Search: Ringless Honey mushroom

Chickasaw Plums are starting to ripen. Photo by Green Deane

Chickasaw Plum leaf tips have red terminal glands. Photo by Green Deane

This was a “Prunus” foraging week. While rummaging around our usual class location in Gainesville we sampled Chickasaw Plums. They are just beginning to ripen and should be around for about a month. The Chickasaw Plums were not completely ripe but give them a week or two.  Black Cherries are also ripening but are often more difficult to find because the birds also like them. Cherries and plums are in the same genus, Prunus, so it’s not surprising they are ripening at about the same time.  Also setting fruit are the Flatwood Plums but they are different story and are included in my related article. I have a video on the Chickasaw plum here, Black Cherry here. To read about the Black Cherry go here, the Chickasaw Plum, here.  Incidentally, renovations at Boulware Springs appears to be stalled and they are also removing the portable toilets. Looks like I will be needing another location for classes in the area. 

The Indigo Milk Cap is edible and easy to identify. You’ll find them for several months.

It’s been a strange week for edible wild mushrooms. Ringless Honey Mushrooms favor the fall but the right weather conditions in the spring — May specificially — can cause a minor occurrence of them. This this week there were sporadic reports of said about the South. I have even seem them on a Banyan in West Palm Beach in July. Also seen this week were a few mushrooms in the Milk Cap group. They all used to be Lactarius. Some still are but others were renamed Lactifluus (as if mushrooms weren’t confusing enough.) I saw a couple of hots Milk Caps this week — hot as in peppery — and also the one shown left, Lactarius indigo. It is indeed a pretty mushroom and edible though its texture can be a tad grainy. With rains between now and the end of the month the summer mushroom season should get a good start. Hopefully by mid-June the Orlando Mushroom Group (OMG!) can have a forage. 

Note the long stem on the middle leaf.

You’re probably seeing a lot of this or will be seeing a lot of it and wondering what the  species is. This little plant with the little yellow blossom is Black Medic. It’s generally considered edible and like many weeds is from Europe. That kind of excludes it from being a significant Native American food (though some sources call it that… It’s a long story.) The headache is that from a distance of about five or six feet (where most people’s eyes are from the ground) Black Medic can look like Hop Clover. Here’s quick way to tell them apart: Hop Clover tends to have red stems, Black Medic has green stems covered with fine white hair and has a longer stem on the center leaf. After the two species go to seed they are easy to sort out: Black Medic has black seeds… hence the name. Hop Clover brown seeds. I personally don’t view Black Medic as much of an edible but you can read more about it here.

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

The resumption of foraging classes is going well and in time as it is an interesting growing time of the year. I use a portable address system so all can hear and keep the distance they are comfortable with. Foraging is treasure hunting for adults and a good way to get out in the sunshine… and sometimes rain. 

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

Sunday, May 24th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon. THIS CLASS IS CANCELLED AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED AT A LATER DATE.

Saturday May 30th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park.

Sunday, May 31st, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. Meet at the parking lot. 9 a.m. to noon. 

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

No plant produces more starch per acre than cattails.

If you were starving and came upon a patch of cattails (blossoming now) you would have great cause for celebration. You have found food and water. You will survive. But if you are not starving and do not have all the time in the inter-connected world you just might find cattails highly overrated. It is true that no plant can produce more starch per acre than cattails, about 3.5 tons under cultivation. And it can produce a lot of starch economically if you can mechanize the extraction. But hand extraction is time- consuming and labor intensive. It is also wet, smelly work all of which can be worsened significantly by harvesting in cold weather. So yes, cattails are food but the time demand is such that harvesting food has to be your prime occupation. A similar argument can be made for kudzu. The roots do have edible starch but it takes a gargantuan amount of work to get the starch out, literally hours of steady pounding. It is not a calorie positive activity. It moves you closer to starvation. But, mechanize the process with some hammers run by falling water — or hammers run by a horse fed on an endless supply of grass — and kudzo becomes a reliable calorie-positive food. You can see my video on cattails here. pounding. I also have an article on Finding Caloric Staples with links to relevant videos. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

Changing foraging videos: My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been selling for seven years. They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy. The DVD format, however, is becoming outdated. Those 135 videos plus 15 more are now available on a 16-gig USB drive. While the videos can be run from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The150-video USB is $99 and the 135-video DVD set is now $99. The DVDs will be sold until they run out then will be exclusively replaced by the USB. This is a change I’ve been trying to make for several years. So if you have been wanting the 135-video DVD set order it now as the price is reduced and the supply limited. Or you can order the USB. My headache is getting my WordPress Order page changed to reflect these changes. We’ve been working on it for over three 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. 

Podocarpus is setting. Photo by Green Deane

It’s a long ways to August but the Podocarpus is making seeds and that means edible arils in a few months. The species is a bit strange in that we don’t eat the mildly-toxic seed. We eat the aril next to it which are very grape-like. They can  be used as grapes, eaten off the bush or made into jelly and wine et cetera. The seeds are listed as toxic but I know of an adult who ate two at one time and had no issue. That said, don’t eat the seeds. When the Podocarpus fruits can be something of a guess. Locally I look for them in August. The fruit can last several weeks and are edible even when they begin to dry and look like raisins.  Oddly, in a local park in downtown Winter Park, a few Podocarpus have escaped trimming and have grown into moderate-size trees. Those fruit in December and my only guess as to why is perhaps they are a different species. My video on Podocarpus is here and you can read about it  here.

Loquat wine mellowing.

If any of you follow my Facebook page you will know I resumed making wine. I did it for literally 30 years. When I moved five years ago I stopped but the Covid-19 lockdown got me back into it. (Couldn’t go too many places and there were fruit trees ripening in the neighborhood. Ya work with what ya got.) I actually kept most of the equipment and have made up for lost time with eight musts going. Only two surprises so far. I misread a float that you use to record at the beginning and end of a fermentation to know how much alcohol and sugar you have. It indicated a reading that defied the laws of physics of this universe until I realized with older eyes I was missing a decimal point… or is it dismal point?… dim-sal point?  And a batch of orange wine was lollygagging so I gave it a stir then it geysered onto the floor. Perhaps why I stopped wine making is coming back to me now… I am working on some grape wine. I’m not as bad as Tom Good on the British show Good Neighbors. He was (in)famous for his “pea pod wine.”  I never made a video on crafting wine but I did one on making real vinegar from scratch. I also have one on making a quick one-week hard cider.

Blue Porterweed blossoms taste like raw mushrooms.

Do you like mushrooms but want to avoid some of dangers that come with fungi foraging? Then there is a subtle solution: Blue Porterweed. Found in flower gardens around the world and native to Florida the Blue Porterweed earned its name as a source for tea that tasted like porter beer. Someone had the fermenting idea to add yeast and sugar to a lot of tea and get a brew that tastes similar to porter beer, hence the name. The flower garden variety usually grows up and the local native grows horizontally. The blue flowers, raw, have a subtle flavor of mushrooms. You can read more about the Blue Porterweed here. Oh, and how did porter beer get its name? The same way porter steak did. Porters — baggage handles in old central London — worked all hours and needed quick food. Shops set up to meet that need and out of them came several dishes and named items.

Do you know what these are? They’re fruiting now. Photo by Green Deane

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.

Like all mustards Sea Rocket has four-petal blossoms. Photo by Green Deane

We had a chance to visit Anna Maria Island — thanks Frank — and saw a surprise: Sea Rocket. It is not a surprise to find Sea Rocket on a beach. In fact that is about the only place you find it, and literally right in the sand. What was surprising is that we found some in May. It’s a winter species and definitely likes cooler weather. It was, however, heavily seeding so the season is closing. It has a typical mustard flavor to it and the seeds taste like Dijon Mustard. There are several species and Florida’s usually has two: Cakile lanceolata and C. edentula though there might be some subspecies. C. lanceolata tends to have pointed seed pods, C. edentula blunted seed pods. References say you can find them in the spring and summer but I have found them only in late fall to spring. C. edentula tends to be the dominant on the east coast and C. lanceolata the west coast. My article on them here.

This is weekly newsletter 406, 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.

What’s blooming now? Wild Pineapple. We saw this attractive specimen in Gainesville.

Wild horses do it, deer do, perhaps wild bees don’t do it but most creatures forage in the winter and so can you. Photo by the Wild Horses of Alberta Society

It’s rather obvious that wintertime foraging varies where you live. In moderate Florida we can forage all year and the wintertime provides some of the best opportunities. But what of northern climates?

An edible turtle under ice. Photo by Richard Due.

I grew up where winter night temperatures easily dropped into the 30-plus below zero (-38 celsius.) Sometimes the schools had to close for several days because they could not be kept warm. And once we went skating at 50 below just to say we did. (Chilblains from that night some 60 years ago still bother me in air conditioned buildings. It’s wasn’t the skating with a bonfire that did permanent damage but rather the arctic one-mile walk home.) That was on Gowen’s Pond, our local natural skating rink. It had one tree-stump island, probably had been a water-tolerant hackmatack. That speck of protrusion through the ice was perhaps six square feet in total area. The ice was thinner there and one winter I saw a turtle under the ice feeding some some green pond plant. That generated several thoughts. One was that it was warm enough for the turtle to go looking for food. Two that the turtle found food, and, three that the turtle was food even in the winter.  Like the turtle or the horses I grew up with you can find food in hostile winter climates if you know where to dig or browse. You can read more about that here. 

Chickweed have five petals that look like ten Photo by Green Deane.

Chickweed stole the show this weekend. In well-watered spots chickweed was in green glory, lush, full, blossoming, happy to be alive. With such healthy plants it was easy to find the identifying characteristics: stretchy inner core, a single line of hair on the main stem that switches 90 degrees at the nodes, a five-petal blossom that looks like 10 petals, and uncooked chickweed tastes like raw corn. Also sprouting patches of green on the monoculture brown park were stinging nettles. It’s still early in the season for nettles with most of them no higher than four inches, just about the same height as our winter henbit also available for the picking. A private forage later on produced, surprisingly, some native mint and a lot of true thistles. Lot’s of food and flavor there. There were also ticks-a-plenty.

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

I’m teaching at a Mensa regional gathering in Cocoa Beach this Saturday afternoon so I am having a class in Melbourne Saturday morning. Sunday we are squeaking in a class in Jacksonville before really cold weather sets in next week.

Saturday, January 18th, Wickham Park, 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL. 9 a.m. to noon.  Meet at the Dog Park inside the park.  

Sunday, January 19th, 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.

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

The spate of warm weather recently increased our wanderings. Here are some of the bounty we found in foraging classes:   natal plum, swinecress (which we later found there) some and a couple of Milkweed Vine fruit. While we nibbled on many things among them were Turks Cap, Oxalis,  Black Nightshade (see below), Violets, False Hawk’s Beard, Plantagos, Fireweed, and Hairy Bittercress which is barely hairy at all. Also noticed during the forage was a tasty False Roselle not yet done in by the cool weather. And although the Eastern Red Bud won’t flower in profusion for couple of months we found a couple of winter-daring blossoms to look at.

Use sublimed sulfur to thwart tick attacks.

Before the state of Florida went on the Internet most of the information it thought fit for its citizens to know was produced in pamphlet form. When the shift was made to the Internet some information got lost or was dropped. One useful bit of advice was using sublimed sulfur to keep ticks off.  Available online or through local pharmacies or chemical supply stores you put it in an old sock or the like and dust your cuffs and collar with it before entering tick habitat. It either repels them or vastly slows them down from finding a place to grab on, giving you more time to find the hardy ones (to reduces chances of disease you should remove them within 24-hours. After that the chances of disease goes up exponentially with each passing hour.) I used sublimed for many years very successfully finding a tick or two on me now and then but not attached. That’s the good news. Now the bad news, for me at least. While I am not a biochemist I would suspect this would not be something you would do if you had a sulfur allergy. Indeed, after I used it for many years I developed an allergy to it (severe nasal congestion and eye watering.) So be careful. That’s said it did work well while I used it. 

Weeds of Southern Turf Grasses

If you didn’t find a weed book you wanted under the Christmas tree here’s one you can pick up locally or order. The University of Florida has put out an unintentional edible weed book, Weeds of Southern Turfgrasses. What I mean is the book is not designed for foragers but rather land managers. However, the majority of the plants in the book are edible. It has 437 color photographs of 193 weed species found in the south usually on lawns and the like. As you can see by the link I have a list of the edibles and what pages they are on. Many of my students just print the list then paste each entry on the appropriate page or make notes on that page. There is also a link on the page to order it through the state of Florida. DO NOT ORDER IT THROUGH AMAZON OR OTHER BOOKSELLERS. Why? Because they will charge you from $38.67 to $59.66 for a book you can buy at a local extension office for $8. If you order it through the link I provide it is $14 plus shipping. (I actually found one bookseller in the past asking over $800 for it.) As it says on the link I do not get any money for recommending this book. It is just an inexpensive, handy book to have.

The Black Nightshade has berries.

I had a friend who thought of himself as an outdoorsman thus beyond needing to study edible plants. Many years ago he called me one day asking “how do I get the seeds out of the pigweed berries.”  I knew there was a problem immediately. Our local “pigweed” does not have berries but our local nightshade does. Our “pigweed” is an Amaranth and has seed spikes. About the size of fingers or more they are covered with tiny flowers that produce a multitude eye-of-the needle seeds, tan to black.  No berries involved at all. Conversely the nightshade (Solanum americanum) produces an umbrella-like spread of black shiny berries on one small stalk (photo to left.) It does have a lot of seeds inside the berries. So I thought I had better ask him why he wanted the seeds before I told him him the Amaranth didn’t have berries but the nightshade did. He wanted to grow some in his yard. They had been steaming the leaves and eating them like spinach! When I got done explaining he said “then that’s why we’ve all been getting headaches after eating the leaves.” Indeed. The leaves of this particular nightshade are edible but they must be boiled in one or two changes of water, not steamed.

The American Nightshade can have totally ripe and unripe berries at the same time. Photo by Green Deane.

My friend had skipped many details. The wrong identification also led to the wrong preparation compounding the error. Admittedly the plants did have a few things in common. They were both green, grew in Florida and had leaves that can vaguely be the same rough shape, diamondish. But the difference between a seed spike of small green flowers vs. a cluster of shiny black berries is not paying attention to details. Fortunately no great harm was done. No matter how much Details are important (even though it is my personality to dislike them.) Locally two plants you will commonly encounter that you need to know about are the edible elderberry and the deadly water hemlock. To the beginner they can look similar. To learn important details about them and how they differ click here.

Oyster Mushrooms. Photo by Green Deane

Most local edible mushrooms are in winter recess. Our Ringless Honey Mushroom season ended several weeks ago. Most of our terrestrial species will stay hidden until heavy spring rains. However during a foraging class this weekend we did see some Amanitas, of which there is no shortage of in the southeast. It was three examples of the same species, A. citrina. But the big find but not a winter surprise was were logs of Oyster Mushrooms, of the Pleurotus ostreatus complex. They say “complex” because the mushrooms can vary enough for mycologists to notice but not enough to be called a different species.  I’ve seen them on Oaks in the winter as well as Sweet Bays and Sycamores. In warmer weather I see a related smaller species on palms.  Oyster Mushrooms — which do not taste like oysters but can smell like anise — are considered one of the safer mushrooms to harvest because none of the possible look-a-likes are deadly… just sickening. And here’s a reminder that several facebook mushroom pages are associated with EatTheWeeds. They are Florida Mushroom Identification Forum, Southeastern U.S. Mushroom Identification, Edible Mushrooms: Florida, Edible Wild Mushrooms, and the Orlando Mushroom Group.  

The Nine DVD set includes 135 videos.

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

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com 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 many needs left such as expanding the foraging teacher page, the page on monotypic edibles and the Plant Archive page. There’s always something and such things get more complex and expensive every year. 

Do you know this tree with edible parts? You would if you read the 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: Asystasia gangetica aka Chinese Violet or Ganges Primrose, Armillaria mellea Ringed Honeys, Acorn Treatment Question, Acorn Questions Any Poisons? A Cure For The Common Cold, Lactifluus piperatus, Elderberry Capers?  You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is weekly newsletter 388, 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.

Few folks know wild Radish or Mustard roots are edible. Photo by Green Deane

Many foraging books are what I call “Ohio-centric.” If you live in or near Ohio most North American foraging books are perfect for you: The pictures resemble the plants, the seasonal dates are good, and the environment descriptions suitable. But, the further you are away from Ohio the less accurate those descriptions are about common edibles. Dandelions in Florida do not look like the Dandelions I grew up with. Members of the Brassica group (Mustards to most folks) are no exception. They like cool weather. In Maine where I grew up Wild Mustards were an edible found in late spring and summer. Locally in Florida Wild Mustard and radishes show up around November and are around for a few months. They are definitely a fall and winter crop here rather than spring and summer. To read more about Wild Radish go here, and for Wild Mustard, here.  I have a video on Wild Radish here and one on Wild Mustards here. 

The blossom is an umbrella made up of smaller umbrellas.

An off-season surprise this week involved “the most deadly plant in North America.” Water Hemlock (Cicuta mexicana) is common locally. Commonly found in wet or damp locations, it’s usually seen in late spring and summer. Water Hemlock is rather easy to identify. The leaves have veins that terminate mostly between the teeth and the umbrella-shaped blossom is made up of smaller umbrellas. During a foraging class this past weekend we saw foot high water hemlock in a shady wet area. It’s not the the first time I have seen it in a season other than late spring or summer but it’s not that common in winter. This is a plant that can kill in just a couple of hours. To read more about water hemlock go here.

Smartweed.
Photo by Green Deane

Happily blossoming now is Smartweed, a hot pepper substitute. What makes the plant “hot” I do not know and have never found quality research on that. There are actually two sources of heat on the plant. The leaves have quite a bite. The blossoms are hot and bitter. The blossoms can be white or pink and the plant always grows in damp places if not in water. It likes ditches but they can be polluted so be careful One odd thing about the species is that it can also be used to catch fish. To read about Smartweed go here.  I also have a video about Smartweed, filmed in the rain if I remember correctly. You can view it here. 

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

Foraging Classes: See the world in a different way. This weekend I am bouncing around the southern part of the state, West Palm Beach Saturday, Port Charlotte Sunday:

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. 

Sunday, December 1st, Mead Garden, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  9 a.m. to noon. Meet near the bathrooms.

Saturday, December 7th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the play ground.  

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

Golden Rain Tree seeds. I wonder if they are more edible when young and green?

The tree is easy to find but is it edible? The answer is yes, maybe, barely. It depends on which part you’re referring to. The problem is the more edible parts are around when you don’t notice the tree — spring time — and the least edible parts are around when you do notice it. Thus I never quite get around to knowing all that the Golden Rain tree has to offer. In the spring it has tender young shoots and leaves. They are edible after cooking. Don’t try them raw, they have a bit of cyanide in them. Months later in the fall the seeds are reported as a famine food, not exactly a glowing endorsement. In between the yellow flowers are used for a dye as is the bark. Those boiled leaves and shoots do have some antioxidant and anti-tumor capacity but the research is slow making it way out of arcane journals to common knolwedge. As for the seeds… they are kind of in the same position as the particular mustard seed which is used to make Canola Oil. They are edible but like unrefined Canola Oil they can be irritating. What I might try to do is collect some seeds, sprout them, boil them, and give them a try.  You can read about the Golden Rain Tree here.

Skunk Vine lives up to its name. Photo by Green Deane

Perhaps as a last gasp — virtually — some Skunk Vine was blossoming this past week (along with some Black Cherries. See last week’s newsletter about out-of-seasoning blossoming.) Skunk Vine is aptly named though  its aroma drifts more towards bathroom than skunk. However the tough vine is something of a nutritional powerhouse with some of the good chemicals one finds in the Brassica family. You can eat it raw but if you cook it outside is recommended. Oddly it was intentionally brought to Florida to make rope. This was done just before 1900 when a lot of ships were still carrying sails and miles of rope. Ground zero was the USDA Brooksville Field Station in Hernando County Fl. Yes, this invasive vine  — like many other species — was imported by the United States Department of Agriculture.  Thirty-six years later it was all over Florida but it took until 1977 for it to be a recognized invasive (long after it had crawled into other southern states.) While the blossoms are attractive we eat only the leaves and young tips. I have a video on Skunk Vine here and you can read about Skunk Vine here.

It’s a topic that concerns foragers: The fact that animals use the outdoors as their bathroom. There are some reasons for concern and some reasons not to be too concerned.

Jervey Gantt Dog Park, Ocala. Photo by Green Deane

I noticed some 60 years ago that wherever our dog Sister piddled on the lawn — what we had of it — the grass died. (She was called Sister because I didn’t have a sister.) The reason given for the grass death is a high urea content which is essentially a nitrogen overload. As a fertilizer a little dog piddle goes a long ways. Since we tend to not eat dead grass or the like it really isn’t a problem. Inside the home it’s the ammonia component that can irritate lungs and offend the nose. But outside most urine degrade fairly quickly and is not known for carrying a lot of long-lived bacteria. This is not so with other off-loaded material. Pets can be a source of varying diseases, bacterial to parasitical. Cat scat is among the most common domestically. Your feline’s deposits in your backyard can cause problems particularly to young children who are pretty close to the ground and what’s in it. Ditto dogs. And to be more specific it is the scat of primarily meat eaters that is more of a problem that other animals. Indeed, horse, cow and aged chicken manure was and in some places still are the fertilizers on many farms. Where I grew up slightly aged horse manure was favored for tomatoes. Cow manure was stronger and chicken manure was way to strong to use fresh. It would kill plants. Use some common sense: Don’t forage in a dog park.

Ladybug and Eggs

While harmless to humans, masses of the multi-colored invaders are a deemed a nuisance when they slip in homes through cracks around doors and windows. They can also stain curtains, upholstery and walls if squashed. A spike in the ladybug population is typical this time of year as they fly out of the farm fields where they help control other insects and seek a warm place to spend the winter. In their native Asia — yes Ladybugs are not native — they usually overwinter in cliffs. The absence of cliffs attracts them to buildings. Mild winters followed by rainy springs can create the perfect environment for the species — the Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle — to flourish. Ladybugs are not edible but if you want to know about edible insects go here.

Lion’s Mane. See entry below. Photo by Green Deane

Want to identify a plant or mushroom? 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.

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com 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 many needs left such as expanding the foraging teacher page, the page on monotypic edibles and the Plant Archive page. There’s always something and such things get more complex and expensive every year.

  All of Green Deane’s videos are available for free on You Tube and make a good Christmas Gift to watch in the long winter months. 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 the 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. 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. They make a good Christmas or birthday gift. Individual videos can also be ordered. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right of this page or you can go here. 

Fried Lion’s Mane. Photo by Green Deane

As the weather changes from warm and humid to cooler and dry one starts to look for edible fungi on trees, downed wood and buried roots. This time of year we start to see Chicken of the Woods, Oysters, Ringless Honey Mushrooms, and Lion’s Mane. The latter seems uncommon in Florida with sitings here and there. That’s unfortunate because Lion’s Mane is tasty, has a crabmeat-like texture, and is very easy to identify. I don’t see it often enough.  There is a hint though: It will usually grow in the same area for years so  if you do find it you can probably find it again next year about the same time and location. This tennis ball size example was seen during a foraging class in Jacksonville. We also harvested some Ringless Honey Mushrooms which you can read about here. 

This is weekly newsletter 380. 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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There are ten edible mushrooms species above, all collected locally. Photo by Green Deane

Unusual rains last week coaxed more life out of several edible mushroom species that were seasonally put to bed a month ago. Perhaps it’s Mother Nature’s trade off for starting the mushroom season about six weeks late this year. 

Frying Chestnut Boletes in Goat’s Butter. Photo by Green Deane

I created and moderate five mushroom pages on Facebook. One of them is quite large with over 5,000 members including several experts who are either published authors or academics or both. There were, however, two complaining posts recently that there is no website listing all the edible mushrooms in Florida with complete descriptions and photos. “Someone should do that” the writer said. That highlights two problems: One is the general reluctance these days to study, that is, the preference to rent information in your hand than own it in your head. The other is the impossibility of the task. No one knows how many mushroom species there are in Florida, how many of them are edible, and when you might find them as the seasons are changing (I have mentioned in previous newsletters.) And when you add getting photos of them… I personally know of 82 edible species of mushrooms in Florida — yes I have a list — and there are probably far more. Indeed, some think the entire group of Boletes in Florida are edible and the only reason not to eat them is you don’t like the taste or aroma. That’s a lot of mushrooms and perhaps some not even identified yet. Fungi can be so difficult that a little Marasmius that has been showing up in everyone’s lawn for about 15 years has yet to be identified and named despite academic inquiry and genetic testing. 

Torn “Milk Caps” ready for frying. Photo by Green Deane

All the mushrooms in the picture above are edible and were picked in two locations this past weekend. The ones on the bottom are mostly different Milk Caps (several don’t have common names.) The yellow ones on the left are famous for flavor and texture — Chanterellles — and are expensive when you buy them. The Chestnut-colored ones are plesant and the clumping ones above them are highly seasonal. The dark shaggy ones on the upper right have lovers and haters. They’re Old Man of the Woods and I really like them though the look nasty when cooked. The shaggy pink/gray one is bitter. There’s a little something for everyone there and all are fairly easy to identify. With the past rains we are now moving into our winter season. Most of the edibles from now to May or June grow on wood. There’s some fungus to find almost every month of the year. To read more about the one in season now— Ringless Honey Mushrooms — go here. The Facebook pages I moderate — besides EatTheWeeds and GreenDeane — are Florida Mushroom Identification Forum, Southeastern U.S. Mushroom Identification, Edible Mushrooms: Florida, Orlando Mushroom Group, and Edible Wild Mushrooms. 

Foraging Classes are held rain or shine.

Foraging Classes this weekend are somewhat nostalgic. Saturday it’s John Chestnut Park in New Port Richey. It was my first teaching location in that area of the state. And Sunday we visit Mead Gardens in Winter Park for the first time in several years. It should be interesting. 

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. 

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

My 24-hour watch stays on standard time 365 days a year.

This weekend the rude awakening returns: The time change, this Sunday. If you’ve read this newsletter for at least a half a year or wandered through the EatTheWeeds website you have read several rants about time change. In a sentence: I don’t do it. Why? Because it makes me ill for more than a week, as does travel. If I visit relatives in Greece — eight hours differences — I go for six weeks because I am sick the first two weeks (and for two weeks when I return.) When I went to Japan, which is 12 hours different, I was truly miserable for a month so I stayed two years. Most of the world does not do the time change. Those of us who don’t seem to get along just fine not leaping forward or falling back. I won’t repeat my entire well-rehearsed rant but you can read about it here. 

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 related 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 and 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. I have a tender tummy. Eating this sage is one of those “you’re on your own” kind of things. My experience with the Tropical Sage is also why I avoid the blue Lyre-Leaf Sage. 

Oakleaf Flea Bane, good for pets’ beds.

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. There are definitely edible plants and there are definitely non-edible plants. But there can be some fog in between. In last week’s newsletter we mentioned a local species of Richardia. It is generally considered not edible but some have mistaken it for Chickweed. One other mistake people make regarding wild plants is assuming if there is no acute toxicity (that is it makes you sick within a few minutes or hours) that it is edible. There are perhaps five species in Florida that will only make you sick if you eat them over time. Three damage the liver and two damage red blood cells. Those injuries take time to manifest themselves, days to months of consumption. Stick to the well-known edibles. 

The cambium of many trees is edible. Photo by Green Deane.

A tree you see and don’t see that’s worth investigating is the Chinese Elm. It’s used in landscaping often. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s Chinese Elms were planted by the millions because it is resistant to the Dutch Elm Disease which wiped out most native elms in North America. The Chinese Elm is perhaps the most intentionally planted tree outside of the lumber industry. Young leaves, samaras, seeds and cambium are 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 its distinct wood and bark. The bark on the Chinese Elm is part of its appeal and why it is also called the Lace Bark Elm. You can read about it here and watch a video here. 

The seasons are changing and so is the foraging with a shift into not only fall but early winter plants. This locally includes some spring and summer plants found in northern climates. Perhaps the prettiest sighting will be Christmasberries. There are several “Christmasberries” but this one in particular is our local Goji Berry. It’s an odd shrub in the Nightshade family and likes brackish water. All the specimens I have found are coastal but usually on the inland water ways that have some tidal influence. They also tend to collect a lot of lichen often Ramlina and or Usnea. They weren’t blossoming two-weeks ago but were getting ready. I have found fruit as early as November. Keep your eye out. I have a video on them and and article here.

Like all mustards Sea Rocket has four-petal blossoms. Photo by Green Deane

Up north springtime means mustard time, here fall means mustards. The cooler weather brings them out. But not all mustards are the same. I could eat the large wild mustards back home raw. Not so here. I have to cook them or the tummy complains. But two locally that I like raw is our seaside mustards. We have two species of Cakile or Sea Rocket.  They shows themselves in our winter and preferably on the beach above the rack line. You can also find them blossoming in coastal dunes. I have seen them once this year already. The leaves are a bit fleshy but as they are in a tough environment that helps them preserve water. While Sea Rocket can be found along most coasts of the United States, Maine to Washington State, Florida has its own variety, C. lancelolate. There is a video on them here and you can read more about them here.

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.  My 9-DVD set of 135 foraging videos is still available — a green Christmas gift. You can learn more about that on the upper right hand corner of this page. And the Green Deane Forum is where we talk about foraging all year long. You can join that from the menu line at the top of this page. 

This is weekly newsletter 378. 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.

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.

lf you were wondering, Cinnamon trees do grow in Florida. Photo by Green Deane

As is often the case one can walk past edible species many times and not notice them. What can bring them to your attention is that they change in some way, often fruiting. This was the case with a Spanish Cherry in Dreher Park in West Palm Beach. I walked past it for years until it was fruiting one day. This was also the situation with a Cinnamon Tree we saw in Sarasota last Sunday during a foraging class: It was fruiting. In fact, the back yard it was growing in also has a Loquat and some tropical yellow-blossomed tree. I was walking over to look at those when I saw this third tree crowded in. Large and fruiting, it had slightly aromatic leaves. Someone suggest Cinnamon and I had to admit I had no idea what it was though the fruit reminded of elongated Camphor fruit which is in the same genus as Cinnamon. The leaves were slightly aromatic. It’s the inner bark of the Cinnamon Tree that is used for flavoring and do know two species are used for spice purposes. You might want to make a distinction regarding which one you consume. There is the Chinese Cinnamon, and the Ceylon Cinnamon.

Chinese Cinnamon is the most common, sold in bulk, and the one used in commercial recipes such as cinnamon buns. When you buy “cinnamon” powder or “quills” (bark rolls) in the grocery story it is usually the Chinese Cinnamon, botanically Cinnamomum aromaticum which is also called Cinnamomum cassia. Its quills, which are really rolls of cambium, are dark brown-red in color and have a rough texture.  Ceylon Cinnamon is from India and Sri Lanka. Botanically it is Cinnamomum verum and is also called Cinnamomum zeylanicum. Its quills are tan-brown and have a soft texture. Ceylon Cinnamon is, as one might suspect, significantly more expensive than Chinese Cinnamon. (A quick way to tell them apart before bark processings is the Chinese Cinnamon has longitudinal striations on young branches, below left. )

Young Chinese Cinnamon bark has longitudinal lines. Photo by Green Deane

The key essential oil in both species is cinnamaldehyde. It gives cinnamon its flavor and aroma. However the Ceylon Cinnamon has less of that oil than the Chinese cinnamon so it has a less intense flavor. It is also very low in a chemical call courmarin. Chinese Cinnamon is significantly higher in coumarin.  Courmarin reduces clotting like the drug Coumadin does (and how the medication got it name. See my article on Sweet Clover.) Chinese Cinnamon is 1% coumarin and can amplify the effects of other blood thinners. Ceylon Cinnamon at 0.004% has 250 times less coumarin (if I have my zeros in the right place.) If you eat a lot of cinnamon you might want to switch to the Ceylon variety (sold at Whole Foods et cetera.) One or two teaspoons of Chinese Cinnamon can put you over the daily limit for coumarin. In some European countries commercial bakeries are prevented by law from using the Chinese Cinnamon because of the high coumarin content. On the other hand if you eat a huge amounts of leafy greens that might provide enough Vitamin K1 to off set the reduction of clotting caused by the coumarin. It could be a nutritional balancing act. Just know there are two kinds of cinnamon, they vary in price, availability, intensity of flavor, in their coumarin content, and in their ability to reduce blood clotting… and they will grow in Florida. 

An easy to find and eat wild edible. Photo by Green Deane

One of the easiest wild fruits to identify, especially this time of year, is non-commercial “Dragon Fruit.” They look like small pink footballs on candlestick cactus (species Cereus.) What’s unusual about these pink pods is they are spineless and the seeds are soft thus you can cut them off the cactus and eat them out of hand. Or, you can chill them in the refrigerator. The white inside has the texture of an overripe watermelon and the black seeds are soft. Definitely a treat. While you can cut them off with a knife a pair of nippers works best. Which exact species you have can be elusive though the pink fruit is edible on all of them. The “genus” has many false, wrong and/or archaic names. It does not help that retailers a century ago often just made up names. Often found in landscaping and old lawn-waste piles, they are tall and ribbed with clusters of long thorns on the ribs. The blossoms are cream-green in color, large, and open at night. You can read more about the cactus here. 

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

Foraging Classes: It’s the time of year to begin visiting places a bit too warm in the summer such as Haul Over Canal. Also this weekend there will be a class in Gainesville. As the weather has changed perhaps we’ll see some Ringless Honey Mushrooms. 

Saturday October 19th, 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.

Sunday, October 20th, Haulover Canal, Merritt Island National Refuge, north of the Kennedy Space Center. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the west end of the northwest canal road.  This class meets about twice a year because federal authorities can close the area without notice. This location requires the most walking, about four miles total. 

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.

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

Winged Sumac, berries are tart like an apple. Photo by Green Deane

Our Sumacs are happy. Everywhere you go now they are sporting terminal clusters of garnet-colored berries. It’s time to harvest Sumacs for use today or next year. There’s a wide variety of Sumacs.  Locally it’s the “Winged Sumac” Rhus copallina which means “sticky red.”  In other areas of the country it can be the Staghorn Sumac. 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 and make a vitamin-C rich “lemonade.” The berries can then be dried, ground, and used as a spice. And in the springs 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.

The best persimmons are the ones you have to fight the ants for. Photo by Green Deane

Besides the aforementioned Sumac what you should also be finding now are Persimmons and Saw Palmetto berries, just about the opposite on the flavor scale, sublime to you-gotta-be-kidding-me. Saw Palmetto berries ripen about mid-September but stay around for a month or more. They are strong flavored so try only a little. Their flavor reminds one of vomit. I also had a ripe persimmon a month ago but they are more an mid-October fruit. They are just coming into season locally where I look for them every year. Sometimes you can find them as lated as January locally. As for other seasonal forageables Creeping Cucumbers are still producing as are Cocoplums and Simpson Stoppers featured in last week’s newsletter. 

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 above 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 — to 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 (by putting them in water for three weeks.) Then we get the seeds and dry them for use in various ways. You can read more about the Yellow Pond Lily here. 

Donations: I had a large donation last week. Thank you very much. It was timely as WordPress went down for several days. 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.

Do you recognize the edible species on the left? Both of them? If you read the Green Deane Forum you would. 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 376. 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.

Cocoplums come in three colors. Photo by Green Deane

Marmalade-flavored Simpson Stopper berries. Photo by Green Deane

The fruiting of species can be a mystery.  I often see a six-week difference between fruiting species in West Pam Beach and Port Charlotte, both at about the same latitude and only 120 miles apart. We saw two differences this past weekend: Cocoplums and Simpson Stopper. Cocoplums were prolific in Port Charlotte on the Gulf Coast, sporadic on the Atlantic Coast in West Palm Beach. The Simson Stoppers were the opposite, absent in Port Charlotte, ripe and ready to eat in West Palm Beach. There were also a few white Cocoplums available in West Palm Beach but only one dark purple one. 

Coconut opener made by MetalCoco.

By the way there is an interesting story behind the naming of Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. It involves an insurance claim and one really big party. You can read about it an coconut oil  here. I was also given a kitchen tool this past weekend related to coconuts (thank you.) I would have been a chef in another life so helpful tools are greatly appreciated. The hand on the left is an inexpensive way to tap young coconuts for their liquid. The borer is made in Brazil and sells for between $15 and $20. It doesn’t have to be sharpened but it works a little better if you put an edge on it. You pierce a soft “eye” of the coconut, rotate, and pull. Then you clean up a little debris and you’re ready to enjoy. 

Southern Wax Myrtle berries. Photo by Green Deane

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

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

WordPress problems last week prevented publishing a newsletter or the updated class schedule below. This time of year scheduling is tricky because of festivals and plant events. There may be some changes but it’s plotted out of a few weeks. This weekend I have classes in east Orlando and Sarasota. Maybe we’ll see some Honey Mushrooms (mentioned below.)

Saturday October 12th, 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, October 13th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m to noon. Meet at the swings.

Saturday October 19th, 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.

Sunday, October 20th, Haulover Canal, Merritt Island National Refuge, north of the Kennedy Space Center. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the west end of the northwest canal road.  This class meets about twice a year because federal authorities can close the area without notice. This location requires the most walking. 

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.

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

Ringless Honey Mushroom, Armillaria tabescens, Photo by Green Deane

It is close to the time for Honey Mushrooms to flush, especially as we had rain this week and are into October. Usually we start to hear reports of them in Tallahasee and Gainesville this month. Then a couple of weeks later in Central Florida and four to six weeks after that in south FLorida. They’ve already had their run this season in the Carolinas and the like. The odd thing about Honeys is while they usually have a fall flush they can occasionally pop up other times of the year. I have seen them in West Palm Beach in July. And this past year they had a spat of sightings in April and a couple in August. But, the main season is yet to come. Honey’s are fairly easy to identify being a cespitose mushroom with a white spore print. What is cespitose? You can read about it here.

White Beautyberries. Photo by Green Deane

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

Sea Oats. Photo by Green Deane

The grain pictured right, Uniola paniculata,  is edible though it does not produce a lot of seed. It is also protected. It’s not protected because it is rare. In fact it’s very common. But the plant’s roots helps keep Florida’s coastal dunes in place thus Sea Oats are protected. These were seen growing in Melbourne, Florida, near Patrick Airforce Base. I have known some folks to grow Sea Oats in their backyard as a long-lived perennial grass.  They are very drought tolerant and highly regarded by browsing animals, such as deer, but are lowly regarded by grazing animals such as cows. As Sea Oats are protected you might want to find a similar looking relative in the forests of Florida. They are called… Wood Oats… not too imaginative. We saw some this past weekd during a foraging class in Port Orange. Wood Oats are edible as well and not protected. Use them as you would cultivated oats. They are easy to identify: They look like Sea Oats just in the wrong place.  To read about Sea Oats click here.

Donations: I had a $100 donation last week. Thank you very much. It was timely as WordPress went down for several days. 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.

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.

Do you recognize the edible species on the left? If you read the Green Deane Forum you would. 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.

First Cucumber Weed of the season. Photo by Green Deane

And in the “for what it’s worth” department we have my first sighting of a winter edible, Pellitory. This shade-loving annual shows up when fall weather starts and stays around until at least mid-spring. Some years in very shady places you can find old straggling specimens as late as July. It smells and tastes like cucumber thus is also called Cucumber Weed. Look for it in dark places.  The photo to the right was taken under a porch. To read more about this winter comestible go here. 

This is weekly newsletter 375. 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.

It’s the time of year when Horsemint is easy to find. Yes, it has been mentioned before but it’s worth mentioning again. To find it I could just say look for all the insects attracted to it. Horsemint is popular plants with the… Insecta Crowd. Or, you can just look for large pink bracts. Bracts are akin to lower leaves right below the blossom. (The bright red parts of a Poinsettia at Christmas are bracts. The Poinsettia blossoms themselves are small and nondescript.) On the Horsemint the bracts are easy-to-spot identifiers. The species also likes a specific environment which is high and dry or about as far from a swamp as you can get. Most of the time you will spot them while driving. Many roads in Florida cut through sand hills. This often creates upward sloping banks on either side of the road. That’s exactly where Horsemint likes to grow with or without vegetative competition.  They are also colonial: Where you find one you usually will find many. Horsemint also has other interesting properties. To read more about it go here. I also have a video.

In Port Charlotte last Saturday we found some ripe Cocoplums. Like Natal Plums. they are not actually plums but about the right size to be called that. Cocoplums come in three colors: White, dark red, and a dark blue purple that is almost black. Cocoplums are not everyone’s favorite but I like them and the seed tastes like granola or almonds. Next on the fruit find were Ground Cherries. Like the “plums” above Ground Cherries are not cherries but more closely related to tomatillos. We found a few ripe ones. They can produce all year but tend to have two seasons, before and after the summer heat. Following the Ground Cherries were Simpson’s Stoppers. The sweet berries are often in pairs and resemble marmalade in flavor with a slight bitter aftertaste. They were not yet fruiting in Port Charlotte but two weeks ago were fruiting in Largo. A big find — literally — was a Jambul Tree, which like the Cocoplum comes in three colors, white, red and dark purple. It’s a large commercial product in the Asian part of the world. Even when totally ripe and sweet there is a bit of astringency. What is odd this year is the fruiting time. It’s usually heavy with fruit in August but I think late rains in May has thrown the season off. And the Jambul is not just a south Florida resident. They also thrive and fruit mid-state in Orlando. And in our foraging in Orlando class Sunday one of the more unusual finds was Ringless Honey Mushrooms. That’s a species we usually see in November or so. However, there have been reports of them flushing because of the rain and we found a bunch just starting. And if Tropical Storm/Hurricane Dorian hits this weekend we might be overrun with mushrooms next week. Speaking of mushrooms…

It’s interesting that the current recommendation for eating mushroom — even cultivated store-boughten ones — is that they be cooked. Who suggested that I do not know but it is the mainstream view new based on genetics. One argument is only a small percent of the population have the enzymes to completely digest the chitin raw mushroom contain, a few more can digest it poorly and most not at all. This, it is reported, leads to gastro-intestinal distress et cetera. If true this raises other issues: Most insects have chitin and if we can’t digest chitin then maybe insects are not a good source of food. However, we do seem to eat insects and I personally have been eating shrimp shells (yes I eat the entire shrimp shells and all) for more than 30 years. That chitin doesn’t seem to bother me and I find it flavorful. But back to mushrooms…

More salient perhaps is a 2015 study that found boiling edible mushrooms decreased their arsenic bioaccessibility as much as 71% depending upon the species. Frying them reduced the arsenic bioaccessibility by 11%. From a reduction-of-arsenic point of view boiling mushrooms is better than frying. But there are two devils in the details. The three species they tested are all cultivated: Shiitake, grocery store button mushrooms, and oysters. Would wild ones have yielded different results?  And… there is toxic arsenic and nontoxic arsenic made by plants. It is not reported which arsenic the researchers were detecting. Also which ever arsenic it was it was far more present in “ground” grown mushrooms than log- or wood-grown mushrooms. This suggested, according to the researchers the nontoxic arsenic — at least — was involved in structural support of the non-log raised mushrooms. (I guess that means mushrooms that grow on wood are sturdier and mushrooms that grow on the ground need more internal support.) And to confuse the issue one report said: “Except for Agaricus sp. (with predominantly the nontoxic arsenic compound arsenobetaine ) inorganic arsenic predominated in most of the store-bought mushrooms (albeit with low total arsenic concentrations). Should inorganic arsenic predominate in these mushrooms from contaminated areas, the risk to consumers under these circumstances should be considered.”

Humans have been eating mushrooms long enough for each culture to know which ones kill quickly, which ones sicken, and which ones do not. Cooking mushrooms was not an option for a long time (nor was cooking insects.) One might construe that to mean humans were not made to eat mushrooms or insects but that would also have to apply to a lot of foods that are easier to digest and more nutritious if cooked.

Is there a Stevia Ragweed connection? I recently heard a doctor say there was but it was, shall we say, an informal remark. She said her husband can’t use Stevia because he is allergic to Ragweed. She then said the species are related. That is technically but distantly true. Both species are in the Aster Family which has some 22,000 members. It’s the largest of all plant families. Indeed, when folks have a difficult time identifying a plant they often call it a DLA… a Dirty Little Aster. Other than being in the same 22,000-member clan there is little else in common with the two. Also Stevia is consumed. If it is an allergen it would have to be by consumption. Ragweed has irritating pollen and is breathed in, a totally different mechanism. (Meaning people who are allergic to Ragweed would be able to eat it if it were edible.) I think the good doctor made a leap rather than a fact-supported deduction. You can grow Stevia in Florida. Unprocessed Stevia leaves are actually quit bitter.

Weather may interfere with classes this weekend. The class Saturday in Apopka is probably unaffected by the approaching tropical weather. Or if it is it would probably be just rain and we hold classes in the rain. However, current prediction have the storm coming ashore on the east coast of Florida Sunday morning. It was coming ashore right at Ft. Pierce exactly when class is to start Sunday there at George LeStrange Preserve. Now they have move the landing further north. If the veers east a little and lands further north south Florid might be sunny Sunday morning. I will leave Ft. Pierce on the schedule in case “Dorian” moves out to sea or dissipates. We should have a good idea Friday. If it brings storm condition to the Ft. Pierce area that class will not meet.

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.

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

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

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com 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.  And I am in the process of writing to folks who are interested in exchanging some webmastering for foraging classes. As they used to say when we had television with antennas, stay tuned.

This is weekly newsletter 370. 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.

The first time I ever saw red poppies growing was in Athens on my first visit to Greece now nearly 20 years ago. They were coloring the area near the Agora below the Acropolis. The Poppy, as a reminder of Memorial Day and past veterans, is not as popular as it once was but there’s still a compelling story behind the edible species. I wrote about it here. Back home in Maine Memorial Day was a bit of hope and sadness. The sadness was of those no longer with us and in time not to be remembered by anyone. The hope was winter was over. The end of May was time to break out the summer clothes but not turn the furnace off just yet. (I can recall seeing it spit snow on the 4th of July and the quarry across the street often had ice in the bottom well into July.)

Memorial Day meant a trip to the local cemetery. There was something of a family plot there (which now holds my mother, step-father, one uncle and maternal grandparents.) We also placed U.S. flags for my step-father and uncle both of whom served in World War II. And then there was a visit to a cemetery in South Freeport for a friend of my mother’s, Elaine Bennet, who died in her early 30’s. Not to down play the solemnity of Memorial Day but it was during these visits that I realized cemeteries were a good source of plants.  

The plant selection will vary with location and time of year but cemeteries are usually landscaped and all kinds of plants are left both planted and free standing. In fact in the fall when I was in college I would go to cemeteries to get cuttings and rootings of various plants that would die in the winter. I did not view it as stealing but rather preserving. Even now some 50 years later a stroll through a cemetery from a plant point of view can be enlightening. My Gainesville foraging class is not far from a very large cemetery and every now and then we wander around it. And when people ask me if Jewelweed grows in Florida I say in the wild no but you can find them in pots in cemeteries where they are called Impatiens.

A  species to keep your eye and pallet out for this time of year is Smartweed. It’s a Polygonum and in the Buckwheat family. It’s also a pepper substitute but it is more hot than flavorful. It is safe to say if you like “heat” then this weed is for you. In other parts of the world they cook it up as a mess of greens but I would be careful about that. The species is a vaso-contrictor in larger amounts. You find it in damp spots, often road-side ditches which can be polluted. But that does tell you the plant is in season and to look for it in wholesome locations.  The blossoms can be white or pink. The blossom are hot and bitter whereas the leaves are just hot. Try only a little first, very little. It can burn a hole through your tongue.  I have a video on them and an article.

Mushroom Update: Locally our expected warm mushroom season is stalled from lack of rain. We had a false start in early May and a smattering of chanterelles were found. But, more than two weeks of hot and dry conditions have kept the flushing of edible species down. Even the hardy toxic Amanitas are waiting for rain. There has been, however, one oddity yet again this year: Ringless Honey Mushrooms, article here. Locally we usually see them flushing around November after the less rain and cooler weather of fall. Yet, there were reports of them in April — I collected some myself. And this past Saturday, May 25th, I saw some Ringless Honey Mushrooms growing in Orlando. The other-than-usual season production is not totally unexpected: I have seen them growing on a Banyan root in West Palm Beach in July. But, usually Ringless Honey Mushrooms are a fall species (video here.) The rest of our local edible mushrooms will wait until we get a reasonably steady delivery of rain.  

Foraging classes this weekend are on the coasts of Florida, first southwest in Port Charlotte Saturday then Melbourne Sunday, half way down the east coast. y teaching schedule through July is posted. You can read it here or go to “classes.” 

Saturday, June 1st, 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, June 2nd, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park.

Saturday June 8th, Wekiva State Park, 1800 Wekiwa Circle, Apopka, Florida 32712. 9 a.m. to noon. Arrive early as there will be a lot of people wanting to go to the springs 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.

Sunday, June 9th, Red Bug Slough Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot.

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

Sunday, June 16th, Ft. Desoto Park, 3500 Pinellas Bayway S. St. Petersburg Fl 33715. Meet at the parking lot of the fishing pier, northeast end of the parking lot. 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. There is only one fishing pier. This is also father’s day so perhaps you can go fishing or swimming after class. High tide is at noon that day at the park. Also that evening at 7:15 pm. there is a “shoot the full moon” event at the park. It is to watch the full moo16n rise between the Sunshine Skyway Spans.

Saturday, June 22nd, 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, June 23rd, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. GPS: N 20°05’35.4″ W080°58′.26.2″ 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the pavilion. 

Saturday June 29th: Ft. Meade Outdoor Recreation Area, 1639 Frostproof Highway, Fort Meade, FL 33841. (Frostproof Highway is also Route 98.)  9 a.m to noon. Meet at the brown bathrooms in the middle of the park which is due south from the highway. (Not the tan bathrooms near the intersection.)

Sunday June 30th, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk, pavilion 1 parking lot, inside the park.

Saturday, July 13th, Sunday July 14th, 1624 Taylor Road, Honea Path, South Carolina. Ever want a class with Green Deane but he never seems to come to your neck of the woods? Then mark mid-July on your calendar. Green Deane will have at least four foraging class in Honea Path. Times 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, rain or shine (except hurricanes.) Cost is $30 per adult, supervised children free. All of Green Deane’s classes are hands on, walking outside over two to three hours. Wild edible plants, medicinals and perhaps a mushroom or two will be on the agenda. For more information you can contact Putney Farm on Facebook or Green Deane at GreenDeane@gmail.com. 

Saturday, July 20th, 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, July 21st,  Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m to noon. Meet just north of the science center in the north section of the park. 

Saturday, July 27th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park.

For more information about the classes, to sign up and or pay for a class go here. 

Botany Builder #28: Echinate, covered with spines or prickles. It is from the Dead Latin echinatus, covered with prickles. Sea urchins are in the class of Echinoidea. “Urchin” by the way is an old word for porcupines as is hedgehogs. Mischievous boys are some times called urchins. Locally one medicinal plant is echinate, and that is the Nickerbean.  Not a vine and not a tree, it is a “climbing shrub.” The Smilax is also not called a vine but a “climbing shrub.”  The Nickerbean is not edible, but does, according to herbalists, have many medicinal applications.  To read more about the Nickerbean go here.  Incidentally, a student brought part of a shrub to class for identification Sunday. It, too, was prickly. After a bit of research I think it might have been an Aralia, sometimes confused with the Toothache Tree. 

Do you like mushrooms but aren’t quite sure about mushrooms? Then there’s a subtle solution: Blue Porterweed. Found in flower gardens around the world and native to Florida the Blue Porterweed earned its name as a source for tea that tastes like porter beer. Someone had the fermenting idea to add yeast and sugar to a lot of tea and get a brew that tastes similar to the beer, hence the name. The flower garden variety usually grows up and the local native grows horizontally. Both are forager friendly. The blue flowers, raw, have a subtle flavor of mushrooms. You can read more about the Blue Porterweed here. Oh, and how did porter beer get its name? The same way porter steak did. Porters — baggage handlers in old central London — worked all hours and needed quick food. Shops set up to meet that need and out of them came several dishes and named items.

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 long. 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. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com 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.

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.

One cannot forage long without discovering many botanists have their head intentionally buried in distributional sand. This can be quite true about non-native plants they don’t want to recognize as either existing or growing in certain areas. Kudzu is one. Another iffy botanical locally is Wild Pineapple. It isn’t “here” but you can’t miss it either. Its leaves et cetera take on brilliant hues and you can see why this plant that is not “here” is here: It’s pretty. The fruit is edible by some. I think it’s a genetic thing. Some people can eat it with no problem. If I eat a fruit I can’t taste anything for a few hours. You can read more about Wild Pineapple here.

This is weekly issue 356.