Search: Cereus

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.  

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.

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.

This is a common place to find mustard or radish plants, a streak of yellow blossoms beside the road. Photo By Green Deane

Some years the seasonal changes happen with regularity. This year has been irregular. Though cooler weather has yet to arrive locally Wild Mustard and Ringless Honey mushrooms are ahead of schedule. Indeed, the mustard is blossoming, and the mushrooms are weeks ahead of their usual time. Conversely, edible persimmons are late this year. That all makes one wonder how the winter weather might vary from the usual this year.

Blossoms can range from yellow to white. Photo by Green Deane

Mustards in the warm south likelate fall they do and I usually start writing about them in late November. In season you can see Wild Mustards and Wild Radish not only along roadsides but in various fields from farm land to ignored citrus groves. The two species are used interchangeably and look similar. However Wild Radishes tend to be serpentine rather than straight and tall like Wild Mustard. They also have lumpy seed pods, or, more lumpy than mustard seed pods. Usually you will find a stand of one or the other. I don’t recall ever finding both in the same patch. Blossom colors can range from yellow to white with streaks of purple. But the leaves always have the biggest lobe on the end farthest from the plant. Look for them in sunny areas with fertile soil. Not native they came from Eurasia in the 1700s. And note the seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to 60 years. To read more Wild Radish go here, and for Wild Mustard, here.  

These hibiscus blossoms never open. Photo by Green Deane

We saw several species blooming this past weekend in my foraging classes. The Hibiscus were happy including the “Sleepy Hibiscus.” It’s a fairly easy shrub to identify because the bright red blossoms never unfurl. Also blossoming was 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” 111 years ago the blossom of the Bauhinia blakeana is the emblem of Hong Kong. You can read about the Bauhinia here.

Tropical Almond’s “kernel” photo by Green Deane.

Tropical Almonds are now on Mother Nature’s dining table and we ate some during our recent foraging class in West Palm Beach. Terminalia catappa, which is really subtropical and not at all an almond, produces edible fruits for a few months. The ripe rind is edible as well as the “almond” inside which is really a little embryonic tree. It tastes like coconut9 blended with almonds. The only problem is the buoyant dry shells are quite tough and require a hammer or a couple of rocks to crack open. (For those who don’t know Florida does not have rocks. You can’t just rummage around and find a pair of rocks to break seed shells with.) There is some labor involved with eating Tropical Alomonds but they are still calorie positive. I usually have a couple of pieces of concrete hidden near this particular tree to get to the treat. To read more about the Tropical Almond go here.

Can two people independently come up with the same bad idea? The answer is yes when the idea is Daylight Savings Time, which we leave Nov 5th. A bug collector and a golfer in different parts of the world came up with the idea of Daylight Savings Time, and were correctly ignored until World War I. We flip forth and back every spring and fall though it now costs us more than it saves… Daylight Wasting Time or Daylight Slaving Time, take your pick… Only the government would cut a foot off one end of a blanket, sew it on to the other end and call the blanket longer. Personally I loathe the flipping and stopped doing so some 25 years ago. I stay on solar (standard) time and ignore Daylight Savings Time. So in a few days we will agree again. Not flipping is easy. I don’t change when I eat, go to bed, or feed the animals. I just ignore it. To read more about  time change click here or here.  Florida wrongly voted to stay on daylight savings time to avoid the flipping. But, as DST is a federal program the state needs congressional approval to opt out. Whereas no congressional permission is needed to stay on standard time. Hence, DST will haunt us again next spring. 

We’ve also been digging up a lot of wing Yam roots (Dioscorea alata.) While there are six species of “yams” locally the Winged Yam is the biggest caloric payoff. And it is a true yam not a variety of sweet potato (Ipomoea) which are improperly called “yams” and sold in cans and whole in grocery stores. Also called “Yam A” on my website   we are interested in eating its root not its distinctive dark brown “air potatoes.” The plant’s root can grow to many pounds — 30 unattended, 150 cultivated —  and is right below the surface usually. Boil it like a potato first then use like a potato. Its dark brown, misshapen “air potatoes” are quite visible this time of year hanging on the vine making it easy to find. As it’s seasonal demise is triggere by daylight hours you should be able to find it for a couple of more monhts. You can read more about the Winged Yam and others  here.

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

Foraging Classes:  The Wekiva Trail class also visits the Little Wekiva Rive Saturday.

Oct 28th, Seminole Wekiva Trail, Sanlando Park, 401 West Highland St. Altamonte Springs, Florida 32714.  9 a.m., meet at first parking lot on right.

Oct 29th  Blanchard Park,  2451 Dean Rd, Union Park, FL 32817 9.a.m. met at the pavilion by the tennis courts.

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

You get the USB, not the key.

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

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.

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

This is weekly newsletter #577. 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.

Hawthorn berries are edible, but not the seeds. Photo by Green Deane

There are many botanical mysteries, Hawthorns are one of the prime puzzlements among green plants. No one knows exactly how many species there are, dozens? Hundreds? Perhaps thousands.  It’s a PhD waiting to happen. But we do know they are in the greater rose family, and the small fruit is applesque — so don’t eat the seeds. In hungrier times hawthorn jelly was popular particularly made from crataegus monogyna. It’s a no-cook jelly you can dry into a sweet snack. Although a European speciesI have seen crataegus monogyna growing near Boone, North Carolina, Hawthorn, now, is more known medicinally as a tea from the leaves and or fruit because they are an effective Beta Blocker for certain cardio vascular conditions. 

Devil Walking stick fruit is not edible.

We also harvested a lot of chanterelles during our Gainesville Class,  including some red chanterelles. They went well in an omelette. Also spied were the non-edible berries of the Devil’s Walking stick. Blossom and shoots are edible but not the fruit — which have a kind of Elderberry-on-a-bad-day flavor. It is irritating in foraging that some of the easiest things to identify are not edible.

American lotus seeds ready for cooking. Photo by Green Deane

Seen twice this past week in Gainesville and Winter Garden were blossoming American Lotus. The first time I saw a small lake of these blossoms was when an old dry lakebed was deepened and reflooded for a housing development. The next spring suddenly what was for decades a dry lake was full of American Lotus blossoms. This is because the seeds can stay viable some 400 years, or so the experts report. Talk about a survival food! There are multiple edible parts on the American Lotus but I prefer the seeds. I also think when collecting by hand the seeds proved to be the most calories for the least amount of work. The roots are edible but digging them up can be a messy, laborious job. Locally American Lotus are easy to find now: Just look for a lake with large yellow blossoms on long stems. Further north and west they are a favorite sight on rivers such as the Mississippi. To read more about the American Lotus go here.

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

Foraging Classes: Accompanying me in my foraging class this Saturday in Mead Garden is the publicity side of my book publisher, Keen Adventure. Sunday’s class will dodge thunderstorm in Largo. 

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

August 13th, Eagle Lake, Largo fl. Meet at the dog park pavilion, 9 a.m.

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

Cereus cactus fruit is wild Dragon Fruit. Photo by Green Deane

One of the joys this time of year is that cactus tunas are ripening: Cactus fruit are called Tuna. There are two or three general types of cactus locally, Opuntia and Nopales and a third with edible fruit, the Cereus, which is more an ornamental Dragon Fruit.  How do you pick a Tuna (or cactus pad?) In a word carefully. 

Sweeping glochids off is another option.

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

Hackberries, or sugarberries, are usually burnt orange in color.

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

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Doveweed, Murdannia, might be the smallest non-floating edible plant in the United States. Barely known, easily overlooked, yet very invasive. It pays to be small. For some young Doveweed is prime for soups, others view it as famine food. I can understand that. It’s closely related to a genus that gives me an upset stomach, the Commelinas (Dayflowers.)  I use only Doveweed blossoms in my salad. To anyone used to finding Dayflowers the Doveweed will look familiar but only a few inches tall. It also has a lot of common names around the world including “Micky Mouse.” To read more about the Doveweed, go here.

Isabelline wheateater

To my knowledge I’ve never met anyone named Isabell. So when the word “isabelline” cross my optical path about plants I had to look into it. “Isabell” means “God’s promise” presumably a positive one. It was very popular girl’s name in the 1880s, all but disappear until 2003 whereupon it had a resurgence in popularity until 2007. Now it is on the wane again. But what is isabelline?  There are three application of which I have also apparently never heard of.  One is what we could call Spanish Gothic Architecture. King and queen Ferdinand and Isabella got Columbus launched then turned to building cathedrals and the like. That style is called Isabelline, properly capitalized. I’m surprised they didn’t called it Ferdinine. The second use is a color: Isabelline. A color? Yes, and the word has been in use for at least 400 years so it is not a paint-store invention like “Baby Fawn” or “egg blue.”

A Himalayan Brown Bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus.)

Isabelline “means a light yellow-gray and used mostly to describe mushrooms, animals and birds. There is the Isabelline Wheateater, see above left, the Isabelline Shrike, and the Isabelline Bear, right. Horses that are a cross between a Golden Palomino and a Champagne Palomino are also called Isabelline. Now, what of the third use? Well… ahem….Isabelline is also a reference to faded underwear. The story comes from when Philip II of Spain laid siege to the berg of Ostend in 1601. His daughter, Isabella, Archduchess of Austria, made a rather presumptuous vow not to change her underwear until the city was taken, thinking dad would be home by supper, lunch by Sunday for sure… Unfortunately for Isabell — and those around her — the siege took three years. Thus the color of dingy underwear is “isabelline.”

You get the USB, not the key.

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

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.

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

This is weekly newsletter #569. 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.

Yet to be spotted this year  Dry-loving Western Tansy Mustard.

It’s the wild salad time of year here. During our classes this past weekend we harvested peppergrass, West Indian chickweed, false hawk’s beard, sow thistle, cucumber weed, Wild Mustard and various sorrels. These same plants can be fermented into a sauerkaraut, which enhances the vitamin C and provides probiotics. The three of the common greens of the season we did not see are Henbit, real Chickweed and western Tansy Mustard.

Malvaviscus pendiflorus. Photo by Green Deane

We saw several species blooming plants this past weekend including the “Sleepy Hibiscus.” It’s a fairly easy shrub to identify because the bright red blossoms never unfurl. Also blossoming was 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 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” 111 years ago the blossom of the Bauhinia blakeana is the emblem of Hong Kong. You can read about the Bauhinia here.

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

Because of the holidays there is only one foraging class this week, my annual Urban Crawl which is this Friday, and starts at 10 .m. not the usual 9 a.m. This is the 12th time I’ve had this holiday event. There is no charge and most of the walk is handicap friendly.

December 23rd:  12th Annual Urban Crawl, Winter Park 10 a.m. Meet in front of Panera’s, 329 park avenue There is a free parking garage behind (west of) Panera. If you park on the streets you are likely to get a ticket as there is a two-hour time limit.   

Saturday December 31st   Blanchard Park, 2451 N Dean RD Orlando, FL 32817. Meet at the pavilion next to the tennis courts.

Saturday January 7th  Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m

Sunday January 8th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park. 9 a.m. 

Saturday January 15th the Princess Place Preserve, 2500 Princess Place Rd, Palm Coast, FL 32137, 9 a.m. Meet at the parking lot.

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

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

Yet to be seen this season is Henbit. It’s in the mint family but does not smell or taste minty. It does, however, have a square stem and the blossoms resembles mints. In northern climates it is one of the first green plants to pop up after the snow goes (it and chickweed.) Locally Henbit likes our cooler months of the year. It was esteemed by the natives because among all the annual greens it is not spicy but rather mild if not on the sweet side. What can be confusing about it is that the leave shape and stem length is different from young to old leaves. But they all have a scalloped shape. It also has a similar looking relative that is also edible called Dead Nettle. You can read about Henbit here.

Our native plantago, Dwarf Plantain. Photo by Green Deane.

 There are Plantains that look like tough bananas and there are Plantains that are low and leafy plants. They are not related. Just two different groups with the same common name. Low-growing Plantains can be native or non-native. The one pictured right is native, the Dwarf Plantain. As a genus the plants are well-known. The leaves are edible raw when young. As they age they become more bitter and stringy. Cooking makes them palatable up to a point. Then they move into the astringent medical realm. As such they are used on bites, stings and to help puncture wounds heal. The seeds are edible once produced and are the source of the commercial dietary fiber, psyllium. When finely ground the seeds are sold under the brand name Metamucil. There are numerous species of Plantagos (Plantains) with at least five common locally, P. virginiana, P. major, P. lanceolata and P. rugelii the latter which strongly resembles P. major. 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. 

You get the USB, not the key.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by 171-videos on a 128-GB USB, see right.  The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy especially if social order falters.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. Or you can make a $99 donation, which tells me it is for the USB (include a snail-mail address.)  I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. I had to stop making them as few programs now will read the ISO files to copy them. Burning a set also took about three hours. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. 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: Stale Bread and Cod Liver Oil, Killing Bugs with Tobacco Plugs, Eating weeds: Is it safe? Have they mutated? Not the Eastern Red Bug but the Pink Tabebuia, African Tulip Tree, Asparagus densiflorus, Green Deane’s Book… You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is my weekly newsletter #536. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

This is a common place to find mustard or radish plants this time of year, a streak of yellow blossoms beside the road. Whether you eat them depends on what kind of road it is et cetera. Photo By Green Deane

Mustard and radish blossoms clump.

Mustards like chilly weather, or at least locally they do. You can see Wild Mustards and Wild Radish not only along roadsides now but in various fields from farm land to ignored citrus groves. The two species are used interchangeably and look similar. However Wild Radishes tend to be serpentine rather than straight and tall like Wild Mustard. They also have lumpy seed pods, or, more lumpy than mustard seed pods. Usually you will find a stand of one or the other. I don’t recall finding both in the same patch. Blossom colors can range from yellow to white with streaks of purple. But the leaves always have the biggest lobe on the end farthest from the plant. Look for them in sunny areas with fertile soil. Not native they came from Eurasia in the 1700s. And note the seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to 60 years. To read more Wild Radish go here, and for Wild Mustard,here.

Silverthorn in blossoms in november and December. Photo by Green Deane

Last weekend I notice one fruiting species nearing the end of it’s season, and one blossoming to start its season. Still fruiting in our mild winter (thus far) is the Tallow plum. I found ripe yellow fruit and several green unripe one so unless the woodland creatures get them first we’ll have some for a few more weeks. And blossoming now — if you look very closely — is the Silverthorn. It has tiny boxy light green blossoms that will between now and February turn into bright red berries shaped like a skinny jelly bean.  Tallow plum  is a somewhat rare native whereas Silverthorn is an excaped ornamental from Asia and also sold commercially although it is  banned in a few states.

Malvaviscus pendiflorus. 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. Also blossoming was the Bauhinia. It’s a tree that is both easy and challenging at the same time. Bauhinia 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 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” 111 years ago the blossom of the Bauhinia blakeana is the emblem of Hong Kong. You can read about the Bauhinia here.

Foraging Classes are held rain or shine or cold.

Foraging classes: Spanning the state this weekend with a class on both coasts, Largo and Melbourne. 

Saturday November 26th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 a.m. 

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

Saturday December 3rd Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m.

Sunday December 4th Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. Meet at bayshore and Ganyard Street. 

For more information about the classes, to pre-pay, or to sign up go here.    For all communication with me use GreenDeane@gmail.com

FRIDAY December 23rd: 12th Urban Crawl it is also time to mark your calendar for my 12th annual Urban Crawl. It will be Friday December 23rd at 10 a.m. in Winter Park, Florida. We meet in front of Panera’s. It’s difficult to believe I’ve had that walk for twelve years now. It is wheel chair friendly. The Urban Crawl is free to all. 

Podocarpus arils are edible. The seeds are not.

Actually there’s nothing wrong with the photo per se, it’s the time of year that’s different. Usually Podocaprus develop non-edible seeds with their edible aril around early August, give or take a week or two. That’s the seasonal mother load so to speak. But for several years I have noticed four Podocarpus trees fruiting near Christmas time. I have also spied one hedge doing the same not far away. As the weather varies year to year I can’t really say that is the cause. My next choice is different species. That might account for it. Thus while we usually harvest the arils in August we have a yuletide treat when I do my free Urban Crawl near these trees December 23rd. To read more about Podocarpus go here.

A local city has added an edible to their downtown park. Photo by Green Deane

Shall I craft an alliteration and say I saw an exciting sighting this week in Winter Park? A while ago in their downtown park they removed a Limequat leaving the space empty. I have no idea why the tree had to go in that it was regularly fruiting and while not rare a novelty. It has been replaced by a Acerola Cherry also called Barbados Cherry. This little tree’s claim to fame is a huge amount of acorbic acid which is natural vitamin C. Each fruit has several times your daily need for vitamin C.  This tree has been fruiting and I noticed the fruit was not being picked up. This is a common sight. I routinely see fruit rotting on the ground. This includes mangos, star fruit, loquats, citrus, apples and now Acerola Cherries

Changing foraging videos: As my WordPress pages are being updated the video set will go away.  They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy. The DVD format, however, is becoming outdated. Those 135 videos plus 36 more are now available on a USB drive. While the videos were played from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The 171-video USB is $99. If you make a $99 “donation” using the link at the bottom of this page or here, that order form provides me with your address, the amount — $99 — tells me it is not a donation and is for the USB. 

Redflowered Ragweed. Photo by Green Deane

Redlfower Ragweed isn’t a ragweed but I’ve been seeing it for a couple of years now. WE should see some in the Largo class. It reminds me of Fireweed/Burnweed except with red blossoms. Botanically it’s Crassocephalum crepidioides (kras-oh-SEF-uh-lum krep-pid-dee-OY-deez.) Crassocephalum is from the Dead Latin “Crassus” meaning “thick” and “kephale” which is Greek for head. Crepidioides is more mangle Greek. “-oides” in Dead Latin is mispronounced borrowed Greek and means “resembles.” Crepidioides means “resembles Crepis.” Crepis is from an old Greek word for a frilly funeral veil. It works its way into English via French as “crepe” paper.  So “thick head resembles crepe paper” is one way to interpret the plant’s name.” And… even though it is called the Redflower Ragweed its leaves more resemble Fireweed/Burnweed, Erechtites hieraciifolius (which is an even more complicated, naughty story.) Redflower Rageweed’s blossoms, however, more resemble the toxic Florida Tassel Flower. Cornucopia II says of Crassocephalum crepidioides on page 37: “Ebolo, Okinawan Spinach, Young leaves and shoots are used as a potherb, fried, or mixed in Khao yam. The leaves are fleshy, tinged with purple and have a somewhat mucilaginous quality and nutty flavor. Has become quite popular on the island of Okinawa and in Hawaii In Thailand, the roots are eaten with chili sauce or cooked in fish curry. Tropical Africa. Cultivated.”

This is weekly newsletter #532. 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.

Our mystery berry Sunday was Farkleberrry, Vaccinium aborreum. The fruit is edible but not as tastry as it blueberry relatives.

There used to be an old standard song called “What a difference a day makes”. That tune crossed my musical mind Sunday when I visited a mushroom spot that two weeks ago had thousands of chanterelles. On my second visit Sunday there were none. Timing is not everything but it’s important. With saw palmetto berries you have to get to them before the poachers do. I couldn’t find any this week. We also noticed this past week a tree of unripe sea grapes. They are usually edible by September 1st. And the delightful Rose-ann tells us a persimmon location we frequent is ripening, right on time. Foraging is treasure hunting for adults

Cereus fruit is soft and semi-sweet. Photo by Green Deane

Also fruiting now are Cereus cactus. Like grapes Cereus are fairly easy to identify by genus but exactly what species is a challenge. Frankly it is a challenge one does not have to accept. Most Cereus cactus, except perhaps the commercial “Dragon Fruit” are shaped like small pink footballs about four inches long.  They are attached rather strongly so nippers or the like are best to cut them off.  Toss the fruit in the refrigerator for a while then cut them open like two little row boats. The white flesh has the texture of overripe watermelon. The black seeds are soft and edible (unlike most cactus seeds which are extremely hard.) The cactus themselves are called “candle” cactus as they are usually but not always an unbranching trunk. Allso called Peruvian Cactus the headache associated with species identification is there are a lot of “fake” botanical names made up by sellers.  Another problem that can make cactus tough plants to identify is having to resort to counting spines and length.  You can read more about them here.

Caesarweed is in the hibiscus group.

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

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

Trying to get back into the teaching swing of things following Hurricane Ian and my move near Tampa. Water levels and distruction were taken into consideration

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

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

Saturday October 22nd , Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405, 9 a.m. meet just north of the science center.

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

For more information about the classes, to pre-pay, or to sign up go here.     The email to use is GreenDeane@gmail.com

Roses are eaten carefully. Photo by Green Deane

While teaching this past weekend we noticed some Cherokee Roses getting ready to bloom. They can flower any time of year but locally prefer October to May. So start looking for roses. The blossoms are quite edible. In fact I have three gallons of Sparkling Rose Petal Wine aging for Valentine’s Day (though I haven’t had a “Valentine” for many years it pays to be an optimist.) Most folks already know that rose hips are high in vitamin C. They can vary in flavor from bitter to “sweet & sour.” Raw you eat only the outside portion of rose hips avoiding the seeds. The seeds have tiny hairs on them that are very irritating. They were the original itching powder and if consumed can cause what the Aboriginals called “itchy bottom disease.” You can cut the hips in half — if they are large — and let them dry then use the outside to make tea. Or you can use the entire rose hip for tea but pour it through a fine filter to take out the hairs. Another option is to boil the hip then squeeze the pulp through a screen or the like, capturing the seeds. Some people dry the hips and rub them in a sieve to get the hairs off leaving the seeds. It takes patience.  To read more about roses go here.

People lived for a long time without any modern conveniences.

Hurricane Ian, spotty internet and several now dead email addresses has interrupted my means of communication and bill paying of late.It also stopped delivering social media hate. That reminds me there is much social unrest pending. When I ponder possible food shortages and the power being turned off I tell myself that is doable. That’s how many of our grandparents lived. If they could do it and thrive so can we. My grandmother was the forager of the family, having grown up quite poor. And my grandfather did the gardening. Electricity was an oil lamp, transpotation locally was by horse, or bicycle and any distance by rail. So you’re suffering shortages you are just going to have to live like your grandparents. You can do it.  That’s a different mind set than seeing yourself a victim of current events. 

You get the USB, not the key.

Changing foraging videos: As my WordPress pages are being updated the video set will go away.  They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy. The DVD format, however, is becoming outdated. Those 135 videos plus 36 more are now available on a USB drive. While the videos were played from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The 171-video USB is $99. If you make a $99 “donation” using the link at the bottom of this page or here, that order form provides me with your address, the amount — $99 — tells me it is not a donation and is for the USB. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.

This is weekly newsletter #526. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

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

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

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

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

Kudzu leaves have hair on the margins (edges.)

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

Kudzu blossoms smell like grapes.

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

The deeper the yellow the sweeter the plum is.

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

Monarda punctata, Horsemint, Beebalm. Photo by Green Deane

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sweeping clochids off catus is another option.

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

You get the USB, not the key.

Changing foraging videos: As my WordPress pages are being updated the video set will go away.  They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy. The DVD format, however, is becoming outdated. Those 135 videos plus 36 more are now available on a USB drive. While the videos were played from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The 171-video USB is $99. If you make a $99 “donation” using the link at the bottom of this page or here, that order form provides me with your address, the amount — $99 — tells me it is not a donation and is for the USB. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.

This is weekly newsletter #517, If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

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

It was fruit day Sunday during our class in Port Charlotte. The champangne mangoes were just ripening. A great tasty surprise was many ground cherries. There are several species locally and those were Physalis viscosa. I pocketed some seeds for planting. Behind season were coco-plums (we only found three) and Java Plums were only bosoming. We did get  to taste some non-commercial Dragon Fruit from some candle cactus. 

Cereus cactus fruit is wild Dragon Fruit. Photo by Green Deane

Folks also think cactus, like palms, are warm weather residents. In fact, cactus are native to 46 of the 50 US states and naturalized in one of those four (Hawaii.) The only states they are not native in other than Hawaii are Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont — the farthest away from their origin in central America. That said, I knew where there were some surviving cactus behind an old homestead in Maine.  They looked quite ratty every spring but somehow managed to survive. Cactus have been naturalized in many parts of the world. Malta comes to mind where they are living fences and a “traditional” source of wine and spirits even though they are native to Mexico and south.

Pindo Palm can fruit almost anytime. Photo by Green Deane

July is passing and that means many different things to foragers depending upon your location on the rotation. In a particular latitudinal belt around the world it means the Pindo Palms are in fruit — my favorite after coconut which also fruit in south Florida. And don’t think Pindo Palms are just a warm region plant. They grow as far north as Washington DC and elsewhere in under protection. Also call the Jelly Palm, they were standard landscaping for every southern home because you can make a jelly from the fruit without having to add any pectin or sugar. However, just as year-to-year production of wine changes with the weather so does the quality of the pindo jelly. It has vintages. Some years you will have to add a little sugar, other years some pectin. But most years it is just right. I also like to eat the fruit right off the palm. I enjoy the pulp and spit out the fiber. Some folks just eat all the fiber and pulp. The seed kernel are easy to get out and taste intensely of coconut.  Pindo wine is always cloudy, though, because of the pectin, but after 14 glasses you don’t notice.

False roselle leaves are edible raw or cooked, Photo by Green Deane

A species responding to the warmer and wetter weather is the False Roselle. It grows “wild” in my back yard. I noticed this past week seedlings coming up. To the eyes of anyone who looked at plants in a northern climate ones first guess on seeing the False Roselle is that it is a misplaced Red Maple. The resemblance is superficial but close enough to give one pause. Though I would not label the tree with a Pampered Chef epitaph but to me the leaves say “Salads and Stir Frys. Its red leaves — true red, not the reddish green of the true Roselle — are tart and just rightly so. They go into salads well. More so, they take to quick vegetable-lush stir fries and do not lose their color or taste on cooking. It’s even a good tree to nibble on wherever you find it. The species, interestingly, is not long-lived, a few years at best like Elderberry. But it spreads easily and can be grown from seeds or better from shoots. Just cut off a few young branches, take off the lower leaves, put the stems in water and within a couple of weeks you will have well-rooted twigs to plant. In fact I over-winter some every year. A heavy frost or a light freeze will die them back to the roots. Young trees will come back in the spring, but often older plants won’t. So I raise a few in the winter to make sure I can restock in the summer. The blossoms are edible as well and a juice can be made from the caylexs. Red Maple are more iffy. Red Maple leaves are bitter but humans can eat a few of them. However, Red Maple leaves are deadly to horses and they will eat them. Keep your horses away from Red Maples. You can read about the False Roselle here

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

Foraging Classes: My move from Altamonte Springs to Lithia is done, hoping to get back to a more regular schedule.

Saturday, July 16th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. 9 a.m. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park 

Saturday, July 17th  Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. 9 a.m.. Meet at the bathrooms.

Saturday, July 23rd, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 a.m.

Sunday, July 24th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m.

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

Barnyard Grass is the most misnamed grass in the world.

One would think that with a name like “Barnyard Grass” one would find it in barnyards. But no. It is probably safe to say you will rarely find Barnyard Grass in a barnyard. Why? Because Barnyard Grass likes to grow in water, lots of water. You can easily find it in ponds, streams and drainage ditches but not barnyards unless it is growing directly under the roof drain spout in a very low, wet spot. In all my years of foraging I have seen Barnyard Grass once in a barnyard but dozens of times in water. In wet areas look for a tall grass that resembles wheat. The stems will be hairy and usually purple at the base. One easy place to find them locally is in dried up lakes. Often at the still-damp low spot Barnyard Grass will colonize the entire low spot. Not a native it comes in season at the same time and one can find it seeding now. The grain is a bit more coarse than wheat but can be harvested, prepared and used the same way. You can read about Barnyard Grass here

You get the USB, not the key.

Changing foraging videos: As my WordPress pages are being updated the video set will go away. 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. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.

This is weekly newsletter 515, 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.

Goji berries like brackish water locations and the cooler weather of fall and winter. Photo by Green Deane

The Christmasberry, of which there are many, is poorly named. I have found it from late November to mid-April. We found and ate a lot of them in my foraging class last week south of Daytona Beach. I have also found patches barely blossoming to others fruiting heavily at the same time. Whenever you find Lycium carolinium its looks close to dead if not dying, dry, leafless, covered with Ramalina lichen. Except for the blossom it does not look like a member of the Nightshade family, which it is. 

Most folks are surprised to learn Goji Berries grow in North America. Six species were eaten by Native Americans. Among the edibles species on this continent are L. andersonii, Lycium berlandieri, L. carolinianum, L. exsertum, L. fremontii, L. pallidum, and L. torreyi.  L. ferocissimum is a pest in Australia and their native L. australe was eaten by the Aboriginals. The leaves of the L. halimifolium are cooked and eaten in Eurasia as is the L. chinense. The L. chinense and L. barbarum produce the commercial fruit called Goji Berry. L. barbarum is naturalized in England and L. chinense is naturalized  in about 19 states and Ontario. 

Interestingly the USDA nutrition panels on Goji Berries are unusually short, many of them commercially generated. According to the longest one 100 grams of dried Goji Berries have 349 calories, 14.26 grams of protein, 0.39 grams of fat, 77.06 grams of carbohydrates (45 of them sugar) and 13 grams of fiber. Vitamin C is 48.4 mg, two thirds your daily need, and vitamin A 26822 IU (which is some 11 times your daily need.)  Sodium 298 mg, calcium 190 mg, and iron 6.8 mg. That is is high in sodium is not surprising. I always find the species growing where there is brackish water.   

The species does come with some warmings. As mentioned the Goji is in the Nightshade family so perhaps people with an allergy to that family (tomatoes, peppers, egg plants, tomatillos et cetera) should avoid it. Goji is also high in lectins which can also bother people. The reason why we can’t eat raw kidney beans is lectins, the poison Ricin is lectins from the Castor Bean Plant. Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins. Cereal grains and legumes are high in lectins. Gluten is a lectin and some people are gluten intolerant. The one medical warning associated with Goji berries is they may increase the potency of drugs like Warfarin (making you bleed more easily.) Goji berries also contain atropine in low amounts

Bauhinia blossoms are edible but not all the seeds. Species vary.

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 that never unfurl. Also blossoming was 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 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” 111 years ago the blossom of the Bauhinia blakeana is the emblem of Hong Kong. You can read about the Bauhinia here.

Chickweed is highly seasonal. Photo by Green Deane

Real chickweed will soon arrive. If you want to sample it in a variety of ways you have a couple of months at best. I usually find chickweed locally between Christmas and Valentine’s Day. It can be found earlier and occasionally after Valentine’s Day. But those two holidays mark the practical beginning and end of the local chickweed season. It also doesn’t grow much farther south than central Florida. In far northern climates Chickweed is a green of spring. It actually germinates under the snow so it can get a head start on other spring plants. Snow spits here every half century or so and the ground never freezes which is why we can forage 365 days a year. Early Chickweed in the Carolinas can be found Starting in September. Chickweed itself is fairly easy to identify. Besides tasting like corn silk it has a stretchy inner core and one line of hair that runs along the stem switching sides at each pair of leaves. Don’t confuse Chickweed for a local cousin the edible, Drymaria cordata. To read more about chickweed click here.  Also coming on strong is Pellitory. To read about Pellitory again click here.

Most of us have been told eating apple seeds is dangerous. That is usually followed by “there was a man who ate a cup of apple seeds and died…”

Is that theoretically possible? Yes.  You’d have to eat 85 grams of apples seeds, about three ounces, or about 114 seeds, all at one time, all thoroughly chewed. That could, in theory, deliver a fatal dose of cyanide. That’s for a 150 pound person, a larger person could tolerate more, a child much less. Probably children should not eat any apple seeds. The way cyanide works is rather fascinating. It attaches to our red blood cells better than oxygen. So instead of oxygen being delivered throughout the body for mitochondrial use cyanide is. We essentially stop making energy. But what about the guy who ate the cup of seeds? There’s bit of a problem with that.  In 1964 John Kingsbury, Phd., an expert on plant poisonings, particularly regarding farm animals, published Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada, Prentice-Hall. He was the expert and his book became the book to reference. On page 365 Kingsbury wrote:

“Apple seeds are cyanogenetic. A man, who found apple seeds a delicacy, saved a cupful of them. Eating them at one time, he was killed by cyanide poisoning.”

Kingsbury’s inclusion of the incident in his book gave the story legitimacy and it has been quoted extensively ever since by professionals and amateurs alike. But from a traditional journalistic point of view the story is full of what we called in the newsroom “holes.” Who ate the seeds, when, and where? Basic facts that add credibility. Professor that he was Kingsbury included where he got the story from in footnote 1335. That footnote reads: Reynard, G.B., and J.B.S. Norton in Poisonous Plants of Maryland in Relationship to Livestock. Maryland Agricultural Experimental Station, Technical Bulletin. A10, 1942. 312 pp. So Kingsbury in 1964 is quoting a farm bulletin from 1942. What does that bulletin say? On page 276 of the now 77-year old bulletin Reynard and Norton write about prussic acid harming livestock. (Amygdalin is essentially a sugar and cyanide molecule which when digested releases hydrogen cyanide which used to be called prussic acid.) They note in the last paragraph, above right:

“Apple seeds are mentioned, not as having caused stock-poisoning, but because of the fact that one instance was recorded from personal inquiry in which an adult man was killed following eating a cup of these seeds at one time. The seeds had been saved up, apparently thought to be a delicacy in small amounts and upon being eaten developed enough of the deadly prussic acid to cause this tragic death. The instance is recorded here as a caution to others who might attempt to eat more than a few of these seeds at any one time. Previous investigators have reported that apple seeds contain appreciable amounts of amygdalin from which prussic acid is developed, but actual reports of poisoning are rare.”

Florida Tasselflower is long-term toxic to humans and very toxic for horses.

Livestock poisonings from prussic acid are “rare.” What of  humans?  A 130-year search of the New York Times by this writer produced 437 stories involving prussic acid. Those included suicides, murders and a few accidental medicinal deaths. None by an apple seed overdose (which surely would have made the newspaper.) We are left with no who, no where, and no when as well as a  “recorded from personal inquiry…”  and “apparently.” That means someone told them it had happened. Their reference is as weak as Kingsbury’s. Without a name, a time and place it is not much better than an urban legend. It could have happened, or it just might be a story.  More so, man has been eating apples for some 6,000 years. One would have thought in that amount of time it would have become common knowledge that you don’t eat a lot of apple seeds in one sitting. Also during the days of Johnny Appleseed everyone was making cider and there were millions of seeds available annually for decades if not centuries. One wouldn’t have to save them up at all. Getting rid of apple seeds was a problem, not getting enough of them. Also they dry out very quickly so if you saved only a few at at time by the time you had a cup that way the earlier seeds would not be edible (and drying can reduce the offending chemical. My grandmother dried peach pits for that purpose, making them safe.)  And … with all those millions of seeds around and hungry people why only one report of an apple seed over dose?

We can’t say the story is not true, but we can call it doubtful. Click here to read about Wild Apples.

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

Foraging Classes: Two favored locations for classes this weekend, Port Charlotte and Mead Garden. The Saturday class in Port Charlotte is filling up quickly. It features a variety of edibles including many salt-tolerant species. Mead Garden Sunday is a central location with a great diversity of species. 

Saturday December 4th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot of Bayshore and Ganyard St.

Sunday December 5th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the bathrooms. The park entrance is on South Denning. Some GPS directions get it wrong.

Saturday December 11th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet by the playground. 

Sunday December 12th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m to noon, meet at the pavilion next to the tennis courts. 

Updating videos: This past month was busy with the uploading of 12 new videos on You Tube in EatTheWeeds: 151: Persimmon Revisited, 152: Lantana, 153: Sea Oxeye, 154: Tropical Almond Revisited, 155: Sumac Revisited, 156: Seagrapes, 157: Tamarind, 158: Bananas Revisited, 159: Ghost Pipes, 160: Swine Cress, 161: Goldenrod, and 162 Dove Plum. The goal over the coming months is to revisit some species that were recorded on old technology. Some new species will be as well. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by a 150-video USB. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. 

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk 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.

My annual Urban Crawl is coming up, my twelfth, on Friday, December 17th. We meet in front of Panera’s at 10 a.m. in Winter Park (north end of Park Avenue.) We wander south to Rollins College, head back north stopping at Starbucks to drink & drain, go east to the public library area, the lake docks, then back to Panera’s. It takes a couple of hours. There is a free parking garage behind (west) of Paneras if you go to the upper floors. If you park on the city streets you chance a ticket as the class is longer than parking hours allow.