views Preserve, 1 Begonia Street, Atlantic Beach Fl 32233 (near Jacksonville Fl.) 9 a.m. to noon. Meet near the main bathrooms. 9 a.m. to noon. There is no charge for this class but donations will be accepted. The reason is this is it’s an exploratory class at a new location. Let’s find out what’s there together.   For more information, to pre-pay or to sign up for a class go here. 

Wild and cider apples can be bitter.

Apple season is upon us, depending where you live. When I was a kid back in the BC era — Before Computers — I always associated going back to school with raiding apple trees. (We always went back to school on the Tuesday after Labor Day.) I also raided the concord grapes in the nearby hedge rows as well. The actual word for that is “scrumping” (which was an actual verb for juvenile fruit stealing long before modern slang added other meanings.) There were orchard apples trees and there were wild apple trees. Sometimes the wild apples were from cultivated apples that grew up literally from a tossed apple core. Other times they were real wild apples, small and tart if not bitter. Those were usually better off cooked by a camp fire along a river while fishing after school. I walked or biked four miles to school daily and often didn’t get home until after dark (which means I thankfully missed anything my mother tried to cook.) Where I grew up there were many abandoned homesteads with flourishing apple trees in unused yards. There is something philosophical knowing the cared-for apple tree outlived family and home. Back then there was also a greater variety of apples than even just a few decades later because of mechanization. Even when I was young there was a great diversity of apples. Some would not store at all — eating apples —  some that would stay hard for months only softening in mid-winter or spring. Others were only good for cider or cooking and or just jelly. And contrary to common belief, apples will grow in Florida. I recommend Apple Anna, a very nice blush. To read more about apples go here.

The nose doesn’t always know.

The aroma of a wild food is the most flexible of all descriptions. This is for two reasons: Noses differ and plants differ. Taste is also quite flexible but aroma variations beat taste out. When you read in a foraging guide, or even in my articles, that a plant smells like such-and-such know that the description is quite subjective. There are several local species that elicit different descriptions even when noses are whiffing the same sample. One low-growing fruit — the Gopher Apple — has been described as smelling like pink bubble gum, a new plastic shower curtain, or no aroma at all. The smelly spice Epazote ranges in opinions from citrusy to floor varnish to industrial cleaner. Even among non-edibles the olfactory estimations can vary such as with the toxic Laurel Cherry. Some think its cyanide smells like almonds, other think they smell maraschino cherries, some can’t smell the cyanide at all. In guide books a reported aroma is just that, a guide. It is not always for certain by any means. There’s room for aromatic latitude.

Carl Linnaeus had a dirty mind.

Plant Pronunciations: What’s really important is knowing the plant and whether you can eat it or not. What you call it is secondary. Common names are okay as long as you know many plants can have the same common name. “Indian Potato” comes to mind. There are two problems with common names. You and someone else could be talking about the “Indian Potato” but actually be talking about two different species. Also every plant — in theory — has one botanical name but can have virtually dozens of common names. Many times it is just easier to remember the one botanical name. Dead Latin was chosen for the naming plants because … well… it’s dead, non-changing, non-evolving. Perhaps it was also chosen by academics as a way to keep Latin from disappearing completely. Another possibility was they wanted to use naughty descriptions and if in Latin most wouldn’t know how lewd some names are. But know even when Latin was spoken it had regional accents and far flung Latin became French, Spanish and Romanian. At home it became Italian. There is no etched-in-granite correct way to pronounce botanical names. Hmmmm…. take Vagus. It can be said like the city, Los Vegas, or vah-GOOSE. It means literally “wandering.” And of course there are different pronunciations botanical names in American English vs British English such as with the pine genus (PINE-us, vs. PEEN-iss.)

Pedanius Dioscorides

Many “Latin” plant names are mangled Greek. Take the genus Dioscorea, the true yams. Dead Latin has it dye-oh-SCORE-ree-ah. That makes my ears hurt. It’s named after a Greek physician, Dioscorides, 40-90 AD. So I prefer thee-oh-score-REE-dez which closer to the Greek way of saying it. The only time the botanical name is truly important is to make sure the two of you are discussing the same plant. This happened recently when I received an email from Singapore about how to use the Skunk Vine.  There are several Skunk Vines (like Indian Potatoes, Hog Plums et cetera.) As we were exchanging information about Paederia foetida without the botanical name that would have been difficult. Scientific names of any species can be a personal hurdle. And some times you don’t have a choice. The majority of mushrooms do not have a common names. You just have to bite the Boletus. 

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 and are still available. They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy.  A second option is a16-gig USB that has those 135 videos plus 15 more. 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. 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 several 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. 

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 #424, 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.