Chrysobalanus icaco: Multi-Colored Fruit

Coco-plums are three quarters patriotic: They can be red, white, or blue ( and yellow.)

Actually, the “blue” is deep purple and the yellow more a cream. Trees near the shore tend to have light colored fruit that is round whereas a variation inland tends to be oval and red to dark purple.

White cocoplums can be pure white or have a pink blush

Look for the coco-plum in cypress swamps, low areas, tree islands, beaches, sand dunes, canals, riverside, oceanside thickets, hammocks, by lakes, ponds and in landscaping.  In reference to landscaping, don’t confuse it with the Natal Plum which also has an edible fruit but the Natal Plum is covered with intense thorns.

The Coco-plum has been introduced to tropical areas around the world.  In Florida it is found from the center of the state south. In the wild it grows up to 30 feet tall, but can be trained into a compact hedge as well.

Red coco plum, note round/oval leaves

Opinions vary on the value of the fruit. Some think the pulp tastes like astringent sweet cotton. I have always found it soft and sweet. Some will say the blue tastes great and the white tastes bad, where as I have found them to taste the same.  It’is made into jams and jellies. In Cuba it’s manipulated into a sweet preserve that’s served in Havana restaurants as a sobremesa or dessert. The large kernel removed from its shell is edible raw or cooked. Some think it has the faint flavor of almond. To me it tastes like granola. Many think the kernel is far better when the fruit and kernel are both pierced so the juice of the pulp is allowed to seep into the kernel.

The botanical name is Chrysobaloanus icaco (crease-oh-BAL-ah-nus eye-KAY-koh. In botanical accounts that haven’t a clue “Chrysobaloanus” is interpreted to mean “Golden Apple.”  In more informed but polite reports it is “golden acorn” which is getting closer to the truth. It really means “golden glans” (or the end of human penis.) Carl Linnaeus, the fellow who started giving plants scientific names, was the original dirty old man. The barnacle got the same name as well, Balanus. Icaco, the individual species name, is the modern version of Hicaco which was what the plant was originally called in Taino on the island of Hispaniola. It is said eye-KAY-koh, in the Roman, but  eye-KAH-koh is also common.

The oil in the kernel can be substituted for almond oil. The seed is about 21% oil by weight. In fact, the seeds can be strung on sticks and burned like a candle. The oil can also be used to make candles, soap, and axle grease. The kernels (and leaves) can also be used to make a black dye that helps fibers resist decay.

The Coco-plum has has many native medical uses (see Herb Blurb below.) The leaves and bark have been used to treat dysentery and diarrhea, diabetes, bladder problems and kidney issues. Tea from the leaves can make mice hypoglycemic.

With all that said, there is a second Coco-plum, Chrysobaloanus icaco var. pellocarpus (pel-oh-KAR-pus) meaning dark fruit with translucent spots.  The pellocarpus lives inland where it’s wet, and has smaller, dark purple fruit. New growth is reddish or yellow.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION:

Both a shrub to 30-foot tree, leaves alternate, egg-shaped though variable, indented at tip, 1.5 to 3 inches long, leathery, glossy, new growth can be yellow green or reddish. Flowers small and white, in clusters. Fruit white to yellow to red to purple, thin skinned.

TIME OF YEAR: Spring to fall but usually a large crop in late spring and another in late fall.

ENVIRONMENT: Mainland, keys, near the coast or hammocks, inland near bodies of fresh water

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Fruit and kernel raw and or cooked. Made into jelly, jam and syrup. Can be canned.

HERB BLURB

Chrysobalanus icaco; Plasmid pUC 9.1; Escherichia coli; Genotoxic potentiality of aquerous extract prepared from Chrysobalanus icaco L. leaves. .

Abstract:  Plants have been related to our lives, being used as medicine, regardless of scientific evidence of side effects. This work analyses the toxicological effects of Chrysobalanus icaco L. aqueous extract, used in different pathologies. It was studied through: (i) alteration of plasmid pUC 9.1 topology; (ii) survival of bacterial strains submitted, or not, to previous treatment with SnCl2; (iii) transformation efficiency of E. coli strain by the treatment with the plasmid pUC 9.1. In (i), the treatment of the plasmid resulted in DNA single-strand breaks (SSB). A decrease of the lethal effect induced by SnCl2 in presence of the extract was found, while no C. icaco bacterial survival reduction was observed. The transformation efficiency of the plasmid was also reduced. Results suggest that the extract could present a potential genotoxic effect, as demonstrated either by the induction of SSB in plasmid or in transformation efficiency experiments. Finally, it presents an antioxidant action.

Chrysobalanus icaco L. extract for antiangiogenic potential observation. Alves De Paulo S, Teruszkin Balassiano I, Henriques Silva N, Oliveira Castilho R, Coelho Kaplan MA, Currie Cabral M, da Costa Carvalho MG. Instituto de Biofisica Carlos Chagas Filho, Laboratorio de Controle da Expressao Genica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Centro de Ciencias da Saude, Bloco C, Cidade Universitaria, CEP 21949-900, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

Angiogenesis is an important process in several physiological situations and it is also implicated in the development of some diseases such as diabetes and cancer. This study investigated the antiangiogenic potential of Chrysobalanus icaco methanol extract in the chicken embrionary tissue. Clinical trials for cancer treatment using drugs based on this mechanism are already in progress. Chorioallantoic membrane model (CAM) of chicken embryos, with C. icaco methanol extract in plastic diskes was used. The results showed an average of 44% angiogenesis inhibition in CAM areas with the plant extract compared to the controls. The data indicate that C. icaco methanol extract reduce the formation of new blood vessels in chicken chorioallantoic membrane.

Coontie is toxic in its natural state

Zamia Floridana: Making Toxins Edible

This plant is included here in case 1) society falls apart; 2) You live in Georgia or Florida and need starch desperately or 3) someone wants to trade this starch with you. The plant is the Coontie and it can kill you. It can also sustain you. Don’t be surprised that it is toxic without processing. Many foods are. Tapioca comes to mind as do cashews, and pokeweed.

When there were few people and a lot of Coontie it was not only a major source of starch (flour) for local Indians in Florida but it was a commercial product with at least eight businessmen producing it for about a century, from around 1836 to 1925. One such mill sat at the corner of now Southwest 104th Street and US1 in Miami.  One mill processed up to 15 tons per day. Harvesting and urban sprawl  brought the Coontie to the edge of disappearing.

Eumaeus alata

In the fossil record, the Coontie family –Cycads — the clan goes back to the dinosaurs, some 325 million years or so experts say. They were the dominant plant species. The Coontie is the only member of that family in the United States. They are slow growing taking three decades to reach a five-pound weight. Coontie are fertilized by two beetles and they are the only place the brilliant Eumaeus alata butterfly, left, lays its eggs.  (Listen to this bureaucratic nonsense: The butterfly was thought extinct by 1965 thus by governmental thinking it cannot be protected even though it is in reality very rare and almost extinct. Because it was not thought to be around it was not and is not covered by endangered species laws. Said another way it is not on the protected list because they thought it extinct and now that it is not it can’t be put on the protected list…  Yes, that is totally irrational but there it is.) Coonties are now a common native landscape plant, replacing the natural population. Thus it is quite common if one needs to find it. Clearly this is not a plant you eat for the fun of it. It is a staple when one really needs it and time is not an issue. Time?

Coontie requires processing that includes leaching and fermentation. Interestingly, fermentation and or the action of enzymes on a food is common and makes a few non-edible foods edible. Many native populations crushed the seeds of the Prunus clan to make them edible after “curing” gets rid of harmful chemicals. The seeds of the Chickasaw Plum are an example as are sloes.

Here is an except from: Starch Making: A Pioneer Florida Industry By Mrs. Henry J. Burkhardt: No date was given.

“Mr. Mettair’s mill was probably a replica of those 1870 mills where no doubt, he had worked as a young man. His grinder was a log of pine, turned to be exact, and spiked diagonally with nails for grinding. The coontie roots were soaked over night and after grinding were fed into a hooper or deep box and from there put through a strainer rubbed constantly with running water. It was washed for two hours, the starch dropping to the bottom where a hole at what was called “starch level” drained away the water…. The wet starch was packed into barrels to be washed again three times, while stirring and settling. It was allowed to reach the bubbling stage in fermentation for then all dirt and sugar came out. The residue from this “yellow contie” was cooked and fed to the pigs, making another useful by-product. William Mettair, the oldest son, and inventor of the family, in 1904 devised a revolving strainer which eased the manual labor, resulting as well in a purer product. The finished starch was spread out on canvas driers and kept broken up until completely dry, before it was packed into barrels for shipment. It required one ton of coontie root to make 200 pounds of starch through this process.”

And another account:  Daily National Intelligencer,  Washington, on Thursday, February 25, 1836. Original donated to Fort Lauderdale Historical Society.  The following text is exactly as it appears in the original: From the Charleston Courier, sketches of the peninsula of Florida by Dr. Strobel:

“As we approached New River, the land upon our right consisted of the same sandy pine barren as I have already described. The Indian arrow root, called coonte, is found here is great quantities. We landed, and collected several roots, which were very large, weighing several pounds. This is the Indian’s principal bread stuff. It is met with in most of the pine barrens in this section of Florida, but it grows in such profusion in this neighborhood, that they come from considerable distances to procure it. Mr. Cooley …  was engaged in the manufacture of this article, and had brought it to great perfection.

“The following is the manner of preparing it: A sufficient number of roots being collected, they are peeled, washed, and grated, in the same manner as potatoes, and thrown into large tubs of water. After remaining in soak for a certain length of time, the water is stirred and strained: by this process it is greed of the feculent matter. The coarser portion, thus separated, may be given to hogs, whilst the finer portion, which passe through the sieve, is allowed to settle. The farina, which is almost insoluble in cold water, subsides at the bottom. The water is drawn off, and the yellow portions which remain on the top are removed. The white arrow root, which from its specific gravity, is found at the bottom, is collected, and repeatedly heated with fresh water, until it becomes perfectly pure and white, of a granular, glistening, crystalline appearance. I am inclined to think that , when thus prepared, it is very nearly, if not quite equal, to the Bermuda arrow root, not only as a starch, but also as an article of diet.”

Dr. Strobel was where Ft. Lauderdale is now and in fact Coontie production created the city. In 1836 the Indians basically attacked all such processing places between there and St. Augustine (makes sense since it was their food staple.) They killed everyone but Mr. Coolie mentioned above who was away at the time. In response Major William Lauderdale and his Tennessee Volunteers built a fort where the city would one day be. The rest is spring break history.

And here is a University of California report:

“The plant parts contain central nervous system toxins [cycasin] which must be removed before consumption.  To make flour, the roots are first chopped into pieces.  They are then pounded with a mortar and pestle.  The pulp is then washed with water and the starch is allowed to settle to the bottom.  Then the water is drained and the remaining paste is left to ferment for several days.  At the end of the fermentation process, the starch is set in the sun to dry.  When dry, the powdery, cornmeal-like flour is then baked into bread.”

No, I haven’t tried it. But, if I come across a Coontie marked for destruction I might.  But consider: One of DeSoto’s men died from poorly prepared coontie bread and Union soldiers in the Civil War in Florida also died from eating coontie bread… though come to think of it that could have been intentional.  The wash water, by the way, is toxic.

There are actually several species of “Coonties” in Florida, or not. The botanists cannot agree.  The scientific name for the Florida Coontie is Zamia floridana ( ZAY-mee-uh flor-rid-DAY-nuh) or Zamia furfuracea (ZAY-mee-uh fer-fer-AH-see-uh) or  Zamia integrifolia  (in-teg-ree-FOH-lee-uh) or  Zamia pumilia (ZAY-mee-uh  POO-mil-uh) though latter might be from  the Dominican Republic.  Zamia means “pine nuts” because the fruiting bodies of the Coontie resemble pine cones. Fufuracea means mealy or with scales, integrifolia means leaves undivided, floridana of Florida, pumilla small or dwarf.  The Zamia chigua (ZAY-mee-uh CHEE-gw) of Central America has been used for food as well. Chigua is the local name of the plant. Coontie is from the Creek (Seminole dialect) word kontí  (KOON-tee)  and means “white root” or “white bread.”  Cycads come from the Geek word kyklas and means “palm.”

Coontie seeds are toxic like the root

For pollination the Coontie cones provide food the beetles Pharaxonotha zamiae and Rhopalotria slossoni.  The seeds are a source of food for mockingbirds, blue jays, and small mammals.  Butterfly larvae feed on the leaves.  Eumaeus (YOO-mē’us ah-LAY-tuh) was the faithful swine herd of Odysseus , and altata (ah-LAY-tuh) means winged. Winged Swine Herd… well, a butterfly has to be called something. See photo above right.

Coontie is protected from collection from the wild. I think that would exclude cultivated plants and if society fell apart. The orange outer layer of the seeds is also toxic to touch (having the same toxin as the roots and leaves.) They are considered not edible. However, there is one report that if the seeds are peeled of the orange coat, ground, and leached like the roots they are edible. I would not bet my life on it. Toxicology expert Dr. John Kinsbury says they are thought to be toxic for humans.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: A fern-like evergreen, shrub, one half to 1 yard in high with a thick sometimes branched, trunk that is either very short or underground. Dark green fronds grow from the top of the trunk, 2 to 13 pairs of stiff, leathery leaflets.  Green to dark reddish brown cones grow on stalks, from the center of the top of the trunk.   The red to red-orange seeds are not edible and are toxic to touch.

TIME OF YEAR: When ever the trunk  is large enough to have a large amount of starch. Reduction is 10 to one. One hundred pounds of Coonti produces 10 pounds of processed starch.

ENVIRONMENT: Rich, moist, well drained soil, hammocks and pine lands. Prefers some shade.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Extensive: Must be cleaned, peeled, mashed, washed, settled, fermented then dried or used as a mash in soups et cetera.  The seeds are not edible and are toxic to touch. A blue-green algae on the roots is natural and a symbiotic relationship with the algae providing nitrogen for the Coontie. The roots are 38% starch and 6% protein. With the processed starch the Seminoles made a thick gruel called “sofkee.”

Codium is a non-commercial seaweed that is never cook because it turns mushy.

Codiums: Edible around the world

Oceanographers like to call Codium a minor seaweed because it is not commercially exploitable. Yet where it is found around the world it is eaten. It is also considered one of the most invasive species in the world. So, there’s food near you.

One species, Codium fragile ssp. tomentosoides, was first reported in Holland in 1900. In the century since it has spread throughout Europe. It’s now found along the shores of Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the Mediterranean and North America  It was first reported in North American in 1957 on Long Island,

Many Codium species are fleshy and have a soft texture. This leads to such common names such as “sponge weed”  “rats’ feet” or “dead man’s fingers.” They are found often in the the intertidal zone on rocky shores but are also common on beaches and around found around Florida and the Gulf Coast.  Raw Codium has an earthy flavor, much like oysters, and is full of vitamins and fatty acids.  It sells for about $7 a pound, wet.

In the Hawaiians Islands Codium, after being throughly washed,  is eaten raw, often with tomatoes. It is never cooked or blanched because it becomes soft and disintegrates from the heat. In Japan it is preserved in salt.

The Codiums include  C. muelleri, C. tenue, C. formosanum, C. intricatum, and C. papillatum. Pictured are C. reediae, C. fragile, C. isthmocladium, C. edule, C., tomentosum, and C. decorticatum.

Codium is the favorite food of some sea slugs, snails and sea urchins. It is often found on beaches after a storm still attached to little pebbles or shells and some think that is how some beaches get the pebbles and shell build up.

Codium Salad

4 cups Codium, well cleaned

1 small sweet onion

1 medium tomato

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 teaspoons wine vinegar

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 cup sherry

1 teaspoon black pepper

Mix dressing ingredients and pour over chopped onions. Just before serving, chop the tomatoes and Codium and toss with dressing. Garnish with slices of tomato. Chill and serve.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Codium is pale to dark green or olive green, very bush-like appearance, with many branches arising from a disk shaped holdfast. Branches are cylindrical,  resembling fingers. When submerged, Codium branches feel soft and “fuzzy” When washed up on beaches and or during the winter hairs are lost and the branches become coarse. Codiums can grow up to four feet and can wash up on beaches as a whole plant  or in small pieces, particularly after storms.

TIME OF YEAR: Year round, grows in spring and fall

ENVIRONMENT: Two feet to 200 feet, in northern climates in tidal polls near low tide, southern water on reefs, washed up on shore.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Usually raw, wash well and check local news for any harmful algae blooms. If cooked it disintegrates. Can be preserved in salt.

Non-native Crow-Foot grass is easy to identify. Photo by Green Deane

Dactyloctenium aegyptium: Staple Grain

Grasses can be a pain in the …ah… grass…

First, books about grasses are few and incredibly expensive. Next, grasses are hard to identify, often minute differences tells one species from another, and the language can be a bit of a challenge. Here is a partial description of the Crowfoot Grass:

FLORETS: Fertile florets appressed to rhachilla. Fertile lemma gibbous; ovate in profile; 2.6–4 mm long; membranous; keeled; three-veined. Lemma midvein scaberulous. Lemma lateral veins obscure. Lemma apex acute, or cuspidate; muticous, or mucronate. Palea one length of lemma; two-veined. Palea keels wingless, or winged; narrowly winged. Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped.

Did you get that?  I call it Helicopter Grass, all the “fingers” are on the same plane like a helicopter’s rotor. The seeds are on the underside, like teeth on a comb.

Crowfoot grass, Dactyloctenium aegyptium (dak-tie-lok-TEE-nee-um ee-YIP-tee-um) is a

Crowfoot Grass Seed Heads

traditional food in Africa and highly nutritional. I like it as a trail side nibble but in season it is not difficult to collect enough for a side dish for one or two people or larger amounts for storage. It’s about the size of table salt grains though golden in color. I eat it raw or cooked. It has the texture of sand, but tasty, edible sand.  It is an extremely versatile grain and can be cooked as it, roasted, milled et cetera. I eat it raw on the trail but I also like to mix it with some water and olive oil, cook for about 10 minutes or until the water is evaporated and enjoy. Raw or cooked it has about the same flavor and texture.  I suspect it is not a popular food because of its size and texture, which of course is significantly changed if milled into flour.  As flour is by far its best use, in my opinion

The only problem I’ve had with Crowfoot Grass is that while long it grows “up” only about a foot and can get dirt in with the grains. To harvest, I simply tug at the seed heads. If they let go, they

Crush by hand

are ready, if not leave them because when green the seeds are not ready to eat. I separate the grain from the hulls by rubbing the seed heads in my hand. Rub them a lot. I pick  or screen away the larger chaff and then gently blow away the rest, leaving a pile of gold/orange grain. Do not eat the grass itself (as opposed to the seeds.) In hot weather the grass itself can be toxic like Sorghum.  Also it is reported that its roots can be chewed like sugar cane. I do not know. I have not tried it. You’re on your own with that one. I would not try the root in hot weather.

Dactyloctenium is from Greek and means finger and little comb, referring to the “flower”

Sift seeds through a screen

spreading like fingers and the seeds lining up like teeth on a comb.  Aegyptium, of Egypt.  Greeks would say it with one more syllable than the Latin: ah-ee-YIP-tee-um. There are 14 members in the genus.

On the plus side there are few toxic grasses in North American, though Sorghum is one (the leaves, not the seeds or the sap.)  Some grasses are distinct, however, and crowfoot grass is one of them. It’s easy to spot and there are no look alikes.

In my video about Crowfoot Grass I mixed one ounce of seed flour with one ounce of white flour, a teaspoon of sugar, a quarter teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of baking powder, tea teaspoons of olive oil and about a quarter cup of water.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Spreading, creeping and mat-forming grass, roots at the lower nodes. The flower head has two to seven spikelets — usually five or six — on the tip of the stem. Seed head looks like a crow’s foot, each plant can have 60,000 seeds.

TIME OF YEAR: Fall in all areas, when the top separates easily from the stem. Ranges from Maine to California. While seeds can be collected when ripe never eat the grass itself in hot weather.

ENVIRONMENT: Heavy, damp soil to dry, sandy arid soil

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Used like any grain, but because of its size and texture better used as a flour.  I eat them raw on the trail or boil them for a few minutes.  Green seeds are not edible but can be bruised and used as a fish stupefier. Do not eat unripe seeds.