Search: sida

The root of the winged yam. Photo by Green Deane

It was an air potato weekend. During our Jacksonville class we dug up several pounds of Winged Yam (Dioscorea alata) roots, a yam that taste similar to potato but with a smoother texture.

If you can identify the winged Yam you will always have food to eat. Digging them up after the vine dies back for the season requires some hand scrounging to feel the telltale top. (This is always a bit fraught with danger as much soil has broken glass in it. It is safer to identify the root by the vine while in season then dig it up later. You can read more about this staple here. 

Chanterelles have wrinkles not gills.

This weekend also unintentionally was a mushrooming weekend, with several pounds available at our usual Orlando Mushroom Group location. We usually have a large mushroom flush around May but it seemed to hold off until now. We collected several pounds of Milk Caps and Chanterelles. While they can be often be found this late in the season, a huge flush of them this time of year is unusual. Perhaps we will find some in Jacksonville. Saturday.

Sida has ephedrine. Photo by Green Deane

Is it Sida (SEE-dah) or is it Sida (SIGH-dah)? Either either it would seem… There are several members of the Sida genus locally and they blossom nearly all year. This weekend, however, Sida cordifolia was particularly happy. Taller and softer than some of the other genusmates, it’s a plant with a little bit of legal history. Plants in the genus tend to have ephedrine in them to varying amounts. Sida cordifolia, however, is the only Sida species mentioned in the Florida Statutes. If you make a pill using the plant it cannot be given to anyone under the age of 18. I doubt the problem is bootleg diet pills but rather youthful experimenting with ephedrine. Adults can apparently do what they want with the plant.  S. cordifolia is not native. The species I see the most often is S. rhombifolia, which means diamond shape. The lower part of the leaves of that species do not have teeth on them. You can read more about Sida here. 

Winged Sumac. Photo by Green Deane

Our Sumacs are happy. Everywhere you go now they are sporting terminal clusters of garnet-colored berries. It is time to harvest Sumacs for use today or later. There’s a wide variety of Sumacs. Perhas 325 in the genus.  Locally it’s the “Wing Sumac.” In other areas of the country it can be the Staghorn Sumac which I grew up nibbling in Maine. Shapes and quality vary but they always have terminal clusters of garnet-colored berries, give or take a hue. The berries have hair on them. And on the hair is malic acid, the acid that makes apples tart. You can rinse the acid off the acid and make a lemonade-like drink. The berries can be dried, their coating knocked off then ground and used as a spice. Surprisingly Sumacs are high in the B vitamins, including B12, but rather low in ascorbic acid which is nature’s form of vitamin C. I currently have three gallons of Sumac wine working. I hope to bring some to classes next fall. In the springtime the shoots can be peeled and eaten raw or cooked. If you are worried about Poison Sumac it grows only in wet spots, has a much different leaf, and when in fruit has white berries positioned farther down the stem, not terminal clusters. Also Poison Sumac leaves have bright red stems.

Classes are held rain or shine or cold…

Foraging Classes: If you attending the Gainesville class Saturday the weather forecast suggest you dress for nippy weather. 

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. There might be a hurricane that weekend. 

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. 

In his book Edible Plants of North America, Francois Couplan writes on page 384: “the leaves of the S. lyrata, Eastern North America, contain an acrid principle and should not be ingested. They have been used to remove warts.” That said I know an herbalist who makes a tea from the leaves and a foraging instructor who cooks the young leaves and eats them. I’ve heard other reports of them being eaten. That can leave a person in a tough spotas to what to do with the plant. To eat or not to eat, that is the question.

This sage made me wretchedly ill.

Another example is also a sage, Salvia coccinea, also known as Tropical Sage. A small piece of the blossom of this species — a very tiny piece, 1/8 inch square — made me horribly sick for several weeks. It attacked my stomach with viciousness and I was go-to-the-emergency room miserable. Coca-cola syrup and Pepto-Bismol combined were my salvation from doubled-over pain.  I was actually “field testing” this plant for edibility at the time, one reason why I am very opposed to field testing. Yet, I know of two people who have eaten the young leaves with no problem. Perhaps it was a personal allergy on my part. I don’t know. But I do know I will never eat any part of that plant again. Ever. Lesson painfully learned. Yet it might be edible, or maybe some folks really do have cast iron stomachs. I know I don’t. Eating this Sage is one of those “you’re on your own” kind of things.

Richardia is generally not edible.

A third plant that falls into the crack between edible and not edible is Richardia scabra, aka Florida Pusley. It is in a genus that has species used to make you throw up. In fact one is called Richardia emetica. That is not encouraging. Some people mistake R. scabra for chickweed, which is a Stellaria, a totally different genus.  The plants vaguely resemble each other if one ignores several details and that fact that real chickweed only grows here in the winter time. R. scabra is a species for which I have never found any ethnobotanical references to regarding edibility. In fact it is one of three common plants that seems to have either not been used by the natives or somehow were not reported. The other two are Amaranthus australis and Hibiscus moscheutos. I know from modern reports that A. australis is edible but as for the H. moscheutos I have no idea though it comes from a very edible genus. Thus R. scabra is not on my site as an edible because I can’t find any historical reference to its use. Curiously the internet now calls it “edible.”  I do know two people who mistook it for chickweed and ate it for quite a while. And I know two people who did not mistake it; they know it is a Richardia and they eat it from time to time. That might be a key element. Without any ethnobotanical reference perhaps a little now and then is okay but a steady diet of it is not. It is one of those unknown things. Sometimes eating little bits of this or that do not rise to the level of making you ill. I know a person who mistook Oak Leaf Fleabane (Erigeron quercifolius) for for Plantago major and ate some for quite a while without an apparent problem. And I have personally seen someone eat a leaf of Oak Leaf Fleabane against my advice. She was still standing at the end of class. While there are some edible wild plants, and there are some that are definitely not edible,  and there can be some fog in between.

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 now. Most of the entries include a nutritional profile. Officially it will be published December 5th (to suit the publisher publicity demands) and apparently to appeal to the winter market.

This is weekly newsletter #575. 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.

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Inoculation maple with a line of  lion’s mane plugs. Photo by Green Deane

Don’t throw away hurricane wood! Above is plan A and plan B. In the background is a Plan A a ton of maple rescued from a lawn last summer and inoculate with several different mushroom species. Plan B is a few hundred pounds of Ian-downed oak in front that I will inoculate this week with lion mane spoes. There are several ways to grow mushrooms. I prefer pounding plugs into chunks of wood, a year or two later you get a heck of a lot of edible mushrooms. It takes plugs, a drill, wax and patience. Half-inch plugs are hammered into shallow drill holes then waxed over. The fungus grow through the wood and when time and conditions are right fruit. (And during the wait the maple has produce some edible wild fungi on its own.

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

Yes, there are foraging classes this weekend, in Sarasota and Gainesville. They were originally scheduled last week but Hurricane Ian got in the way. Last year at this time it was Hurricane Delta. Gainesville might have chanterelles and Sarasota has a cinnamon tree one can get cuttings from. On a classs-related issue. I had to change internet providers from Spectrum to Tmobile as the former did not cover where I moved to near Tampa. As a result email addresses I have used for some 30 years are no longer valid. Spectrum has no means of forwarding the emails. Thus use GreenDeane@gmail. com. to contact me. 

Saturday October 8th, Red Bug Slough 5200 S. Beneva Road, Sarasota. 9 a.m. 

Sunday October 9th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m.

Saturday October 15th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 a.m.

Sunday October 16th, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 32706. 9 a.m.

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

Why don’t you see more Yellow Pond Lilly roots on a plate? Because they are not edible.

Fall is a good time to look for Yellow Pond Lilys. While they fruit rather continuously these pond residents are putting forth a crop now. Plants may not have a brain they can have a strategy, or at least so it seems. Many of them protect their seeds in various ways until they are ready to germinate. The Persimmon Tree comes to mind. The fruit is astringent until the seeds are mature enough to germinate. Then the fruit turns sweet attracting various animals to eat it — those that can taste sweet — and spread the seeds around. The Monstera deliciosa has the same saccharin strategy. The seeds are acrid until ready to germinate then they turn sweet. They have a flavor reminiscent of pineapple and/or wild chamomile. The Yellow Pond Lily works in a similar fashion, almost. It does not turn sweet but the bitterness goes away. Seeds that are not ready to germinate are bitter. As the plant dies the floating seed pod rots over a three-week period. When the seeds are ready to germinate the protective bitterness is removed by enzymatic action. This also makes the seeds edible. Of course we humans can take advantage of the system by collecting the seed pods ourselves and controlling the rotting process. Then we get the seeds and dry them for use in various ways. You can read more about the Yellow Pond Lily here. 

True Turkey Tails. Photo by Green Deane

Turkey Tails are fairly easy to identify medicinal mushroom.  For a common type of mushroom I don’t see them that often… two or three times a year. I see False Turkey Tails far more often. More on that later.  A seven-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health found Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) boosted the immunity in women who had been treated for breast cancer. Researchers at the University of Minnesota and Bastyr University conducted the study in women with stages I-III breast cancer who had completed radiation therapy or chemotherapy. Results showed that immune function was enhanced in the women who took daily doses of Turkey Tail in pill form. They reported that the improved immune response was dose dependent and that none of the subjects suffered any adverse effects. Trametes versicolor can be chewed whole, eaten ground, or made into a tea, or a tincture. The question that always follows such comments is are False Turkey Tails, Stereum ostrea, medicinal?  Informally one hears herbalists saying False Turkey Tails can be used but there are few specifics though it has a long herbalism history.  A study in 2007 found that water extracts of Stereum ostrea were antibacterial and antifungal. That’s not cancer fighting or immune system stimulating but useful nonetheless. You can read that article here. 

Sida has ephedrine.

Is it Sida (SEE-dah) or is it Sida (SIGH-dah)? Either either it would seem… There are several members of the Sida genus locally and they blossom nearly all year. This weekend, however, Sida cordifolia was particularly happy. Taller and softer than some of the other genusmates, it’s a plant with a little bit of legal history. Plants in the genus tend to have ephedrine in them to varying amounts. Sida cordifolia, however, is the only Sida species mentioned in the Florida Statutes. If you make a pill using the plant it cannot be given to anyone under the age of 18. I doubt the problem is bootleg diet pills but rather youthful experimenting with ephedrine. Adults can apparently do what they want with the plant.  S. cordifolia is not native. The species I see the most often is S. rhombifolia, which means diamond shape. The lower part of the leaves of that species do not have teeth on them. We also saw one during our class in Jacksonville Sunday. That might have been Sida acuta. You can read more about Sida 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.

Easy to identify, difficult to remember, the Golden Rain Tree. Photo by Green Deane

And now the Golden Rain Tree… of all the species I have written about over the years this is one I have perhaps the least personal experience with.  I have a good reason: I always recognize it at the wrong time of the year when it’s dropping yellow petals in the fall. It is the tree’s springtime boiled shoots that are the most edible part of this species. In the spring, however, the tree is a rather drab Elm- Chinaberry-lookalike. This time of year tree also produces pink boxy seed pods. Usually inside one finds two or four black seeds that are reportedly edible. The problem is they have unrefined erucic acid (oil) which is the same irritating oil in unprocessed rape seed oil which when refined is called Canola. If you have an undisciplined memory like mine the mentioning of erucic acid makes you think of a movie you did not see: Lorenzo’s Oil. The oil, now made from olive oil and erucic aicd, is used to treat ALD, adrenoleukodystrophy. The 1992 movie was based on the true story of parents looking for a treatment for their son. ALD is a genetic disease that causes a metabolic error that in time reduces cognitive function by making an excessive amount of a very-long-chain fat (cerotic acid.) Consumption of the man-made oil can moderate that. Lorenzo himself died of pneumonia in 2008 at age 30.) The seeds I never get around to working with are peppery — Ma Nature is giving us a warning there — and do have a small amount of cyanide. You can read about the tree here.  

As for Hurrican Ian, I had power but my internet was spotty for a week, and the creek rose 12 feet, a long ways from the house. At 100 feet elevation water wasn’t an issue, wind was.

This is weekly newsletter #525. 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.

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Loquats are coming into season. Photo by Green Deane

Dehydrating loquats. They preserve well. Photo by Green Deane

I’ve been scrounging loquats this past week though the proper verb is “scrumping” (liberating fruit from others by picking it.)  They are just beginning to ripen, so there is an occasional sour one. Evidence we are not a hungry country… yet.)  Over the next few weeks they will sweeten and litter the ground. Loquats are among the fruits that are still quite tasty after dehydration (mulberries are not.)  Just as a plum becomes a prune, Loquat turn into something different but still quite edible. We should hold a contest for the most suitable name for a dried loquat… a Lune? Anyway, I cut them around the equator, take the seeds, then set them in the dehydrator. They take a day or two to dry. I store them in paper bags, some time in the refrigerator, sometimes not. A bounty of fruit is about to ripen, get your share and prepare for the future. Speaking of said…

$124 rib roast.

The summer before COVID a local supermarket had a Buy-One-Get-One-Free sale every week on large roasts of beef or pork. I stuffed my freezer with them. When COVID broke the BOGOs disappeared and have not returned. Indeed, if anything they have raised the price on roasts. See photo left, which is a 7.5 pound ribeye roast for only $123.84 (unless you join their shopping program, then it is $45.) My parents fed three humans, half a dozen cats, a multitude of dogs, five horses, chickens, ducks, rabbits and an occasional pet squirrel for less than $123 a month.  Needless to say there are no roasts still in my freezer.  It seems there was plenty of beef two years ago but not enough workers to process or transport it from point A to Z. Just like COVID the virus of war in eastern Europe could disrupt food supplies. Energy prices will surely go up and that effects the delivery and cost of everything. My grandparents went through the first flu epidemic, two world wars and the great depression in between. My mother was a teenager during the depression thus… The house I grew up in and where my mother lived for more than 60 years always had a stash of food and water. We didn’t have wars or hurricanes in Maine but often we were snowed in for several days following a nor’easter. Everybody laid in extra wood and food and expected to be housebound.  If you had a heart attack when the roads were closed — like our neighbor did — or gave birth you were on your own. Nothing moved, which was the same way in Florida was after Hurricane Frances. I’ve been through five hurricanes that made destructive landfall. What I learned from Franny was you can never have enough drinking water on hand (back home there was plenty of snow to melt.) Of course the question is what if the regional war on the other side of the world goes global? Closet supplies don’t last forever. 

The root of the winged yam. Photo by Green Deane

By far the biggest caloric payoff regarding plants locally is the Winged Yam, Dioscorea alata (the little-known relative of the invasive Air Potato.) It is our largest provider of calories in for calories out (which means finding it and digging it up.) After boiling like a potato it is used like a potato. It’s flavorful and nutritious with a silkier texture than a potato which can be granular. Think of it as a free bag of potatoes. They are easy to find from May to December. The vine dies back as the days grow short. It comes back up sometime in April. It’s relative, the one we don’t eat, tends to comes up first in March depending on the weather. Then the edible one in April. You can find the edible yams this time of year if you know where they grow.  You locate their dried, broken off vines hanging from low tree branches. That can give you a hint as to there they are below the vine. The top of the root is near the surface and is kind of like a tent stake at ground level fully driven in. If you clear the ground with your hands (wear gloves) you can find them even when out of season.  I have an article on finding caloric staples and one on wild flours. If you’re interested in eating bugs…  

You can eat roadkill deer even out of season. Photo by Green Deane

As you might presume I don’t have a hard time finding food. That said what I also cart home regularly is road kill, mostly possoms, squirrels, raccoons, armadillo and an occasional duck. Consider it recycling. I’ve passed up a couple of alligators ’cause they would not easily fit in my small Miata and because you need to have a permit to have alligator in your possession, even road kill. That is not the case with deer. (See state reply at bottom.)  If the deer is road kill — meaning it definitely died by accident not intentional hunting — you can take it home but the expectation is that you will first contact authorities. That way you have verified the road kill and won’t get in further trouble if a nosey good samaritan reports you.  What I can tell you about road kill is your nose with tell you if it is good or not. (As I am usually traveling in the early morning most of the run overs are quite fresh.) Squirrels clean better if soaked in water first, possums smell bad when cleaning but taste good cooked (I wear a swimmer’s nose plug while cleaning them.) Wear gloves and a mask while cleaning an armadillo — any one got a mask? — then parboil it before cooking with the meat. Be scrupulously clean when working with armadillos. Called Hoover Hogs they were a mainstay during the Depression. There has been one report of one person getting one case of leprosy from a live armadillo in Florida. Be clean. And you can get poison ivy from duck feathers or other wild animals. Only humans, some monkeys and guinea pigs get poison ivy. As I got poison ivy from a duck I do wear disposable gloves now when cleaning road kill.  And when inspecting road kill watch out for traffic. A woman died last November 6th at 2:30 a.m. in east Orlando when she stopped her car in the road to check on a deer that had been hit. Neither lived.    

And what of prescriptions?  I am not a doctor nor an herbalist but willow tips can stand in for aspirin, Biden alba leaves make an anti-inflammatory tea, Sida is good for congestion, wilted sweet clover can reduce clotting. Two generic books that address plants and their application to common illnesses are Medicinal Plants by Foster and Duke, and the Green Pharmacy by James Duke. Not local but handy to have in your library or backpack. A local herbalist would have the most relevant information for your plants and problems. James Duke was a botanist for the Department of Agriculture and an advocate of “natural” medicine. He died in December 2017, age 88.

Ringless Honey Mushrooms in late February.

Ringless Honey Mushrooms are well-known for flushing in the fall. Locally that is usually the first or second week in November, in the Carolinas that’s the end of August and early September. Then in some years, depending upon the weather, they will have a minor flush in April. It looks like they are early this year with this photo taken at the end of February. They are growing on the roots of trees blown down by Hurricane Frances in 2004. I also saw some two weeks ago in central Florida and West Palm Beach. It’s a controversial mushroom with some experts considering it choice, others not edible. Ringless Honey can cause some folks digestive upset. I have an article here and a video. 

Classes are held rain or shine or cold. (Hurricanes are an exception.) Photo by Kelly Fagan.

Foraging Classes: Doing a make up class at John Chestnut this Saturday and then back to Mead Gardens this Sunday.

Saturday March 5th,  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. 

Sunday March 6th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday March 12th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot at Ganyard and Bayshore

Sunday March 13th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL., 9 a.m. to noon. Meet next to the tennis courts. 

Saturday March 19th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL, 9 a.m. to noon.  Meet at the pavilion. 

Sunday March 20th, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the bathrooms.

Saturday March 26th,  George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon. This location does not have official bathrooms or drinking water. 

Sunday March 27th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m. to noon. 

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

You get the USB, not the key.

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, 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.

This is my weekly newsletter #497. 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.

 02/27/2007
Thank you for contacting the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). When it comes to a road kill deer, there is no specific statue or administrative code to address it. FWC has historically allowed the driver of the vehicle that strikes the deer to keep the carcass regardless of season or possession of a hunting license. Usually such incidents are documented by either the FWC, a county sheriff, or the Florida Highway Patrol who provide an accident report for the vehicle’s insurance company.

Your question sounds like you are referring to a deer that has been struck and killed, but not by the vehicle YOU are driving. If you happen along a road kill carcass and would like to take the deer for the meat, that would also be legal. Provided that there is absolutely no question that the deer was indeed the victim of an automobile strike. The best course of action would be to contact the FWC wildlife hotline and explain the situation so that an incident could be created to document the case. This would ensure that if you were stopped by a law enforcement officer or reported by a member of the public for “possession of deer out of season” that you would be able to prove that you indeed had a road kill carcass.

The number you would need to call would be 1-800-404-FWCC (3922).

Annonas come in four varieties, all edible but of differing flavors. Photo by Green Deane

Taking home a Tamarind seedling. Photo by Green Deane

This past weekend saw me boondocking in my van at Walmarts in the southern end of the state. I had foraging classes in West Palm Beach and Port Charlotte. It was also an opportunity to take a lot of footage for future videos on Annona, Bananas, Canna, Cereus, Chaya, Coralwood, Lantana, Rose Apple, Sea Grapes, Sea Oxeye, Tallow Plum, Tamarind, and Tropical Almond. Hopefully the Lantana video will be ready tomorrow. I also discovered used Duncan Donuts cups full of potting soil are perfect for young seedlings especially when on the road.

Pond Apple, Alligator Apple, Photo by Green Deane

We also found an Anona glabra or Pond Apple aka Alligator Apple. This was seen in Port Charlotte not far from where there used to be another Pond Apple. (When they cleared a drainage ditch the tree was eliminated.) So now I have another Pond Apple to talk about in classes there. The Annona group ranges from barely edible to choice and a cultivated crop.  There are four of them: Sugar, Sour, Custard and Pond (of course I have found the least edible ones.) You can read about the Annonas here. As one goes southwest from Port Charlotte the species becomes more common such as on Marco Island.

Sida blossom. Photo by Green Deane

Is it Sida (SEE-dah) or is it Sida (SIGH-dah)? Either either it would seem… There are several members of the Sida genus locally and they blossom nearly all year. This weekend, however, Sida cordifolia was particularly happy. Taller and softer than some of the other genusmates, it’s a plant with a little bit of legal history. Plants in the genus tend to have ephedrine in them to varying amounts. Sida cordifolia, however, is the only Sida species mentioned in the Florida Statutes. If you make a pill using the plant it cannot be given to anyone under the age of 18. I doubt the problem is bootleg diet pills but rather youthful experimenting with ephedrine. Adults can apparently do what they want with the plant.  S. cordifolia is not native. The species I see the most often is Arrowleaf Sida, S. rhombifolia, which means diamond shape. The lower part of the leaves of that species do not have teeth on them. You can read more about Sida 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 extremely 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 cool 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.   

Classes are held rain or shine or cold. (Hurricanes are an exception.) Photo by Kelly Fagan.

Foraging Classes: Heading north this weekend before it gets chilly.  

Saturday November 6th, 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 7th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon, meet by the tennis courts. Remember this is time-change weekend.

Saturday November 13th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. The preserve is only about three miles from the junction of the Turnpike and I-95. It has no bathroom or drinking water so take advantage of the various eateries and gas stations at the exit.

Sunday November 14th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. The park entrance is on South Denning. Some GPS directions get it wrong. 

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. 

Tropical Almond

Tropical Almonds are now on Mother Nature’s dining table and we had some last week in West Palm Beach. Terminalia catappa, which is really subtropical and not at all an almond, produces edible fruits for a few months. A tree I know was just starting to produce edible fruit the last time I was in Dreher Park. The ripe rind is edible as well as the “almond” inside which is really a little tree. It tastes like coconuts blended with almonds. The only problem is the buoyant dry shells are quite tough and require a hammer or a couple of rocks to crack open. (For those who don’t know Florida does not have rocks. You can’t just rummage around and find a pair of rocks to break seed shells with.) There is some labor involved with eating Tropical Alomonds but they are still calorie positive. I usually have a couple of pieces of concrete hidden near this particular tree to get to the treat. To read more about the Tropical Almond go here.

Bug hunter G.V. Hudson is to blame.

It is nearly time for my semi-annual rant and wish that G.V. Hudson had a different hobby. Hudson, a New Zealander, collected insects and was a shift worker. In 1895 he proposed Daylight Savings Time so he could collect insects after work in daylight. The world rightly ignored his idea but it was also championed by a golfer William Willett in 1907. He fought for it tirelessly and the world rightfully ignored him as well.  But, to save energy during WWI, Germany adopted Daylight Saving Time and soon other countries in the conflict followed. The time pox has been on humanity since. In the fall Americans set their clocks back to standard time. In the spring they go back on artificial time.

Golfer William Willett had the same bad idea

As I have mentioned before I stopped changing my clocks fifteen years ago. People who visit my home know I stay on “Deane Time.”  I absolutely refuse to go on “daylight savings time.” The entire idea strikes me a silly particularly when one considers there is a fixed amount of daylight no matter how we set our clocks. It is rightfully called “daylight slaving time.” Only the government would cut the top foot off a blanket, sew it on the bottom, and then argue the blanket is longer.

What really got to me was the seasonal flipping: Springing forward, falling back, feeling miserable. Time change always left me out of sorts for weeks. Now I don’t flip. I don’t change the clocks, when I get up, when I eat, when I go to bed or when I feed the animals. This family stays on standard time.  I just recognize that for half the year the rest of the country thinks it is ahead of me by one hour.

The semi-annual insanity is upon us.

Fortunately nature is not so wrong-headed. Animals and plants ignore the time change. Cows get milked at the same time no matter what hour it is. Plants grow the same while we pretend there is more light in the evenings during summer. (Though as a kid I remember marveling that at 9 p.m. it was still light outside.) There is also a philosophical reasons. So much of our lives is artificial. And artificial “daylight savings time” is but one more thing to knock us out of sync with the world around us. I spend a lot of time with Mother Nature and I prefer her time to man’s. And grumpy me, I like to use my watches (12- and 24-hour) as compasses, and that’s easier if one stays on solar time. Thus I do. And more than one study shows it actually cost more to go on Daylight Savings Time than not and is less healthy.

24-hour watch (which are hard to get repaired)

From a factual point of view, the majority of people on earth do not go on Daylight Savings Time. How sensible. Asia doesn’t nor does Africa. Most equatorial countries don’t. Great Britain and Ireland tried staying on DST permanently from 1968 to 1971 but went back because it was unpopular. Most of Arizona does not go on DST.  Lead the way Arizona. Daylight Savings Time is a bad idea that needs to go away. You can refuse to let it disrupt your life. We all have phones and computers to remind us what the outside world thinks is the right time. Let them but keep your personal life on standard time. You can do it. The weekend after next — November 6-7 — I have nothing to change and no misery to go through. Give it a try. 

(In 2018 Florida passed a measure to stay on Daylight Savings Time permanently, as Great Britain and Ireland tried and rejected 50 years ago. Called the “Sunshine Protection Act” it requires congressional approval because DST is a federal dictate. Florida’s request is not going to happen in a bitter, divided place like Washington D.C. which has other priorities than sunshine in the sunshine state. If Florida had decided to stay on standard time it could do that without federal approval. Unless Florida revisits the legislation you are stuck with flipping. Opportunity missed. You screwed up Tallahassee.)

This is weekly newsletter #479. 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.

Yellow Pond Lilly putting on a seed pod. Photo by Green Deane

Why don’t you see more Yellow Pond Lilly roots on a plate? Because they are not edible. Photo by Green Deane

Fall is a good time to look for Yellow Pond Lilys. While they fruit rather continuously these pond residents are putting forth a crop now. Plants may not have a brain they can have a strategy, or at least so it seems. Many of them protect their seeds in various ways until they are ready to germinate. The Persimmon Tree comes to mind. The fruit is astringent until the seeds are mature enough to germinate. Then the fruit turns sweet attracting various animals to eat it — those that can taste sweet — and spread the seeds around. The Monstera deliciosa has the same saccharin strategy. The seeds are acrid until ready to germinate then they turn sweet. They have a flavor reminiscent of pineapple and/or wild chamomile. The Yellow Pond Lily works in a similar fashion, almost. It does not turn sweet but the bitterness goes away. Seeds that are not ready to germinate are bitter. As the plant dies the floating seed pod rots over a three-week period. When the seeds are ready to germinate the protective bitterness is removed by enzymatic action. This also makes the seeds edible. Of course we humans can take advantage of the system by collecting the seed pods ourselves and controlling the rotting process. Then we get the seeds and dry them for use in various ways. You can read more about the Yellow Pond Lily here. 

True Turkey Tails. Photo by Green Deane

Turkey Tails are fairly easy to identify medicinal mushroom.  For a common type of mushroom I don’t see them that often… two or three times a year. I see False Turkey Tails far more often. More on that later.  A seven-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health found Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) boosted the immunity in women who had been treated for breast cancer. Researchers at the University of Minnesota and Bastyr University conducted the study in women with stages I-III breast cancer who had completed radiation therapy or chemotherapy. Results showed that immune function was enhanced in the women who took daily doses of Turkey Tail in pill form. They reported that the improved immune response was dose dependent and that none of the subjects suffered any adverse effects. Trametes versicolor can be chewed whole, eaten ground, or made into a tea, or a tincture. The question that always follows such comments is are False Turkey Tails, Stereum ostrea, medicinal?  Informally one hears herbalists saying False Turkey Tails can be used but there are few specifics though it has a long herbalism history.  A study in 2007 found that water extracts of Stereum ostrea were antibacterial and antifungal. That’s not cancer fighting or immune system stimulating but useful nonetheless. You can read that article here. 

Classes are held rain or shine.

Hopefully Hurricane Delta will stay west enough this week to bring tolerable rain here. Saturday I have a class in Largo at Eagle Lake Park. Always an interesting area to visit. Sunday we are having our second Orlando Mushroom Group (OMG) outing. This is a mushroom hunt in Lake Mary. The two big if’s are whether the weather will cooperated and what will be up for mushrooms. The season for terrestrial mushrooms is not over but this month they do diminish. 

Saturday, October 10th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 a.m. to noon. This is presuming the weather will cooperate. We might be ducking Gulf-of-Mexico storms that weekend. 

Sunday, October 11th. Shall we try an end-of-the-season mushroom class? Mushrooms are as fickle as the weather so whether we will find any is luck of the draw. Long-range weather forecasts say will could have a lot of rain between now and then so who knows. Maybe there will be a late-season flush. We should at least find some to study.  This class is taught with Joshua Buchanan and the fee for this particular class is $10 per adult. Time 9 a.m. to noon. Location: 8515 Markham Road, Lake Mary Fl. 32746. There’s ample parking, drinking water, and rest rooms. Do not bring mushroom baskets. If you are going to collect (for study of course) put them in a back pack or bag or the like. If you have any questions email me: GreenDeane@gmail.com.

Saturday, October 17th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot of Bayshore and Ganyard Street. We walk beside the Peace River and do a neighborhood wander. 

Saturday, October 18th, Seminole Wekiva Trail, Sanlando Park, 401 West Highland St. Altamonte Springs, Florida 32714 (at the intersection with Laura Avenue.) We meet in the first parking lot on your right immediately after the entrance. 9 a.m. to noon. This compact tour I do once or twice a year includes unmanaged woods, a park, baseball fields, and a visit to the Little Wekiva River. 9 a.m. to noon. 

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, 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. 

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

Sida leaves and roots  has ephedrine.

Is it Sida (SEE-dah) or is it Sida (SIGH-dah)? Either either it would seem… There are several members of the Sida genus locally and they blossom nearly all year. This weekend, however, Sida cordifolia was particularly happy. Taller and softer than some of the other genusmates, it’s a plant with a little bit of legal history. Plants in the genus tend to have ephedrine in them to varying amounts. Sida cordifolia, however, is the only Sida species mentioned in the Florida Statutes. If you make a pill using the plant it cannot be given to anyone under the age of 18. I doubt the problem is bootleg diet pills but rather youthful experimenting with ephedrine. Adults can apparently do what they want with the plant.  S. cordifolia is not native. The species I see the most often is S. rhombifolia, which means diamond shape. The lower part of the leaves of that species do not have teeth on them. We also saw one during our class in Jacksonville Sunday. That might have been Sida acuta. You can read more about Sida here. 

Winged Sumac. Photo by Green Deane

Our Sumacs are happy. Everywhere you go now they are sporting terminal clusters of garnet-colored berries. It is time to harvest Sumacs for use today or later. There’s a wide variety of Sumacs. Perhas 325 in the genus.  Locally it’s the “Wing Sumac.” In other areas of the country it can be the Staghorn Sumac which I grew up nibbling in Maine. Shapes and quality vary but they always have terminal clusters of garnet-colored berries, give or take a hue. The berries have hair on them. And on the hair is malic acid, the acid that makes apples tart. You can rinse the acid off the acid and make a lemonade-like drink. The berries can be dried, their coating knocked off then ground and used as a spice. Surprisingly Sumacs are high in the B vitamins but rather low in ascorbic acid which is nature’s form of vitamin C. I currently have three gallons of Sumac wine working. I hope to bring some to classes next fall. In the springtime the shoots can be peeled and eaten raw or cooked. If you are worried about Poison Sumac it grows only in wet spots, has a much different leaf, and when in fruit has white berries positioned farther down the stem, not terminal clusters. Also Poison Sumac leaves have bright red stems.

Lyre-Leaf Sage. Photo by Green Deane

In his book Edible Plants of North America, Francois Couplan writes on page 384: “the leaves of the S. lyrata, Eastern North America, contain an acrid principle and should not be ingested. They have been used to remove warts.” That said I know an herbalist who makes a tea from the leaves and a foraging instructor who cooks the young leaves and eats them. I’ve heard other reports of them being eaten. That can leave a person in a tough spot as to what to do with the plant. To eat or not to eat, that is the question.

This sage made me wretchedly ill.

Another example is also a sage, Salvia coccinea, also known as Tropical Sage. A small piece of the blossom of this species — a very tiny piece, 1/8 inch square — made me horribly sick for several weeks. It attacked my stomach with viciousness and I was go-to-the-emergency room miserable. Coca-cola syrup and Pepto-Bismol combined were my salvation from doubled-over pain.  I was actually “field testing” this plant for edibility at the time, one reason why I am very opposed to field testing. Yet, I know of two people who have eaten the young leaves with no problem. Perhaps it was a personal allergy on my part. I don’t know. But I do know I will never eat any part of that plant again. Ever. Lesson painfully learned. Yet it might be edible, or maybe some folks really do have cast iron stomachs. I know I don’t. Eating this Sage is one of those “you’re on your own” kind of things.

Richardia is generally not edible.

A third plant that falls into the crack between edible and not edible is Richardia scabra, aka Florida Pusley. It is in a genus that has species used to make you throw up. In fact one is called Richardia emetica. That is not encouraging. Some people mistake R. scabra for chickweed, which is a Stellaria, a totally different genus.  The plants vaguely resemble each other if one ignores several details and that fact that real chickweed only grows here in the winter time. R. scabra is a species for which I have never found any ethnobotanical references to regarding edibility. In fact it is one of three common plants that seems to have either not been used by the natives or somehow were not reported. The other two are Amaranthus australis and Hibiscus moscheutos. I know from modern reports that A. australis is edible but as for the H. moscheutos I have no idea though it comes from a very edible genus. Thus R. scabra is not on my site as an edible because I can’t find any historical reference to its use. Curiously the internet now calls it “edible.”  I do know two people who mistook it for chickweed and ate it for quite a while. And I know two people who did not mistake it; they know it is a Richardia and they eat it from time to time. That might be a key element. Without any ethnobotanical reference perhaps a little now and then is okay but a steady diet of it is not. It is one of those unknown things. Sometimes eating little bits of this or that do not rise to the level of making you ill. I know a person who mistook Oak Leaf Fleabane (Erigeron quercifolius) for for Plantago major and ate some for quite a while without an apparent problem. And I have personally seen someone eat a leaf of Oak Leaf Fleabane against my advice. She was still standing at the end of class. So there are definitely edible plants, and there are definitely non-edible plants. But there can be some fog in between.

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 #426, 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 chance discovery of a Cucumber Tree fruit. Photo by Green Deane

Foraging is treasure hunting for adults. It is also often a mystery. During a class in early October in West Palm Beach I saw the above fruit on the ground. I had no idea what it was but I tossed the hard thing into my trunk and embarked on the discovery of its identity. 

Cucumber Tree fruit is toxic but can be processed into edible.  Photo by Green Deane

The first suggestion I got a Baobab fruit. It was a good contender. However, the Baobab tree is rather distinct and I did not recall seeing any tree in Dreher Park resembling the stout-trunked Baobab. It was not impossible, however, as five Baobabs reportedly grow nearby in Ft. Lauderdale and also in Miami. The Baobab fruit is described as cracking like a ripe coconut and loaded with seeds. This fruit did not crack like a coconut. In fact, it was hard to dent with a hammer. Cutting it required a cross-cut saw then a thick machette AND and hammer. It has seeds but not a huge amount of them. The next possibility made more sense: The Cucumber Tree or Sausage Tree, Kigelia africana. This worked because after finding some descriptions I knew exactly which tree the fruit came from. I had seen the tree in blossom before but had never seen it fruiting. What distinguishes the tree, as opposed to the trunk of the Baobab, is the blossoms which hang on six to 18 foot vines. On this particular tree the blossoms are a reddish maroon. The fruit is made edible by drying, roasting and or fermentation. It’s also used to make booze.  

That there is such a tree in Dreher Park is not surprising.  Paul Dreher, who developed the park, wasn’t given a budget for landscaping after the city bought the 108 acres for $100 in 1951. So, he scrounged around for species raiding discarded plant heaps, accepting vegetative donations, and getting specimens from hotels which back then were not restrained by landscape ordinances. This makes the species in the park quiet eclectic. Add the fact that it doesn’t freeze there too often and you have a park with an international array of plants.  

Sida cordifolia. Photo by Green Deane

Is it Sida (SEE-dah) or is it Sida (SIGH-dah)? Either either it would seem… There are several members of the Sida genus locally and they blossom nearly all year. This weekend, however, Sida cordifolia was particularly happy. Taller and softer than some of the other genusmates, it’s a plant with a little bit of legal history. Plants in the genus tend to have ephedrine in them to varying amounts. Sida cordifolia, however, is the only Sida species mentioned in the Florida Statutes. If you make a pill using the plant it cannot be given to anyone under the age of 18. I doubt the problem is bootleg diet pills but rather youthful experimenting with ephedrine. Adults can apparently do what they want with the plant.  S. cordifolia is not native. The species I see the most often is S. rhombifolia, which means diamond shape. The lower part of the leaves of that speices do not have teeth on them. You can read more about Sida here. 

True Turkey Tails. Photo by Green Deane

And what of Turkey Tails? Turkey Tails are fairly easy to identify medicinal mushrooms. We spied some during a recent foraging class. For a common type of mushroom I don’t see them that often… two or three times a year. I see False Turkey Tails far more often. More on that later.  A seven-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health found Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) boosted the immunity in women who had been treated for breast cancer. Researchers at the University of Minnesota and Bastyr University conducted the study in women with stages I-III breast cancer who had completed radiation therapy or chemotherapy. Results showed that immune function was enhanced in the women who took daily doses of Turkey Tail in pill form. They reported that the improved immune response was dose dependent and that none of the subjects suffered any adverse effects. Trametes versicolor can be chewed whole, eaten ground, or made into a tea, or a tincture. The question that always follows such comments is are False Turkey Tails, Stereum ostrea, medicinal?  Informally one hears herbalists saying False Turkey Tails can be used but there are few specifics though it has a long herbalism history.  A study in 2007 found that water extracts of Stereum ostrea were antibacterial and antifungal. That’s not cancer fighting or immune system stimulating but useful nonetheless. You can read that article here

Foraging classes are held rain or shine, heat or cold (hurricanes and tropical storms excepted.)Photo by Nermina Krenata

Staying reasonably close to home this weekend with foraging classes in Melbourne and Cassadaga. Melbourne has many coast community plants though the park is several miles from the ocean. Cassadaga is a nice location that surprisingly always draws a small class (so if you want more personal attention…) 

Saturday October 26th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the dog park. 

Sunday October 27th, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga, Fl., 9 a.m. to noon. Meet near the bathrooms. 

Saturday Nov. 2nd, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the beginning of the Peggy Park Trail inside the park. 

Sunday, November 3rd, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet in the parking lot near the rest rooms.

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

Sunday, November 10th, Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge, 2045 Mud Lake Road, DeLeon Springs, FL. 9 a.m. to noon. This class is rare because the federal property can be closed without notice. Meet at the first parking lot west of the railroad tracks.

Saturday, November 16th, Florida State College,  south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246.  9 a.m. to noon. We will meet at building “D”  next to the administration parking lot.

Sunday, November 17th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the pavilion by the dog park. 

Saturday, November 23rd, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet in the parking lot just north of the science center.

Sunday, November 24th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot at the intersection of Bayshore Road and Ganyard Street. 9 a.m. to noon.

Saturday November 30th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. 

Papaya leaf on left, Castor Bean on right. Photo by Green Deane

Many botanical terms can be confusing among them palmate and pinnate. We’ll address pinnate another time. Palmate shouldn’t be difficult but it can be. It means ‘shaped like your hand’ but… there are small grape leaves that are “palmate” and about the size of an adult hand. Then there are palmate leaves that are a foot across. Here are two, one from the edible Papaya tree and the other from the deadly Castor Bean. The papaya leaf, on our left, is palmate with lobes. It has seven sections, seven main veins and two sections on the bottom. Stem attachment is on the edge. The Castor Bean, right side of the photo, is also palmate but has eight sections, the sections have teeth, eight main veins total, and three sections on the lower side. Stem attachment is not on the edge. There’s more about the Papaya here. 

Richardia is generally not edible.

A plant that falls into the crack between edible and not edible is Richardia scabra, aka Florida Pusley. It’s in a genus that has species used to make you throw up. In fact one is called Richardia emetica. That is not encouraging. Some people mistake R. scabra for chickweed, which is a Stellaria, a totally different genus.  The plants vaguely resemble each other if one ignores several details and that fact that real chickweed only grows here in the winter time. R. scabra is a species for which I have never found any ethnobotanical references to regarding edibility. In fact it is one of three common plants that seems to have either not been used by the natives or somehow were not reported. The other two are Amaranthus australis and Hibiscus moscheutos. I know from modern reports that A. australis is edible but as for the H. moscheutos I have no idea personally though it comes from a very edible genus and I hear it is edible. Thus R. scabra is not on my site as an edible because I can’t find any historical reference to its use. That said I know two people who mistook it for chickweed and ate it for quite a while. And I know two people who did not mistake it; they know it is a Richardia and they eat it from time to time. That might be a key element. Without any ethnobotanical reference perhaps a little now and then is okay but a steady diet of it is not. It is one of those unknown things.

Perennial Peanut. The blossoms are edible.

I learned of this edible blossom from a chef who told me she ate them. That got my attention. Arachis glabrata, which botanists call by the spiffy name of  Rhizoma Peanut, is also called Rhizomal Perennial Peanut, Perennial Forage Peanut, Golden Glory, and Ornamental Peanut Grass… none of them really catchy. It’s related closely to the peanut we eat, Arachis hypogaea (which by the way has edible stems and leaves, raw or cooked.) My first reference of choice, Cornucopia II, had nothing on the “Perennial Peanut” nor did my trusty standby, the Journal of Economic Botany. On-line, where I am loathe to do research unless absolutely necessary — I prefer books, libraries and universities  — I turned up little. It is grazing fodder and native to Brazil. No mentions in English of humans eating it. But I did find a study in which researchers fed leaf powder to hens to see if it increased the intensity of yoke color. That can go both ways. It would seem reasonable they would not feed something toxic to hens for a product humans eat but they do exactly that with arsenic. That chemical is a disease preventative in chickens. So feeding hens Perennial Peanut leaf powder was no sign it was edible by humans. Finding no good sources I did what I have done many times in the compilation of this site: I wrote to one of the foraging study researchers, Benjamin Anderson, asking if he knew if humans could eat the plant. He wrote back. “Yes, I know that a lot of people eat the blossoms and they actually taste like peanuts.  I have even heard of them being used in salads.  Just be careful eating anything where there may have been chemicals sprayed, though.”  I would call that a reliable source. The only caution I would add is that yellow blossoms eaten in quantities — regardless of the species — tend to be a laxative.  

Ceasarweed’s name is a botanist’s joke.

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 edible 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. 

Do you know the Cossaboom Tree?

The study of plants is also the study of language. In my articles and classes I usually explain what the botanical name means. Sometimes that is helpful, sometimes it doesn’t add much (such as when both genus and species’ name are a person’s name.) Sometimes in English a person’s name can be helpful in the plant realm. I’ve made a side habit of collecting the meaning of surnames. I was reminded of that Sunday during a foraging class at Haul Over Canal on Merritt Island north of the space center. On the north end of the national refuge there is a Mirkwood Road. This road was there close to a century before The Hobbit became famous with its Mirkwood, which it said was “a forest of broad-leaf trees.” Mirkwood means “dark woods” or “border woods” and as a surname it comes through German into English as Marquard or “Mirk Guard” someone whose duty was to guard the border woods. “Kirkwood,” by the way, means “Church Woods” and Kildare “church of the oaks.”  There are quite a few “woods” to explore. Where I grew up the largest dairy was Oakhurst which means a stand of oaks. One also saw Pinehurst Road and Elmhurst Lane. Oddly trees that famously produce a hurst usually aren’t called that such as Aspenhurst or Maplehurst though housing developers like them for street names. I say “persimmon hurst” now and then but only for effect. It is very rare to see a stand of persimmons but I do know of one persimmonhurst. I became interested in the meaning of surnames because I went to school with Longbottoms, Waterhouses, Toothachers, Weatheralls, Cossabooms, Granholms, Cheneys, Snodgrasses and Litchfields. The first four are not related to plants. They mean valley, castle with a mote, a place name in Switzerland and sheeps’ pen.  But the rest have a botanical nuance. Here’s my list: Baumgartner (tree gardener) Birnbaum (pear tree) Cheney (oak grove) Cossaboom (cherry tree) Granholm (spruce island) Heywood (high woods) Lindbloom (lime flower) Linkletter (heather rock) Litchfield (gray woods) Maidenbaum (ginkgo tree or a young grafted tree) Mirkwood (boarder woods or dark woods) Olivenbaum (olive tree) Snodgrass (smooth grass) and Stubbs (stumps.)    

Donations: I had several site donations lately. Thank you. They were timely as WordPress went down for several days. The last 10 days had been a battle with Apple upgrades making some functions obsolete (which is how I am beginning to feel.) If anyone would like to donate to this website and newsletter they can use this Go Fund Me link, this PayPal donation link or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.  Again, thank you. 

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

Foraging DVDs make a good gift to watch during the lifeless months of winter. All My Videos are available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for this newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in slightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each for a total of 135 videos.  Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. The DVDs make a good gift for that forager you know especially as spring is … springing. Individual DVDs can also be ordered or you can pick and choose. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right hand side of this page (if your window is open wide enough.)  Or you can go here.

These prime Ringless Honey Mushrooms are cespitose, all growing out of one spot. Photo by Green Deane

Do you recognize the edible mushroom species on the left? If you read the Green Deane Forum you would. They’re flushing now… not the site but the mushrooms. 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 some 8,000 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.

This is weekly newsletter 377. 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.

I never receive mail about Lion’s Ear, Leonotis leonurus. That’s odd because I receive excessive mail about Lactuca virosa — which is not psychotropic — yet none about Lion’s Ear which is mildly so.

A member of the greater mint family Lion’s Ear is native to tropical South Africa. It was being grown in Europe by the 1600’s. Some writers say it came to North America with early settlers. But, if that is true had to be with the Spanish as it is reported naturalized in Southern California but not elsewhere. (Curiously it grows around San Diego whereas L. virosa grows around San Francisco.) If all that is so then we have to ask which Lion’s Ear do we have in Florida — there are two — or do we have both? To explore that topic we need to sort out some language issues first. 

Lion’s Ear gives me a linguistic headache. In Dead Latin it’s Leonotis leonurus. Both words are corruptions of Greek: Leonotis mean’s Lion’s Ear;  Leonurus means Lion’s Tail. That doesn’t help much except to explain why I sometimes call it Lion’s Ear and sometimes Lion’s Tail. If I’m not paying attention I also call it Lion’s Mane (which is definitely not correct.) Richard Wunderlin, the wunderkid of botanical taxonomy of Florida, says Leonotis nepetifolia not Leonotis leonurus is reported naturalized throughout Florida usually in “disturbed sites.” Leonotis leonurus can be cultivated here. Nepetifolia means “Lion’s Ear Catnip-like leaves.” The book Cornucopia II says of L. nepetifolia “Flowers are eaten in Tanzania. In Uganda they are cooked with green leafy vegetables.” So which do you have? A mind-altering cultivated L. leonurus or an escaped L. nepetifolia? While the flowering plants look similar L. nepetifolia has wide, long leaves (leaf A in the diagram above left.) L. leonurus has skinnier, shorter leaves (leaf B in the diagram.) As for being a psychotropic…

A 2015 study says Leonotis leonurus seems to be mildly pschoactive but they can’t quite explain why. The chemical that is supposed to do the trick, Leonurine, can’t be found in the plant. However “Research has proven the psychoactive effects of the crude extract of L. leonurus, but confirmation of the presence of psychoactive compounds, as well as isolation and characterization, is still required.” Sounds like a pitch for more research money. Others report both species contain marrubiin which is an analgesic and probably why they have been used in traditional medicine. 

Just as there are two Lion’s Ears there are also two toxic Bittersweet Nightshades. In the same park where we saw the Lion’s Ear we also saw what appeared to be a Bittersweet Nightshade, Solanum dulcamara. This Nightshade is a wide-spread native of Europe and Asia. I first sighted it decades ago while hiking along bike trails near Washington D.C. It’s been used by herbalists since the Ancient Greeks. From an edible point of view the fruit is toxic to humans. Solanum dulcamara, however, is reported in only one northern county in Florida. So what did we see a little north of St. Petersburg, the real thing intentionally cultivated or a naturalized pretender to the botanical throne? As the leaves didn’t look right to me some research offered Solanum seaforthianum, which is the Brazilian Nightshade not the Bittersweet Nightshade. It’s fairly common in central and south Florida. This Nightsade is toxic like its genus-mate.

Regarding the name Solanum seaforthianum… “Solanum” has various interpretations such as to calm, to soothe, and to comfort. These are ancient references to the medicinal side of the species. As for seaforthianum… it, too, doesn’t help us much. The plant is named after Francis Humberton MacKenzie who was Lord Seaforth, 1754-1815. He was also a Baron and stone deaf from Scarlet Fever contracted at age 12 (exactly what happened to one of my grandfathers.) Seaforth was a general and plant collector, a fellow of the Royal Society, a fellow of the Linnean Society, and for a time a benevolent Governor of Barbados. Dulcamar, by the way, literally means “sweet bitter.” It is from Dead Latin’s “dulcis” meaning sweet and “amara” which means bitter. I have no idea why we reverse it in English to Bittersweet.

Last Saturday in our foraging class we got so drenched by rain I’m still wet. Sunday’s class at Ft. Meade was dryer thought the Peace River was above flood stage. Less rain is predicted this weekend. I have a class in Port Charlotte Saturday (along a broader section of the Peace River) and in east Orlando Sunday at Blanchard Park.

Saturday, August 24th,Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte.9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot at the intersection of Bayshore Road and Ganyard Street. 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday, August 25th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet next to the tennis courts by the YMCA building.

Saturday August 31st,Wekiva State Park, 1800 Wekiwa Circle, Apopka, Florida 32712. 9 a.m. to noon. Arrive very early as there will be a lot of people wanting to go to the springs at 8 a.m. to swim. There is a park admission Fee: $6 per vehicle. Limit 8 people per vehicle, $4 for a single occupant vehicle, $2 pedestrians or bicyclists. Meet at the Sand Lake parking lot (road on left after entrance. Go to end of road.) Unlike city parks or the urban area, Wekiva Park is “wild” Florida. There are very few weeds of urbanization. The edibles are mostly native plants and far between. There is a lot of walking in this class. After class you can swim in the spring.

Sunday September 1st,George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road,Fort Pierce, FL,34981. 9 a.m. to noon. The preserve has no official bathroom or drinking water so take advantage of the various eateries and gas stations before arrival. 

Saturday September 7th,329 N. Park Avenue, Winter Park. 9 a.m. to noon.  Parking is free in the parking garage behind Panera’s.  This is a class specializing in finding wild edibles in an urban setting.

Sunday September 8th,Ft. Desoto Park, 3500 Pinellas Bayway S. St. Petersburg Fl 33715. Meet by the bathrooms at the parking lot of the “bay” fishing pier (not the “gulf” fishing pier.) 9 a.m. to noon. There is a fee to get into the park. The fishing pier is about halfway along the SW/NE road along the southern end of the park.

Saturday, September 14th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. 9 a.m. to noon.Meet at the “dog park” inside the park.

October 11-12-13, foraging classes at Putney Farm, Honea Path, South Carolina. Right now we are planning for classes at 9 and 1 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday.

In keeping with our medicinal theme a group of plants called Sida should be mentioned. There are about 17 different species of Sida in the state. Most of them are rare or occasional. Their pinwheel blossom makes them fairly easy to recognize. The ones you are most likely to see are S. cordifolia and S. rhombifolia, both of which have Ephedrine in the leaves and roots. In fact. S. cordifolia is mentioned in Florida statutes. It can’t be made into a pill and given to kids under 18. This time of year I see S. cordifolia in pastures. It’s about two feet high now and spread out as if sprinkled all over the pasture. Clearly grazing cattle leave it alone. A tea made form the leaves is a “euphoric” pick-me-up which will also drive up your heart rate. It has other medicinal uses which are beyond my pay grade to discuss.

For many years I have eaten Gopher Apples and Tallow Plums. Both are native and they do share part of a season which is late spring to early summer more or less depending on the weather. What I have never done, because I find them at different times, is eat them together. A strapping, young, adult male reported to me that he ate about 20 Gopher Apples and 10 Tallow Plums at one sitting. They gave him temporary premature ventricular contractions which he verified by a heart monitor. The contractions went away in a short while. We don’t know which fruit might have caused said, or if it was a combination of them, the amount, a personal sensitivity or something else entirely. But, it is a report to keep in mind if you are about to eat a lot of Tallow Plums and Gopher Apples together, or perhaps even a lot of one species.

Yes it is edible but… we have perhaps three “Chicken of the Woods” fungi in Florida: Laetiperous sulphureus, L. gibsonii var. pallidus, and L. persicinus. The latter shares the same common name with another Laetiperous, the White Chicken of the Woods. The name Laetiperous (lay-TIP-er-ous) increases edible expectation because the other Laetiperous are enjoyable. Why mention this marginal mushroom? Laetiperous persicinus is edible, is being found now, and is relatively easy to identify. It’s a large mushroom — up to about eight inches across — usually growing at the base of oaks, and stains dark brown/black where ever you touch it especially anywhere it is light-colored. You can literally leave your fingerprints on it.

The mushrooms has a mild nearly non-existent flavor and a soft semi-crumbly texture. It doesn’t have a great mouth feel thus this “chicken” does better chopped up and put in a thick stew or soup. It needs chef experimentation. So far I have sliced and fried it. On it’s own the flavor is marginal and the texture non-resistant. One thing I tried recently worked reasonably well but I am sure we can do better. I fried strips in coconut oil with garlic powder and red pepper flakes. Then I added coconut-aminos until it was absorbed (Coconut Aminos is a soy sauce substitute.) After that I chilled them overnight to make sure the liquid was absorbed. In the morning I baked them, 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Better, even tasty. Next time I am going to skip the coconut-aminos and add beef stock flavor to see if I can get a semi-dry jerky-like flavor and texture.

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com and fund a book have gone well. Thank you to all who have contributed to either via the Go Fund Me link, the PayPal donation link  or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.  There are several in-the-way items that needs to be fixed.

All My Videos are available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for this newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in slightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each for a total of 135 videos.  Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. The DVDs make a good gift for that forager you know especially as spring is … springing. Individual DVDs can also be ordered or you can pick and choose. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right hand side of this page (if your window is open wide enough.)  Or you can go here.

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 some 8,000 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.

This is weekly newsletter 369. You can sign up for this free newsletter by clicking on menu (or find in the command line) Newsletter Sign-up. These newsletters — like all my articles on the website — are written by me. There is no cut and paste… Every misspelling is mine and totally mine.

Yellow Pond Lily seeds resemble corn kernels. Photo by Green Deane

This might be a good time to write about Yellow Pond Lilys. While they fruit rather continuously the pond residents are putting forth a fall crop now. Plants may not have a brain they can have a strategy, or at least so it seems. Many of them protect their seeds in various ways until they are ready to germinate. The Persimmon Tree comes to mind. The fruit is astringent until the seeds are mature enough to germinate. Then the fruit turns sweet attracting various animals to eat it — those that can taste sweet — and spread the seeds around. The Yellow Pond Lily works in a similar fashion. Seeds that are not ready to germinate are bitter. As the plant dies the floating seed pod rots over a three week period. When the seeds are ready to germinate the protective bitterness is removed by enzymatic action. This makes the seeds also edible. Of course we humans can take advantage of the system by collecting the seed pods ourselves and controlling the rotting process. Then we get the seeds and dry them for use in various ways. You can read more about the Yellow Pond Lily here. 

Papaya leaf on left, Castor Bean on right. Photo by Green Deane

Many botanical terms can be confusing among them palmate and pinnate. We’ll address pinnate another time. Palmate shouldn’t be difficult but it can be. It means shaped like your hand but… there are small grape leaves that are “palmate” and about the size of an adult hand. Then there are palmate leaves that are a foot across. Here are two, one from the edible Papaya tree and the other from the deadly Castor Bean. The papaya leaf, on our left, is palmate with lobes. It has seven sections, seven main veins and two sections on the bottom. Stem attachment is on the edge. The Castor Bean, right side of the photo, is also palmate but has eight sections, the sections have teeth, eight main veins total, and three sections on the lower side. Stem attachment is not on the edge. There’s more about the Papaya here. 

Sida cordifolia. Photo by Green Deane

Is it Sida (SEE-dah) or is it Sida (SIGH-dah)? Either either it would seem… There are several members of the Sida genus locally and they blossom nearly all year. This weekend, however, Sida cordifolia was particularly happy on the central west coast of Florida in Largo. Taller and softer than some of the other genusmates, it’s a plant with a little bit of legal history. Plants in the genus tend to have ephedrine in them to varying amounts. Sida cordifolia, however, is the only Sida species mentioned in the Florida Statutes. If you make a pill using the plant it cannot be given to anyone under the age of 18. I doubt the problem is bootleg diet pills but rather youthful experimenting with ephedrine. Adults can apparently do what they want with the plant.  S. cordifolia is not native. The species I see the most often is S. rhombifolia, which means diamond shape. The lower part of the leaves of that speices do not have teeth on them. You can read more about Sida here. 

True Turkey Tails. Photo by Green Deane

And what of Turkey Tails? Turkey Tails are fairly easy to identify medicinal mushrooms. We spied some on our foraging class in Largo. For a common type of mushroom I don’t see them that often… two or three times a year. I see False Turkey Tails far more often. More on that later.  A seven-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health found Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) boosted the immunity in women who had been treated for breast cancer. Researchers at the University of Minnesota and Bastyr University conducted the study in women with stages I-III breast cancer who had completed radiation therapy or chemotherapy. Results showed that immune function was enhanced in the women who took daily doses of Turkey Tail in pill form. They reported that the improved immune response was dose dependent and that none of the subjects suffered any adverse effects. Trametes versicolor can be chewed whole, eaten ground, or made into a tea, or a tincture. The question that always follows such comments is are False Turkey Tails, Stereum ostrea, medicinal?  Informally one hears herbalists saying False Turkey Tails can be used but there are few specifics though it has a long herbalism history.  A study in 2007 found that water extracts of Stereum ostrea were antibacterial and antifungal. That’s not cancer fighting or immune system stimulating but useful nonetheless. You can read that article here. 

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

It will be rainy mid-week but should be all cleared up by the weekend for my east coast classes, one in Jacksonville Saturday and in Melbourne on Sunday. 

Saturday, October 13th, Florida State College,  south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246.  We will meet at building “D”  next to the administration parking lot. 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday, October 14th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park. 9 a.m. to noon.

Saturday, October 20th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Sunday, October 21st, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Sunday, October 28th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet just north of the science center, north section of the park.

To read more about the foraging classes or to sign up go here. 

Foraging DVDs make a good gift to study during long winter.

All of Green Deane’s videos are available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for this newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in slightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each for a total of 135 videos.  Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. The DVDs make a good gift for that forager you know especially on long, cold winter months. Individual DVDs can also be ordered or you can pick and choose. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right hand side of this page (if your window is open wide enough.)  Or you can go here.

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com and fund a book have gone well and made it past the half way mark. Thank you to all who have contributed to either via the Go Fund Melink, the PayPal donation link or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.  There are many needs left such as expanding the foraging teacher page and the page on monotypic edibles. Several functions were also lost when we transitioned to the new website.  There’s always something and such things get more complex and expensive every year. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Need to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Maybe you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane — 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 articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: I Finally Found Wapato, Looks like Corn, Weed With Pod At Top, A Mile Walk In The Woods, Chicken of the Woods?, Elderberry Fungus, Spurge Nettle 2018, Does Anybody Know This Berry, and Five-Minute “English” Muffin with Beautyberries.  You can join the forum by clicking on the button in the menu line.

This is weekly issue 325. 

If you would like to donate to Eat The Weeds please click here. Or you can use my Go Fund Me  link, or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794