Search: rose

Roses have the classic five petals. Photo by Green Deane

I’m not sure I found wild roses or they found me.

Growing up in Maine the local soil was usually either ground-up glacial sand or clay which is decomposed feldspar, or ledge. Not much of a choice if you’re a plant. We had sand, over ledge with a thin veneer of topsoil. And in that sand grew wild roses, Rosa rugosa. Long and stringy with pink petals and bright yellow centers and thorns, lots of thorns. I do recall, however, having a difficult time as a kid reconciling that the wild roses in the field behind the house were related to the roses in flower shops. They didn’t look like each other that much but the wild roses did have a hint of rose aroma. I grew more interested in roses when I learned the rose seed hairs were the original itching powder.

Rosa rugosa hips

If you’ve read my series on Edible Flowers you also know that I once delivered flowers. I had been accepted to law school and needed a job to tie me over until classes started so I delivered flowers. What an eye-opening experience! I went in thinking it had to be a wonderful job because you were delivering joy everywhere… wrong… oh so wrong. It was amazing how many women refused flower deliveries, or took them with a huge air of suspicion. And of course, there were all those deliveries to funeral homes. But most interesting were the roses. They were big and beautiful and absolutely without any aroma. None. They were bred for size and color and in the process the aroma disappeared. We had to spray the roses with artificial rose scent just before delivery, every delivery. AND… you did not spray the roses in the delivery van or get any spray on your or you’d smell intensely like roses for days, literally. Not surprisingly we carried several different spray-on scents so the grand and lovely hybrids of various genera would smell like the original thing. Rose, however, was the most powerful and long-lasting. (By the way, some flower arrangements that were not accepted were kept so they would wilt and die only to be sold for 40th birthday deliveries.)

Rose petals for perfume

Let’s start at the top of the rose and work our way down.  Petal flavor depends on the type, color and conditions of raising. They can range from tart to sweet, spicy. Darker ones have stronger flavors. Remove any white portion of a petal. That will be bitter. Petals can be added to salads , desserts, beverages, used to make jelly or jam and be candied. Rose petals are used to flavor tea, wine, honey, liqueurs and vinegar. Rose oil is used in perfume making and requires a ton of petals to get one cup. Rose water is used in cooking and is an eye wash.

Rose Hips are False Fruit

Rose hips are a false fruit. If you have a true rose its hip is edible but they differ greatly in flavor and size. A frost improves flavor. Sap from a fresh hip can be used like sweet syrup. Soft rose hips can be put through a food press to remove seeds and their hairs. If you wet that pressed mass you can run it through the process a second time. Dried hips have to be rehydrated to be pressed. The resulting puree is dark red and tasty. It’s used to make syrup, jam, chutney and various sauces. Dried rose hips are used to make a fruity tea that is high in Vitamin C, some 50 times higher than citrus. They also have vitamins A, E and K.  Seeds, the true fruit of the rose, are diuretic.  You can also grind the totally dry rose hips into a powder to be added to breads, cookies, cakes and desserts. Now, you might be thinking “I’ll just eat the entire rose hip.” Don’t eat unprocessed rose hips. Better is to run the processed hips through a filter to removed the seeds. Remember the itching powder? If you consume unprocessed rose hips you can get what the Aboriginals called “Itchy Bottom Disease” from the hair on the seeds.

In some species the leaves are eaten, mainly in Europe and Asia. Very young shoots are edible cooked. Buds can be pickled. Among the edible species and their cultivars are: Rosa acicularis, Prickly rose, Rosa arkansana, Low Prairie Rose, Rosa blanda, Labrador Rose, Rosa canina, Dog Rose, Rosa carolina, Pasture Rose, Rosa chinensis, China Rose, Rosa cinnamomea, Cinnamon Rose, Rose x demascena, Damask Rose, Rosa fraxinellaefolia, Ash-Leaf Rose, Rosa gallica, French Rose, Rosa gigantea, Manipur Wild Tea-Rose, Rosa laevigata, Cherokee Rose, Rosa macrophylla, Bhaunra Kujoi, Rosa moschata, Musk Rose, Rosa multiflora, Multiflora Rose,  Rosa nutkana, Nutka Rose, Rosa pimpinellifolia, Burnet Rose, Rosa rugosa, Rugose Rose, Rosa villosa, Apple Rose, Rosa virginiana, Virginia Rose, Rosa woodsii, Wood’s Rose, Rosa Blaze, Blaze Rose, Rosa Bucbi, Carefree Beauty Rose, Rosa Rhonda, Rhonda Rose, Rosa Sea Foam, Sea Foam Rose, Rosa The Fairy, The Fairy Rose.

Rosa is Dead Latin for rose. It comes from the Indo-European Sanskrit word “vrod” which means flexible.

Recipes

Rose Petal Drink
Petals from 3 full-bloom roses
5 cups water
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
3 tbsp. sugar
Boil water. Add rose petals and lemon juice to the boiling water, turn off heat and let stand for 6-10 hours. Drain into a pitcher. Discard petals. Add sugar to the rose water and stir. Let cool in the refrigerator or freezer. Serve.
recipe from Maragrita’s International Recipes.

Rose Petal Syrup
4 cups rose petals
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
red food colouring (optional)
Simmer rose petals with water and sugar for one hour. Add drops of red food colouring to get desired colour. Strain through a fine sieve. Bring back to the boil and put in hot sterilised bottles. Recipe from ABC.net.au/Hobart

Rose Petal Tea
1-1/2 cups rose petals
3 cups water
honey to taste
Choose fresh rose petals. Strip the flower gently under running water then place the petals in a saucepan. Cover with the water and boil for 5 minutes, or until the petals become discolored. Strain into teacups and add honey to taste. Serves 4.

Rose hip leather. Photo by Wild Food Foraging.

Rose Hip Leather

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 cups (1 Litre) of rose hips

Preparation:

Just after a frost is the best time to gather rose hips. Snap off the tails as you pick,or later when you reach home. Spread the hips out on a clean surface and allow to dry partially. When the skins begin to feel dried and shriveled, split the hips and take out the large seeds — all of them. If you let the hips dry too much, it will be difficult to remove the seeds. If not dry enough, the inside pulp will be sticky and cling to the seeds. After the seeds are removed, allow the hips to dry completely before storing or they will not keep well. Store in small, sealed plastic bags. These will keep indefinitely in the freezer or for several months in the refrigerator. They are packed with vitamin C and are good to munch on anytime you need extra energy…or a moderately sweet nut-like “candy.”

Making Puree:
Use soft ripe rose hips (the riper they are, the sweeter they are). It takes about 4 cups (1 Litre) of rose hips to make 2 cups (480 ml) of puree. Remove stalks and blossom ends. Rinse berries in cold water. Put them into a pan and add enough water to almost cover. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 to 15 minutes. Press through a sieve or strainer. All that does not go through the sieve is placed in the pan again. Add a little water, enough to almost cover, if you want a thicker puree, add slightly less. This time heat but do not boil so vigorously. This will dissolve a little more of the fruit so that it will go through the sieve. Press again and then repeat the process one more time. By now, most of the fruit should have gone through the sieve leaving only seeds and skin to discard.

Drying Puree:
Line a cookie sheet, 12 by 17 inches (30 by 42 cm), with plastic wrap. This size cookie sheet holds approximately 2 cups (480ml) of puree. Spread puree or fruit leather evenly over the plastic but do not push it completely to the sides. Leave a bit of plastic showing for easy removal. Place on a card table or picnic table in the hot sun to dry. If the plastic is bigger than the cookie sheet and extends up the sides, anchor it with clothes pins so it will not flop down and cover the edges of the leather. Puree should dry in the sun six to eight hours.

Recipe Source: Cooking Alaskan By Alaskans (Alaska Northwest Books)

False Roselle Leaves Are Excellent In Salads and Stir-Fries. Photo by Green Deane

I can’t do a stir-fry without visiting a tree. Actually, the False Roselle is a shrub not a tree but the point is made. Its leaves have just the right color, taste and texture for stir-fries and salads.

Hibiscus acetosella blossom. Photo by Green Deane

There’s hardly a hibiscus that’s isn’t edible in some way. Several are better than others. The False Roselle, or Hibiscus acetosella (hye-BISS-kus uh-set-o-SEL-luh) is one of the best. Its dark red leaves are tart, sorrelesque. They harvest easily, chop up easily, don’t loose bulk, color or flavor when cooking.

The first thought most plant people have when they see a False Roselle is that it looks like a red maple. On closer inspection the leaves are a different shape, and the False Roselle is a darker red, but the resemblance is there, at least to northerners. Its pink flowers are edible as well, but they are more eye candy than a palate pleaser, being nearly tasteless. The flowers usually go in salads.

The True Roselle

One cannot mention the False Roselle without introducing the real Roselle, left.  Hibiscus sabdariffa (hye-BISS-kus sab-duh-RIF-fuh) is  also known as the “Florida Cranberry” the “Cranberry Hibiscus” and the Jamaican Sorrel.  A tart juice can be made from its fat calyxes and it’s something of a tradition in the West Indies. Many posters on the Internet get these two hibiscus mixed up, but there is no need for it. The False Roselle ( H. acetosella) has maple-esque red leaves — older with an undertone of green — whereas the Cranberry Hibiscus (H. sabdariffa) has lance-shaped, green leaves. They look quite different.

The shrubs can take a light freeze and will come back from roots in the spring. In cold climates they will have to be a potted plant. In my yard they tend to died after five or six years but are always reseeding and sprouting so it’s not much of an issue. Hibiscus means hibiscus or slimy or sticky, and acetosella means “a little sour.” Sabdariffa is a variation of the West Indian name.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: False Roselle

IDENTIFICATION: Upright and shrubby,  leaves ovate to lobed, red to deep burgundy, to dark reddish green.  Flowers funnel shaped, usually pink but can be yellow or red. Some cultivars don’t flower. Mature plants can split and fall over.

TIME OF YEAR: Year round in warm climates

ENVIROMENT: Plenty of sun, water, good soil and heat. They don’t like it dry or wet.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Leaves raw or cooked, blossom raw or cooked though they tend to disappear when cooked.

 Oenothera biennis: Foraging Standby

Evening Primsoe

The Common Evening Primrose has long been a foraging standby and for a century or so was a common vegetable found in European gardens though it’s an American native….probably.

While the edibility of Oenothera biennis (ee-noh-THEER-uh  bye-EN-niss) is not in doubt much about the plant is. Linnaeus, who started naming plants in the mid-1700’s, said it was introduced to Europe from North America in 1614. But some modern botanists say it’s native to Europe and went to North America with colonists. Curious: For a plant that might have been native to Europe it certainly was not utilized there until after its discovery in North America. By the 1880s, however, the Evening Primrose was a common garden vegetable in Germany.

Evening Primrose root

The plant’s name also shrouded in a lexicographic fog. Oeno comes from the Greek word Oinos (said EE-nos which later went in to Latin and became vino. “Oi” in combination in Greek is always said “ee”.) Oinos means wine. Thera can mean catcher or hunter.  So in polite circles it is interpreted as a root that can absorb wine. There is speculation that ancient (European) hunters would give some wine-soak root to animals to calm them down.  I’m not sure that would work and might be a waste of good wine.

Pliny, 23-79 AD, had a different view of the word and wrote: “onothera, sive onear, hilaritatem afferens in vino” which translates into something like “ass catcher, a plant whose juice in wine causes happiness.” A 1601 translation read: “Oenothera, otherwise Onuris, an herb good also in wine to make the heart merry.”  The famous botanist Merritt Fernald in 1950 gave up and said it means “wine scented.”  Another interpretation is “wine imbibing.” Other views suggest it meant people believed the plant had ability to the calm ferocious man or beast. Biennis means two years, referring to the plant’s growth habit. Primrose means first rose, and since its blossoms open at night “evening” was added to common name a few centuries ago.

Blossom in normal light

During the first year there is only a rosette of basal leaves. Then the second year the plant sends up a tall stalk with alternative leaves and yellow flowers at the top. The flowers open quickly in the evening and, depending on the weather, usually fade by mid morning. The root of the first year plant, cooked, is edible, usually late in the season. Raw it will irritate the throat. Young leaves from the second year stalk were cooked as greens by the Cherokee indians (who first saw Europeans in 1540.)  Young second year stalks can also be peeled and eaten. That stalk dried makes a good drill for making fire. Leaves can be eaten if boiled more than once but they are usually tough and gritty. Flower buds can be eaten raw or cooked and the flowers added to salads.  The seeds are edible as well (those seeds can also remain viable in the soil for at least 70 years.)  Try all parts carefully and sparingly. They can bother the throat of some people even when cooked, and the taste may be acquired.

What some insects see, photo by Bjørn Rørslett - NN/Nærfoto

The young shoots of O. biennis, O. hookeri, and O. lamarckiana are edible raw. Roots of the O. hookeri have been eaten as well. The tough seedpods of the O. californica and O. nuttalli were eaten by the Indians as were the seeds of O. brevipes.  O. fruticosa leaves were used as a potherb and it grows throughout eastern North America. Young crown leaves of O. biennis can be blanched and used for salads. People aren’t the only ones who appreciate the Evening Primrose. A lot of insects also like it as well and O. biennis has ultraviolet markings to help the bugs land.

O. biennis is found throughout North America except Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Lemon-scented, large yellow flowers at the top of a leafy, hairy stalk, stalks, often purple-tinged, erect, 2-6 ft. with leafy, branched stems from a basal rosette. Four-petaled flowers to 2 inches across open at night, close in the day.  Second year stalk has lance shaped leaves spiraling up the stem topped by flowers. Seed pod splits into four parts. There is great variability  in the plant but it rarely branches.

TIME OF YEAR: Young leaves, flowers and buds, in season, roots near end of first year, second year stalks early in season

ENVIRONMENT: Fields, prairies, thickets, waste ground, disturbed sites, cultivated areas, roadsides, railroads

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Numerous: Roots cooked, usually boiled, peppery. Young shoots – raw or cooked, mucilaginous and peppery. Flowers sweet, used in salads or as a garnish. Young seed pods – cooked, often steamed. The plant also has many medicinal applications.

Some fruit on display at last week’s foraging class in Largo: Gopher apples, tallow plums, saw palmettto berries. Photo by Green Deane

Monarda punctata, Horsemint, Beebalm. Photo by Green Deane

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

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

Foraging Classes: Sticking to the west coast of Florida this coming weekend, as the weather might accommodate. Ft. Desoto has many salt-tolerant edibles, persimmon trees, and poison Ivy. Bayshore Park has the same salt-tolerant edibles and many ignored fruit trees such as champagne mangoes, Java plums and Star Fruit. 

Saturday, September 7th,  Ft. Desoto Park, 3500 Pinellas Bayway S. St. Petersburg Fl 33715. There is a small entrance fee to the park. Meet at the Bay Pier parking lot.(The one with a dog park and ferry to Egmont Key.) 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday September 8, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the parking lot at Bayshore Drive and Ganyard Street.

For more information on these classes, to prepay or sign up go here.  The cost is $30 per adult (the class is usually three hours long and examines five-dozen or so species.) If cost is a hardship email me at: GreenDeane@gmail.com. 

Cloves are dried flower buds.

Recnetly we mentioned here that the Syzygiums were fruiting. That mostly included S. cumini also known as the Java Plum and Jambul. I’m making wine out of that. There are a few Jambuls in Orlando and certainly dozens in West Palm Beach. I know they also grow well in Sarasota and Port Charlotte where I think they are naturalized. Both Syzygium jambos and Syzygium samaragense are called the Rose Apple and Java Apple (and many other names as well.)  There also is a Syzygium in your kitchen is S. aromaticum. You know the dried flower buds as “cloves.”  As the species have been in foraging news lately I decided to bite the proverbial bullet and write a second article on the genus, or at least the latest one. You can read that article here and you can read about the Jambul here. 

The leaves of Heartwing sorrel resemble a knife hilt. Photo by Green Deane

In some parts of the country fall is upon the landscape and final harvesting is underway before plants shut down for the winter. When I was a boy in Maine this meant scrumping apples and concord grapes. Locally our winter foraging season is just starting and while it is still warm one edible to start looking for is the Heartwing Sorrel, noticed in Gainesville recently. This tart Rumex is closely related to Sheep’s Sorrel — sometimes is mistakenly called that — and is used the same way, usually as an addition to salads. This time of year there will be a plant here and a plant there. Look along grassy trails, pastures or fields particularly in northern areas. In a few months locally it can cover an entire field with a ruddy pink blanket of ripening seeds. (It’s commercial relative is buckwheat.)  To read more about the Heartwing Sorrel go here

Bacopa monnieri blossoms can have four or five petals. Phgoto by Green Deane

There are six Bacopa in Florida but we are interested mainly in one, Water Hyssop, Bacopa monnieri. It’s a very bitter herb that looks like dwarf purslane except it’s all green.  Water Hyssop has four- or five-petaled blossoms. They can be off-white, light blue or even light pink. You find the plant growing in damp or inundated areas. It is the only Bacopa with one line on the back (or top) of its leaf. What’s interesting about Water Hyssop is that two different studies show it can increase memory function. The plant causes a gene to upregulate or “express itself.” This means the DNA in the gene can stretch, literally like a spring losing tension. This in turn causes the gene to make a protein. That protein causes the hippocampus to make new memory cells. It takes three months for the difference to be noticed. You can read about the Bacopas here and here. 

Green Deane Forum

Tired of Facebook and want to identify a plant? The Green Dean Forum is up and running again. Have you come to dislike Facebook, then join us on the forum. 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

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  Most of the 172 USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. 

Now in  second printing.

EAT THE WEEDS, the book, 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. It’s available in many locations including Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile.  It can also be ordered through AdventureKeen Publishing.

This is weekly newsletter #610. 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.

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

The nose doesn’t always know.

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

The red ripe fruit is sweet and acidic, not everyone likes them. Photo by Green Deane

Surinam cherries are like small eight-ribbed pumpkins. If deep red they are tasty, but not all people like them. If orange red they are unripe and taste awful, like their seeds. One species has ripe fruit that is dark purple, almost black, and is very sweet.  Some fruits are beginning to ripen now though their season is just starting.

Gall on a Hawthorne. photo by Green Deane

Shall we get technical? Most foragers would look at this picture right and say that is a gall. beginners might think it’s a strange fruit .  Plant galls are defined as abnormal plant growths caused by a gall-maker; the gall-maker being certain insects, mites, fungi, and bacteria. Locally Persea Borbornia usually has a lot galls — one of the identifying characteristics — and one particular scrub oak gets galls that look like cranberries.

This is a gall on a Hawthorn fruit and is a fungus, Gymnosporangium clavipes, which is responsible for the disease known as Cedar-Quince Rust. The “cedar” in the relationship is actually the eastern red cedar, which is really a juniper, Juniperous virginana.  This fungus must alternate between junipers and a member of the rose family, such as quince, hawthorn, crabapple, etc., to complete its life cycle.  It spends a year on plant in the two groups then a year on the other plant. 

Ripe Hawthorn fruit. Photo by Green Deane

Hawthorns are an unusual group of trees and can live to 400 years old. No one really knows how many species there are two hundred or 1,200. It is safe to say they vary a lot so identifying which one you have can be quite frustrating. The fruit is edible but not the seeds, and the fruit and leaves dried as a tea can be used for high blood pressure. Three grams of dried powdered leaves morning and night has been validated as an effective beta blocker and lowers blood pressure.

Across the dirt road I grew up on in Maine was a large hawthorne with two-inch thorns. Different species of birds would nest in the tree at the same time, because the thorns dissuaded egg and chick predator. Unnecessary tarring and widening of the road eliminated the tree.

Range of the one-seeded Hawthorn

Historically hawthorns have been used to make hedgerows and “haw” means hedge. The fruit is a source of pectin. In fact one, Crataegus monogyna, the one-seed Hawthorn can be made into a no-cook jelly. Put the berries in a bowl and quickly crush them thoroughly with your hands. The resulting liquid should be about the consistency of pudding just before it sets. It should be that consistency naturally. If you’ve had a dry year add some water to get to that consistency. Work quickly. Squeeze the seeds out of the berries then quickly filter the thick slurry into a bowl. In about five minutes the liquid will jell. Flip it over onto a plate. It can be eaten as is or sliced or sun dried. It will be sweet and will last for many years. Remember just ripe berries have more pectin than over-ripe berries. To see a video on this go here.

Blak medic resemles Hop clover. Photo by Green Deane

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.

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, though a lot more effort i required. 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. That 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.  I also have an article on Finding Caloric Staples with links to relevant videos. 

With the moderation of the weather foraging classes become more enjoyable.

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

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

Sunday, April 28th, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 32706. meet at the bathrooms, 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday, May 4th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 to noon. 

Sunday, May 5th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. 9 a.m. to noon.

For more information on these classes, to prepay or sign up go here. 

Green Deane Forum

Tired of Facebook and want to identify a plant? The Green Dean Forum is up and running again. Have you come to dislike Facebook, then join us on the forum. 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. 

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  Most of the 172 USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. 

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in its second printing is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. It’s available in many locations including Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile.  It can also be ordered through AdventureKeen Publishing.

This is weekly newsletter #598. 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.

Wisteria in DeLand. The species is usually invasive. Photo by Green Deane

The weather may be chilly still it’s a hot time of year for foraging as many wild fruit species ripen this month. A species  blossoming now and rarely covered is Wisteria. The blossoms are edible raw or cooked but the rest of the plant is toxic (though that varies from species to species.) With some two seeds can kill a child. While most Wisteria is considered Asian there is a native species in the Americas, W. frutescens. You can read about Wisteria here.  

The non-aromatic Cherokee Rose is not native. Photo by Green Deane

Another Asian species sighted recently is one that was once considered native, the Cherokee Rose, which is actually an invasive. Botanically Rosa laevigata (Rosa is from the Greek ῥόδον (rhódon) meaning rose and laevitata or (Levis) is Dead Latin for  smooth or polished. It’s a “climbing shrub” as is Smilax and Nicker Bean. Cherokee Rose is a large nearly odorless white bloomer from the low mountains of China and Vietnam. It was carried to the Americas in 1780 and was reportedly cultivated by the Cherokee thus the name. In 1916 at the urging of womens’ clubs it was made the state flower of Georgia and still is. It  produces huge rose hips to two-inches long though you have to burn bristles off to use them. And as one might presume the rugged vining shrub is covered with mean prickles. Handle carefully. Sugar from the plant has been used to make wine.

“Deer Mushrooms” are edible. Photo by Green Deane

An edible mushroom taking advantage of the weather is the Deer Mushroom, in this case Pluteus petasatus. These are bunching mushrooms usually growing on old hardwood remains, either logs, stumps, roots or debris. As often is the case the botanical name is more confusing than enlightening. Pluteus  can mean shed or penthouse. Petasatus is Dead Latin for wearing a cap (meaning) ready for a journey. A relative is called P. cervinus the latter means deer or stag because of that species’ cap color. It is also sometimes called the Deer Mushroom or Fawn Mushroom. These two are edible but are viewed as marginal. One reason is the cap is mostly gills with little cap material. Sometimes it can have a radish flavor. Spore print is salmon to pink. 

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

Foraging classes: Many species, especially wild fruits are coming into season. 

Saturday, April 6th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 to noon.

Sunday, April 7th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. meet just north of the Museum, 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday, April 13th, Red Bug Slough 5200 S. Beneva Road, Sarasota. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot.

Sunday, April 14th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Meet at Ganyard Rd and Bayshore. 9 a.m. to noon.

Saturday, April 20th, Blanchard Park,  2451 Dean Rd, Union Park, FL 32817, meet beside the tennis courts, 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday, April 21st, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL, meet at the dog park. 9 a.m. to noon.

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

Sunday, April 28th, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 32706. meet at the bathrooms, 9 a.m. to noon.

Saturday, May 4th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 to noon. 

For more information on these classes, to prepay or sign up go here. 

Mild in flavor Betony roots have a radish-like texture. Photo by Green Deane

Found this week, east of Tampa, Florida betony roots. Tasty raw, boiled or pickled, the roots are distinctive and easy to identify. While one can find them in lawns they also like sandy pastures with a thatch layer.  Millions of dollars are spent every year trying to poison these into submission. Why not eat them? You can read about Betony here. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? The Green Dean Forum is up and running again. Have you come to dislike Facebook, then join us on the forum. 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. 

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  Most of the 172 USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. 

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in its second printing is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 275 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. It’s available in many locations including Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile.  It can also be ordered through AdventureKeen Publishing.

This is weekly newsletter #595. 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.

White Jelly Fungus, photo by Green Deane

Most mushrooms are eaten for their flavor, such as chanterelles. White Jelly fungus (Tremella fuciformis) above, has little to no flavor. So why eat it?

Chinese Research on mice in 2022, showed polysaccharides in Tremella regulate blood glucose and lipids affecting 84 genes associated with obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetic complications. Triglycerides, cholesterol, and fasting glucose were significantly lower in mice fed Tremella polysacchaarides versus a high fat diet. It is also a prebiotic and good for gut bacteria. A 2018 study published in Oncology Letters, researchers also found that Tremella polysaccharides have protective properties on the respiratory system. It significantly inhibited the onset of lung cell death caused by the toxic lipopolysaccharides of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacterium, which causes about 2,700 deaths in the United States annually, particularly among children.   

The jiggly fungus is also used by cooks to deliver flavor.  Many chefs dehydrate it then soak the fungus in a desired flavor making it a flavor bomb. It also adds a jelly-like texture to dishes.  Jelly fungus has a lot of fiber and protein. A cup of it has 326 calories, less than a gram of fat, and is high in potassium, vitamin D varies on ho much sunshine it gets. Tremellas also has NFG, nerve growth factor and might used for treating neurogenative diseases. A two-month study found that consuming 600 or more milligrams of jelly fungus supplement daily improved short term memory. A rat study showed it significantly reversed drug-induced memory loss. Besides being dehydrated to carry flavor it can also be dried and powdered, which can be used smoothies, as a tea and a thickening agent. Freeze drying is the best method of dehydration. Jelly Fungus should not be collected where pesticides are used.  

Non-edible Ductifera Pululahuana  by Lisa K. Suits

Also called snow fungus, silver ear, snow ear, white wood ear, and white jelly mushroom, it is in the common in North America and Asia, and is often found on downed branches of hardwood, such as oak. Usually branches with the bark still attached. 164 grams of dried Jelly Fungus has 524 calories, 106 carbs, 65 grams et carbs, 41 grams fiber, 15 grams of protein, 1.8 grams of fat, 76 mg of sodium 59 mg of calcium, 6.5 mg of iron and 2,618 mg of potassium

Jelly fungus has one non-edible semi-look alike, Ductifera pululahuana, which grows on the ground as well as downed barkless branches. It is also much whiter than Tremellas, not translucent  and more rounded and globular. I’ve always found it growing on bare hard packed ground. While Ductifera pululahuana, is considered not edible it is not known to be toxic, the non-edibility appears to stem from its quick degradation after being picked.

A native North American plantago, photo by Green Deane

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

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

A toxic powder puff shrub we see this time of year is  a native of Malaysia. It’s a small tree that was in the pea family but has been moved to the Mimosa group. It is not edible in any way. It’s just pretty, which has its own value. The name is slightly interesting in that it is all Living Greek mangled by new Dead Latin. Calliandra is a combination of Kallos (beautiful) and Andros (man) but is to mean — when poetically translated — “pretty stamen” (the male part of the flower which creates the powder puff.) Haematocephala means “blood head” or in this case “red head.” Thus pretty stamen red head. You could even stretch it to “pretty redheaded man.” The common name is Red Powder Puff. 

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

Foraging Classes: Because of weather there will be one foraging class this weekend, Saturday in West Palm Beach.  

Saturday, January 20th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet just north of the science center.

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

Sunday, January 28th, Eagle Lake Park, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 a.m. to noon

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

Canna can grow in a garden or a pond.

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

Begonia flavor varies with the color. Photo by Green Deane

This might be a good time to mention that Begonias are edible. We saw some this weekend at my foraging class. Unfortunately a rather popular book some 30 years ago said they are not edible. I actually spoke with the author once and she told me in subsequent editions that mistake would be changed but the book never went into second edition. Thus the mistake can be found on the internet. Begonias are not only the favorite of growers (and cemetery pots) they are naturalized locally. I see them often in damp spots such as stream banks or drainage ditches. The leaves are edible as well as the blossoms. They can be prepared in a variety of ways and the juice is also a vegetarian rennet. My favorite are wax begonias (and the flavor can vary with their color.) You can read about them here.

SPiderworts can be found in four colors, blue, pink, white and gray. Photo by Green Deane

Spiderworts got me in trouble once. I let them cover my entire lawn in suburbia. That prompted a visit from Lawn Enforcement Officers. I was cited in writing for having an unkept lawn which meant covered with weeds (that they were pretty, native was deemed irrelevant.) As I thought the citation wrong I read the pertinent law. It said a weed was a plant unintentionally over 18 inches high. Problem solved. My spiderworts were intentionally over 18-inches high. I watered and fertilized them. Consequently I beat the rap. And while Spiderworts favor the spring you can find them blossoming now here and there.  Spiderworts are quite edible, at least all the parts above ground. They can be consumed raw, cooked or fermented. While this is not too descriptive they taste “green” to me, not distinctive but pleasant. If you ferment them into sauerkraut the stems and leaves are tough where as the blossoms are tender. Spiderworts have a history being connected to John Smith of Pocahontas fame. You can read about them here.

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good holiday present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually.  

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about

warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.

Now in print  is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. Several hundred were pre-ordered on Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile and if no profile reported then noteworthy constituents. I have no doubt that the book will outlive me, my little contribution to posterity.

This is weekly newsletter #584. 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.

Pindo Palm can fruit almost anytime. Photo by Green Deane

Pindo Palms grow from south Texas to Washington DC and often fruit in the spring. This past week two of them dropped fruit near Tampa. Which means don’t argue with Mother Nature, just harvest, take note for next year and be thankful. Most consider yellow Pindo Palm fruit to be delicious. The seed inside is also edible and tastes like coconut. It is easy to extract (whereas the queen palm kernel is tough to get out of its shell. and the fruit is more fibrous.) Pindo palm is also called the jelly palm because some years it has enough natural pectin and sugar to make jelly without any additional pectin or sugar. While both the Pindo and queen palm have edible fruit and are feather palms they have quite different growth structures. Queen palms are usually skinny and tall, with green fruit turning orange, pindo are shortish, stout, with green fruit that turns yellow to golden. Look for both in yards and cemeteries.

Green Deane in Deland Florida with wild mustard in February 2014.

Admittedly is uncommon to see yellow mustard and yellow Pinto palm fruit available at the same time. A common roadside plant, mustard is often a strip of yellow you see in a glance as you drive by. It is found from southern Florida to Maine but in different seasons. In the no-snow south it’s a winter plant because it is too hot in the summer for the cool-weather species. It’s a spring and summer crop “up north.” Canola oil is made from a mustard that like summer in Canada. While wild mustard and radish look similar and are used the same way, mustards tend to have most of their blossom on the top end where as radishes fall over and have blossoms along the stalk.

Malvaviscus pendiflorus. one of two species locally. Photo by Green Deane

We saw several species blooming this past weekend in my foraging class. The Hibiscus were happy including the “Sleepy Hibiscus.” It’s a fairly easy shrub to identify because the bright red blossoms never unfurl. The delicate blossoms dissolve quickly upon consumption. Some would call them slimy. Also blossoming is the Bauhinia. It’s a tree that is both easy and challenging at the same time. The blossoms are edible, look nice in salads. Some of the species have edible seeds and some do not. (They are in the pea family and most pea trees — most not all — do not have edible seeds.) Sorting out which Bauhinia you have can be a challenge, nearly as bad as sorting out which Cereus you have. Like the Cereus cactus there are several man-made Bauhinia hybrids and perhaps even some fake botanical names. It can make species identification a real headache though as far as I know all the blossoms are edible. Only “discovered” a century or so ago the blossom of the Bauhinia blakeana is the emblem of Hong Kong. You can read about the Bauhinia here.

Surinam Cherries have eight ribs.

Almost every year one can find a species blooming out-of-season. If the climate changes we might see an increase in that.  As in previous classes we saw some grapes blossoming in early December when they should be setting in the spring. But perhaps the most out-of-season display this week was Surinam Cherries in fruit. I had Suriname Cherries in my yard for many years. They are best when a deep red with a bit of blue hue like the color old time firetrucks. If Ferrrari orange they are not ripe. Even when ripe many people do not like the taste of them. To read about the Suriname Cherry go here. 

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

Foraging Classes: A summer problem has cropped up. Severe weather.

Because of severe weather predicted for Dec.16th and 17th classes those days have been canceled

Dec 30th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405, 9 a.m. meet just north of the science center.

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

Finding Mistletoe during the 13th annual Urban Crawl in Winter Park.

My 14th annual Urban Crawl  is coming up, on Friday Dec. 22nd, 2023, in downtown Winter Park. It is a free class. A reasonable question is what about foraging in a city? There is some surprising research. Dan Brabaner is a geoscience professor at Wellesley College, Boston. With some undergraduate students they studied preserved food collected from fruit trees and the like in the urban Boston area. What they found was cherries, apples, peaches and herbs were relatively low in lead and arsenic. That is, a serving had less amounts of these toxins than the allowed daily amount for a child. The team also did not find a significant difference between peeled and unpeeled fruit. The fruit was low in toxic chemical because they are the furthest away from any toxins in the soil. This would apply to tree nuts as well. Leafy greens faired well, too, because they grow fast and 1) don’t have time to accumulate toxins and 2) most air pollution on them can be washed off. Brabander also analyzed foraged food from plants growing in the urban environment not growing on agricultural soil. These foods had higher micronutrients because they were not growing on worn-out agricultural soil. Calcium and iron were higher as were manganese, zinc, magnesium and potassium. Thus we know that not only do “weeds” pack more of a nutritional punch because they are wild but also because they can be growing in better soil. We meet in front of Panera’s at 10 a.m. We wander south to the Rollin college, stop at Starbucks, to drink and drain, go east to the public library area, then back to Panera’s, that takes a couple of hours. Park in the parking garage behind (west of ) Paneras. If you park more than three hours on the streets of Winter Park you can get a ticket (this has happened in previous years.) Please invite anyone interested in plants who is having a hard time making ends meet.

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

A dangerous plant is making its seasonal debut: Butterweed, Packera glabella (formerly Senecio glabellus.)  I call it dangerous because it is toxic and resembles an edible species. Butterweed likes to grow in damp places and until it blossomed resembles the mustard family. However, unlike all mustard which have four petal blossoms, Butterweed’s blossom resembles a yellow daisey. And mustards have a distinct flavor, Butterweed has a mild taste. Overs the season it becomes attractive and prolific. There has been at least one poisoning in Florida in recent years. The victim survived with medical attention. The toxin affects the liver. it is also highly toxic to horses and cattle.

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good holiday present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually.  

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.

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in print and delivered last week is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. Several hundred have been pre-ordered on Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile and if no profile reported then noteworthy constituents. I have no doubt that the book will outlive me, my little contribution to posterity.

This is weekly newsletter #582. 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.

Moko figs, are in the banana family.

red moko called mataburro, or kill the donkey.

When Fernand Megellan, first credited with sailing around the world, met a new fruit he always called it some kind of fig, according to historians, This past week I had some moko figs, which are sweet non-starchy plantains. They were found cultivated on some nearby property. Whether a plantain or a banana, they are squarish like a plantain but sweet like a banana and despite warnings can be eaten raw (I ate five raw green ones over a few days and fried one.) Some call them cooking bananas and dessert bananas. Local names include buck-buck, and mafobay. They’re a good source of fiber, vitamins A, C, and B-6, and magnesium and potassium. A cup has less than one gram of fat, 2 grams of protein, 58 grams of carbs, three grams of fiber, 663 mg of potassium 23 mg of vitamin C, 0.29 mg of B-6, and 57 mg of magnesium. By chance I had a great grandmother (Eurora May Dillingham) who liked short red moko figs. Her sailing family were part of the Dillingham businessmen involved with starting commercial pineapples on Hawaii in the 1800’s. Moko figs were also cultivated there and are still listed as found on the islands.

pellitory grows in the shade, Photo by Green Deane.

During our foraging classes this week we saw sprouts of the winter edible Pellitory. This shade-loving perennial 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. It’s not a plant you find in the middle of a sunny field. Look for it in shady places such as under bridges, big trees and by hedges and walls. To read more about this winter comestible go here. 

Seeding Poor Man Peppergrass. Photo by Green Deane

We also saw a plant that is here all year but strongy favors the wintertime: Poor Man’s Peppergrass. This Wasabi taste-alike definitely favors the cooler months and can be found everywhere locally. The most difficult thing about Peppergrass is that it always looks different in warmer climates. In northern areas it’s a two-year plant and is either a basal rosette of leaves or a seeding flower spike. Because seasons are amorphous locally it can be in any stage any time. So you might find it low with big, wide leaves, or tall with skinny leaves. You just have to learn to recognize it in all of its growth stages. One constant theme is that is always tastes the same though younger plants tend to have a stronger flavor than older plants. To read more about Peppergrass click here.

Florida’s beaches this time of year start to collect seaweed. It is nearly all one species, Sargassum; edible but not the tastiest of sea vegetables. It is true that nearly all seaweeds are edible if harvested from clean water. When I lived in Japan an annual environmental demonstration was to develop photographic film from unaltered water taken from Tokyo Bay. Instead of taking a few minutes, the developing took several hours but the point was made: The bay water was polluted. Generally said there are only two non-edible seaweeds in North America.

Sargassum: Edible but not the best of tastes.

The first is Desmarestia ligulata. It is laced with sulfuric acid but is used to make pickles. You can find it along the northwest coast of the United States. You’ll know it when you find it because it will burn your mouth. The other in North America (and Central America) is Cyanobacteria which is found in the Caribbean and linked to ciguarera poisoning. It’s not really a seaweed but is a blue-green algae found in the warmer waters. It is why one should never eat older barracuda. I should add never eat blue-green algae from fresh water either nor fish from a fresh water pond with a lot of blue-green algae. They are not on the menu. As for other parts of the world, there might be some toxic red seaweeds in the South Seas. Since most seaweed is edible, and nutritious, why isn’t it consumed more often? Taste and texture. I’ve collected Sargassum here in Florida and prepared it many ways. Semi-drying and frying isn’t too bad but Bladderwrack is better, Sea Lettuce better still. The latter makes very nice salads. Not surprisingly most land animals including birds don’t like seaweed. However, it does make good mulch and fertilizer. So while one may not use it directly in the diet it can still help sustain you with uses in the garden. During Victorian times it was highly used in English agriculture mostly as mulch and fertilizer. Here are some of my articles on seaweed: Bladderwrack,  Caulpera,  Codium,   Gracilaria,   Sargassum,  Sea Lettuce, and Tape Seagrass.

Stomolophus meleagris, one of our edible jellyfish.

While on the topic of the beach — I’m usually at Daytona Beach this week for a Greek festival, my birthday, and Veterans Day — many jellyfish are edible, including some that are found in local waters. I had a friend from Taiwan who never ordered from the menu at Chinese restaurants. It was always off-the-menu and then after much discussion with the waiter and sometimes the chef.  One of those chats produced a dish of jellyfish. I was hooked. It was very tasty and jellyfish can be caught while casting for other fish. (I like castnetting and am a castnet junkie.) While a substantial food I’m not sure jellyfish would qualify as a staple because catching them by hand is by chance (which does increase however when in season.) They are also mostly water and need to be dessicated immediately, not a small process. It all depends on how hungry you are and how many of them you have. You should get them live out of the water, not dead on the beach. To read about jellyfish go here

Southern Wax Myrtle berries. Photo by Green Deane

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Can you make a bayberry candle? Absolutely. Should you? If you have to, yes. If not you might want to reconsider. Southern Wax Myrtle berries are small. They have a little wax on them and why the species name is cerifera — wax producing. But it takes many gallons and a lot of hot work to get enough bayberry wax to mix with tallow (75/25) to make the famous smokeless candle that keeps away insects. No doubt hundreds of years ago it was worth it when folks had tallow from their own cattle, a lot of Bayberries and mosquitoes. Not so much today. But, you can use the dried berries as a spice and the leaves like bay leaves or to make a tea. To read more about the Southern Wax Myrtle go here.

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

Foraging Classes: Should have good weather this weekend. 

Nov 11th Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms, 9 a.m.

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

Nov 18th Lori Wilson Park, 1500 N Atlantic Ave, Cocoa Beach, FL 32931, meet at the north bathrooms, 9 a.m. to noon.

Nov 19th , George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon.

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

Leonotis nepetifolia and leonotis leonurus  blossoms look the same.

There’s an innocent-looking ornamental plant in local parks which in some European countries the possession of which can get you 30 years in prison: Wild Dagga, or, Leonotis leonurus. As a student of Greek I always have an issue with the name because “Leonotis”  means “Lion’s Ear” while “leonurus” is mangled Greek and “new” Latin for “Lion’s Tail.” So it’s name is Lion’s Ear Lion’s Tail…. more drunk botanical overkill.  They took it all from the historical King of Sparta, λέωνῐ́δᾱς,  or Leonida, which means “son of a lion.” A second species found locally — and more often — is Leonotis nepetifolia (catnip leaf.) The plants look similar except “lion tail” has skinny leaves like marijuana, and the “catnip leaf’ has somewhat large diamond-shaped leaves like catnip. The blossoms and over all growth pattern is similar for both. From tropical South Africa and India Lion’s Tail is used … recreationally…  where as Catnip Leaf is used medicinally. Both have leonurine, Lion’s Tail apparently more than Catnip Leaf. Water extraction — blossom tea — is the common method. A 2015 study says Leonotis leonurus seems to be mildly pschoactive. “Research has proven the psychoactive effects of the crude extract of L. leonurus, but confirmation of the presence of psychoactive compounds, as well as isolation and characterization, is still required.” Sounds like a pitch for more research money. Others report both species contain marrubiin which is an analgesic and probably why they have been used in traditional medicine. Bees and humming birds also like the species. A relevant pubmed article can be read at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29016795/

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. 

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.

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in print is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. Several hundred have been pre-ordered on Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile. Officially it will be published December 13th (to suit the publisher publicity demands) and apparently to appeal to the winter market. Orders via Amazon are scheduled to arrive Dec. 5th. 

This is weekly newsletter #579. 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.

This newsletter is late because mail chimp is increasingly difficult to wok with. Any one have a suggestion for a mailing service?