Search: wood sorrel

In time Henbit can get a foot high.  Photo by Green Deane

When lawns aren’t mowed food grows. The weather’s been good and our winter plants are happy. In foraging classes these last two weeks weve seen Sheep’s Sorrel, Oxalis, Pellitory,  Black Medic, Wild Geraniums, Horsemint,  Chickweed  and Henbit. The latter was a favored spring time green with Native Americans because it’s mild rather than peppery. and while in the mint family it is not minty. It’s edible raw or cooked. An edible relative, “Dead Nettle” looks very similar but is more purple.  Henbit is called “Henbit” because chickens like it. It’s usually found in sunny, non-arid places. To read more about Henbit go here.  Surprisingly what we haven’t seen yet is Stinging Nettle.  Perhaps the nights have not been cool enough. Fast growing it’s usually around for a couple of months or so. 

Swinecress is an easy to identify winter mustards.

During the classes seasonal mustards were also on display. Poor Man’s Pepper Grass is everywhere. Hairy Bittercress was found nearby as was Swine Cress (article here, new video here.) Also well-represented this past week was Shepherd’s Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris, a much milder relative of Poor Man’s Pepper Grass. They have similar blossoms but differently shaped leaves and seed pods. The Shepherd’s pods look more like hearts than “purses.” One interesting aspect about Shepherd’s Purse is that I personally have never seen it growing south of the Ocala area. It’s found in 18 northern counties of Florida, one west central Florida county, Hillsborough, one southern Florida county, Dade, and throughout North America. It’s just kind of sparse in the lower half of the state. Also not see yet this season is Western Tansy Mustard. You find it in dry, sandy places like corrals. 

Wild Radish and Mustard are in blossom now. Photo by Green Deane

Driving back on the Beach Line” from our Lori Wilson Park meet up we saw miles of wild mustard growing roadside, like a light yellow hedge. 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.

Our native plantain, Plantago P. virginiana. 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. (P. rugelii is pink at the base of the stem, P. major is not.) They are all used the same way.  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 northern oaks. You can read about the Plantains here and I have a video here.  

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

Foraging Classes: Sticking to the east coast this weekend with classes in West Palm Beach and Port Orange which is near Daytona Beach. 

Saturday January 8th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m to noon, meet just north of the science center. 

Sunday January 9th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion. 

Saturday January 15th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte, meet at the parking lot at Bayshore and Ganyard, 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday January 16th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms, 9 a.m. to noon. The entrance is on South Denning. Some GPS directions get it wrong and put it on S. Pennsylvania. 

Sunday February 6th,  John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk, pavilion 1 parking lot. 9 a.m. to noon. 

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

The weather was pleasant and the turnout large for our visit to Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach last weekend. I arrived at the park about 8 a.m. and wandered around looking at plants for the 10 a.m. walk. How unusual is that behavior, looking at plants in a park? Someone called the police and said I was hiding in the bushes and carrying a rifle (all I had was a phone, not even a walking stick.) Anyway… seven officers showed up, driving across the lawn no less. I didn’t know the Town of Cocoa Beach had that many officers and on a Sunday morning no less. After no rifle was found I got a lecture about staying on the paths. 

Florida native Snowberries/Snowbells. Photo by Green Deane

The second surprise of the day were two fruiting Natal Plums, one with easy access. If the officers had arrived then my defense would have been I was removing seeds of an invasive species from a protected native habitat. As it was we had a good taste of fruit, which is actually a commercial crop. The day also had a third surprise, Snowberries/Snowbells. It was only the second time in decades I had seen them and their name embarrassingly eluded me. Snowberries are Chiococca alba, which in Greek means Snow Berries White. Oddly it’s a Florida native in the coffee family (no it is not edible, and has been used to make folks throw up.) I last saw them on Marco Island (southwest Florida.) Most references say they are found only in south Florida other say they are found around most of the state’s coast then west to Texas then southward. As they are snow white they could make an attractive plant in the right location. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by a 170-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. 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. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about, such as the one to the left. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: California Wild Mushroom Parties, A Good Reason To Eat Wild Garlic, Black Walnuts and Amaranth, Sea Salt and Plastic, Wild Mustard? Heavy Metals. Oriental Persimmons. What is it? Pine Cough Drops and Needles, Skullcap, Malodorous Plant? Another NJ Tree, Maypop? Roadside Plant, Unknown in Sudan, Please Help Identify, and Preserving Prickly Pear Bounty. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

Creeping Indigo is toxic to many foraging animals. Photo by Top Tropicals.com

Veterinarians annually issue a warning this time of year about a plant that is makes horses sick, Creeping Indigo, Indigofera spicata. Cold weather causes this pea relative to blossom pink, making it a little easier to see. Unfortunately it is a plant favored by horses with at least one dying and others sickened.  (This highlights that relying on instinctual means to avoid toxic plants is not too reliable for animals or man.) As with many toxic and invasive species Creeping Indigo was intentionally brought to Florida in 1925. The University of Florida imported it from Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) for agricultural experiments. When it killed one of two rabbits the testing stopped but the weed stayed (the second rabbit recovered after the Creeping Indigo was removed from its diet.)  Within eight years Creeping Indigo was raising concerns about poisoning farm animals.

That’s Green Deane as a sprout on “Ginger.” Home included five horses, rabbits, chickens, ducks, a multitude of dogs and cats and an occasional pet squirrel.

Besides horses, it is also toxic to cattle, sheep, goats, guinea pigs, the aforementioned rabbits, and birds. Pigs won’t eat it which calls into question reports that it does not bother pigs. Someone might be assuming that since pigs aren’t being reported sick from eating Creeping Indigo they aren’t bothered by it whereas it could equally be that because pigs avoid it there are no reports porcine poisoning. The prime toxin in Indigofera spicata is indospicine which “inhibits the incorporation of arginine and other amino acids in liver cells result in liver insufficiency.”

This is my weekly newsletter #489. 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, 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.

Chickweed is happy now. Bright green foliage in gray lawns. Photo by Green Deane

Our tasty winter green chickweed  is in its glory; lush, full, blossoming, happy to be alive. With such healthy plants it was easy to find the identifying characteristics: stretchy inner core, a single line of hair on the main stem that switches 90 degrees at the nodes, a five-petal blossom that looks like 10 petals, and uncooked chickweed tastes like raw corn. We saw a lot of it in Ocala Sunday. 

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

When lawns aren’t mowed food grows. The weather is perfect and winter plants a plenty.  We saw the large acorns of the Chestnut Oak, by far the largest locally. In abundance during our foraging classes were Sheep’s Sorrel, Oxalis, Latex Stranger Vine, Pellitory,  Black Medic, Wild Geraniums, Horsemint and Henbit. The latter was a favored spring time green with Native Americans because it’s mild rather than peppery. While in the mint family it is not minty. It’s edible raw or cooked. An edible relative, “Dead Nettle” looks similar but is more purple.  Henbit is called “Henbit” because chickens like it. It’s usually found in sunny, non-dry places. To read more about Henbit go here.  Surprisingly what we didn’t see in Stinging Nettle. 

Shepherd’s Purse Photo by Green Deane

During the class the seasonal mustards were also on display. Poor Man’s Pepper Grass was everywhere. But we also saw mild Western Tansy Mustard. Hairy Bittercress was found nearby as was a plain old mustard. Also well-represented this past week was Shepherd’s Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris, a much milder relative of Poor Man’s Pepper Grass. They have similar blossoms but differently shaped leaves and seed pods. The Shepherd’s pods look more like hearts than “purses.” One interesting aspect about Shepherd’s Purse — photo left — is that I personally have never seen it growing south of the Ocala area. It’s found in 18 northern counties of Florida, one west central Florida county, Hillsborough, one southern Florida county, Dade, and throughout North America. It’s just kind of sparse in the lower half of the state. 

Our native Plantgo is in season.

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.    

Wild Radish are reaching peak season.

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.

Calliandra Haematocephala is toxic.

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.

Foraging Classes: Two classes this weekend, Saturday in West Palm Beach and Sunday in Winter Park.

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

Sunday, January 10th, Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. 9 a.m. to noon. The entrance is on the west side off Denning  not the east side off Pennsylvania. Some GPS maps are wrong. Meet near the bathrooms. 

Saturday, January 16th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the dog park pavilion. 

Sunday, January 17th, Spruce Creek, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet that the pavilion (first right after house.) 

Saturday, January 23th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion by the tennis courts. 

Sunday, January 24th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday January 30th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL, 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the dog park. 

Sunday January 31st, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon, meet in the parking lot at Ganyard and Bayshore. 

Saturday February 6th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion by the pump house. 

Sunday, February 7th, Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. 9 a.m. to noon. The entrance is on the west side off Denning  not the east side off Pennsylvania. Some GPS maps are wrong. Meet near the bathrooms.  

For more information, 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?

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

150-video USB or 135 video DVD set would be a good winter present and either is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been selling for seven years and are still available. They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy.  A second option is a16-gig USB that has those 135 videos plus 15 more. While the videos can be run from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The150-video USB is $99 and the 135-video DVD set is now $99. The DVDs will be sold until they run out then will be exclusively replaced by the USB. This is a change I’ve been trying to make for several years. So if you have been wanting the 135-video DVD set order it now as the price is reduced and the supply limited. Or you can order the USB. My headache is getting my WordPress Order page changed to reflect these changes. We’ve been working on it for several months. 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 #439. 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.

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

No one told the Ringless Honey Mushrooms it isn’t November. This controversial mushroom usually shows up in Central Florida during the first two weeks of the eleventh month. And, depending upon the weather, can have a minor flush in April or so. But we saw some Saturday in Blanchard Park east of Orlando and there have been sporadic reports of them on the Florida Mushroom Identification Forum. If you live farther north — Georgia, the Carolinas — now is the season to see them. Why are they controversial? Because some experts consider them “choice” eating and others view them as non-edible. I like them. I cook the young caps about twice as long as other mushrooms. To me they have a hint of maple syrup flavor. Some people can’t eat them unless they have been cooked twice. Without said they cause some digestive upset. And I know one person who can’t eat them even when cooked twice (such as parboiling then frying.) Usually the stems are not eaten but are used to make broth. Last year I dehydrated some 80 pounds of them. You can read about them here and watch my video here. 

“Cloves” are the dried buds of a Syzygium.

A month ago 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. 

Classes are held rain or shine.

Last week the weather gods smiled favorably upon us. We did experience a few showers during our class in east Orlando but because of timing we found shelters to stay dry. Our fears that Sunday’s class in West Palm Beach would a rain out because of Hurricane Sally were unfounded. Not only did we not have any showers but it was lowery (overcast and cool) but had a nice breeze. It made for a very comfortable class. This week my foraging classes are in Gainesville and just south of Daytona Beach at Spruce Creek. There we might see blossoming Goji berries. It depends upon the weather. 

Saturday September 19th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. (There may not be any bathrooms at this location so plan accordingly.) 

Sunday September 20th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the Pavilion. 

Saturday, September 26th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981, 9 a.m. to noon. This location does not have an official bathroom. Plan accordingly. 

Sunday, September 27th, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk.  

To learn more about the classes, to pre-pay, or sign up go 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. This tart Rumex is closely related to Sheep’s Sorrel — sometimes is 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.  To read more about the Heartwing Sorrel go here.

Bacopa blossoms all year but it likes the spring. Photo 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 crease on the back 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. 

Ground Nut blossoms look pretty but smell bad.

Blossoming now and making it easy to spot are Ground Nuts, or Apios americana. This is a vine found in wet spots nearly everywhere east of the Rockies. It has clusters of maroon pea blossoms, which means “wings and keels.” The four petals of pea blossoms arrange themselves differently than most blossoms. Two flare out and two form together creating what looks like a boat’s keel and two wings. Grounds Nuts are a foraging staple and were also the second plant product exported from the New World to the Old World. The first was Sassafras wood. While we find Ground Nuts in damp spots they will happily grow in a regular garden producing edible tubers for many years. More to the point, once you know what the underground tubers look like you can easily identify them anywhere you find them. To learn more about Ground Nuts go here.

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

Changing foraging videos:  My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been selling for seven years and are still available. They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy.  A second option is a16-gig USB that has those 135 videos plus 15 more. While the videos can be run from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The150-video USB is $99 and the 135-video DVD set is now $99. The DVDs will be sold until they run out then will be exclusively replaced by the USB. This is a change I’ve been trying to make for several years. So if you have been wanting the 135-video DVD set order it now as the price is reduced and the supply limited. Or you can order the USB. My headache is getting my WordPress Order page changed to reflect these changes. We’ve been working on it for several weeks. However, if you want to order now either the USB or the DVD set make a $99 “donation” using the link at the bottom of this page or here.  That order form provides me with your address, the amount — $99 — tells me it is not a donation and in the note say if you want the DVD set or the USB. 

Green Deane Forum

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

This is weekly newsletter #423, If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

The leaves of Heartwing Dock resemble wide knives. Photo by Green Deane

Species in the Rumex genus can be difficult. No doubt you are seeing one now in many fields. Usually here this time of year it’s R. hastatulus, Heartwing Dock aka Hastateleaf Dock. R. acetosella, Sheep Sorrel, resembles it in shape and taste but is rather rare in Florida, in only two counties and not seen for a long time. Nonetheless most folks wrongly call R. hastatulus Sheep Sorrel instead of Heartwing Dock. It’s hard to fight the crowd. All parts above ground are edible but usually just leaves and seeds. 

The redish-pink seeds are also edible. Photo by Green Deane

One can’t mention Rumexes without a knowing nod to Professor Merritt Fenald. He was the Big Botanist on Campus at Harvard for half a century starting around 1900. He co-wrote with Alfrd Kinsey a book on foraging around 1920 but it was not printed until 1943 when rationing was imposed during World War II. A new edition was printed 1958  (and reprinted in 1996.) At the time Fernald said there were some 15 Rumex in North America and all edible (but not all palatable.) The actual number of species and their names varies today with eleven listed in the state. Another confusing aspect is that some of them are tart when young but grow bitter when old. I think R. crispus (Curly Dock) and R. verticillatus (Swamp Dock) have that characteristic. (That is why I have found them both tart and bitter.) 

Harvard Professor Merritt Fernald.

As a curious aside I have a reasonably large book library on plants. The botanical “bible” for Florida is the Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida (third edition, 2011) by Richard Wunderlin and Bruce F. Hansen. In that book the Rumexes are geographically described on page 566. I also have Gray’s Manual of Botany written by Fernald and copyrighted in 1950, the year Fernald died. Rumexes in that book are on page… 566. Nice coincidence. Incidentally Fernald’s book — Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America — was printed eight years after his death by The President and Fellows of Harvard College. They also did the reprint in 1996, a century after Fernald was a student at Harvard.

You can read about the Rumexes here.

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

I don’t have any foraging classes this weekend because of the Florida Herbal Conference near Lake Wales. So we start again in March. Note a class that was scheduled for Red Bug Slough has been changed to Ft. Desoto. 

Saturday, March 7th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the pavilion near the YMCA building and tennis courts.

Sunday, March 8th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon. (There are no official bathrooms at this location.)

Saturday, March 14th, Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246.  We meet at Building “A” next to the administration parking lot. 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday, March 15th, Ft. Desoto Park, 3500 Pinellas Bayway S. St. Petersburg Fl 33715. There is an entrance fee to the park as well. Meet at the bay fishing pier parking lot. It’s a large parking lot, meet near the bathrooms. We will walk a good bit.  9 a.m. to noon.

Saturday, March 21th, Ft. Meade Outdoor Recreation Area, 1639 Frostproof Highway, Fort Meade, FL 33841. (Frostproof Highway is also Route 98.) 9 a.m to noon. Meet at the second set of bathrooms (in the middle of the park) which is due south from the highway. (Don’t confuse this location with Mead Gardens which is in Winter Park near Orlando.)

Sunday, March 22nd, Wickham Park, 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335.  Meet at the “dog park” inside the park. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday, March 28th, Haulover Canal, Merritt Island National Refuge, north of the Kennedy Space Center. . Read the instructions below. We meet the the northwest end of the canal area. 

Sunday, March 29th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange FL, meet at the pavilion. 9 a.m. to noon. 

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

It’s easy to see where citrus used to grow. Look for the melons.

A familiar sight this time of year are left over Citron Melons descendants of cultivated citrons from centuries ago. We can see them now because tall grass — which replaced frozen-out citrus –is dry in many place and died back. But you can also find them in active citrus groves like Lamb’s Quarters. While they are “edible” usually it is only the rind that is processed in various ways. Interestingly Citron Melons came to Florida before or with the citrus industry. Depending on which expert you want to quote Floridians have been raising citrus for some 508 years or so and citrons grow faster than citrus. Steady sources of modern food made them obsolete particularly as a source of pectin. Citron Melons escaped cultivation and have been taking care of themselves ever since. When I wrote my original article about them information was hard to find and foggy… still is. You can read about them here.

Loquats ripen from tart to sweet and can be dried like plums to prunes. Photo by Green Deane

An imported and now naturalized tree that is fruiting early is the Loquat. We ate some last week near Deland FL. The Loquat is a very common backyard fruit tree which has “liberated” itself into the statewide landscape. Most of the Loquats locally fruit in the spring but there is a variation that fruits in the fall, not common. Often it is trained into a bowl shape to increase fruit production area. Interestingly the easy-to-identify leaves have terpenes and have herbal applications. While it is commonly called the “Japanese Plum” it is not a plum nor is it from Japan. The fruit is edible from tart yellow to sweet yellow. The unripe green fruit is toxic particularly to children. It also as a small amount of arsenic in it naturally. You can read about the Loquat here.

Clover can be used for tea. Photo by Green Deane

Clover is one of those wild edibles that is both overstated and understated. The overstatement is from writers who offer it as a great human food full of this and that to keep us healthy. The understated part is that it can harbor a fungus that inhibits clotting and somewhere around a half-a-cup of raw leaves can make you throw up. Individual experience, of course, can vary and there are several different species of clover with different characteristics. Pictured here is a nice little White Clover. A few leaves can be eaten raw. They are high in protein for a leaf. The blossom fresh or quickly dried can be used for tea. There is also Crimson, Red, Sweet and even Tick Clover.

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, forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Several hard-to-find books are there page for page. Recent posts this week include Nettle Spanakopita, Pawpaws Starting Early? What are those White Blossoms, Brazilian Pepper Revisited, COVID 19, Palmer Amaranth, In The Loop, Tomatoes: A Fruit First, a Vegetable Second, and Butterweed: Annual Warning.  You can join the Forum by going to the upper right hand top of this page. 

Foraging DVDs make a good gift to watch during winter.

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

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com have gone well. Thank you to all who have contributed to either via the Go Fund Me link, the PayPal donation link or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.  There are many needs left such as expanding the foraging teacher page and the page on monotypic edibles. There’s always something and such things get more complex and expensive every year. 

This is weekly newsletter 394, 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.

It’s the time of year to talk about Saw Palmettos berries. Once they were a staple food. Now they’re an herbal remedy. In between they were a soft drink (yeah, that’s a bit difficult to imagine.) Personally I think the berries might make a good spice or flavoring. Many flavoring agents are awful in amount more than a sprinkle or a drop. Perhaps Saw Palmetto’s bad reputation can be rehabilitated by some dedicated wild food chefs. Both my foraging classes this past weekend encountered the berries with mixed reviews. Some thought interesting, edible; others said never again. You can read about Saw Palmettos here and I have a video here.

And while we have mentioned this a few times already now is the time to look for Tallow Plums. We certainly saw scores of shrubs this past weekend and hundred of ripe fruit. Liked by most who try them the fruit when ripe is both sweet and tart. As I have written much about this species let’s hear from someone else, Steve Facciola, the compiler of Cornucopia II: “Wild Olive, Tallow-Wood, Seaside Plum, False Sandalwood. The fruit, resembling yellow plums, have an acid-sweet, aromatic, almond-like flavor, and are eaten raw, pickled, preserved, or made into beer. Flower petals are eaten in soups. Seeds are the source of a non-drying oil, used in India as a substitute for ghee. Young leaves are used as potherb. Roasted kernels are edible, but may be purgative if eaten in quantity.” I would add the blossoms to a northern nose resembles lilacs. To read about the Tallow Plum go here.

Hopefully bad weather and or the threat of it is remote this weekend. I have two foraging classes, one in east Orlando, the other in Largo, north of St. Petersburg. Maybe we’ll also get a little break in the temperatures as well.

Saturday, September 21st, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet next to the tennis courts by the YMCA building.

Sunday September 22nd, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park.

Saturday, September 28th, Florida State College,  south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246.  9 a.m. to noon. We will meet at building “D”  next to the administration parking lot.

Sunday, September 29th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot at the intersection of Bayshore Road and Ganyard Street. 9 a.m. to noon.

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

I’ve never met a bad wild apple. There are sweet ones — edible off the tree — and there are bitter ones, often very good after roasting like a root vegetable. Nearly all apples are edible and are clones, well, at least commercial apples are clones. The experts tell us no two apple seeds are exactly alike.  Granny Smith apple seeds will not produce a Granny Smith apple. The first Granny Smith apple tree was a unique tree and was cloned, as were all the other named apples we buy in the store or grow at home. Cloning might not be exactly the right term: Cuttings were taken from that tree and grafted on to other apple trees. That’s why it took nearly a century for the Granny Smith apple to get from Australia to our markets in the United States.

What I noticed as a boy was the great variety of apple trees there were around the fields, old homesteads, and roads where I grew up. Near the house, where our horses could raid it, was an old small wild apple that had green fruit tasting tart to bitter. We made pipes out of the wood.  But, the apples cooked well and the horses liked them as is, right off the tree with a few leaves. Just outside their fence there was a large (I suspect cultivated) tree with apples that tasted similar to a Golden Delicious. Across the dirt road from the house were five apple trees by the road, offspring of a tossed apple core and subsequent generations.

I thought of these when last hiking in North Carolina. Feral apple trees were common and good. I harvested apples every time I saw a tree. Not one tree looked as if anyone had bothered to collect any apples from them (low-hanging fruit was still low-hanging.)  This latter observation is perhaps the most telling. Humans have been eating apples for some seven thousand years. They are one of the best known foods even among people who never forage. It is difficult to think of a food more recognizable than apples yet they remained unharvested. Even ardent must-get-back-to-nature types leave them alone. To read more about apples, go here.

Elevation makes a difference. While hiking through the Blue Ridge Mountains I noticed poison ivy didn’t like to grow over 4,000 feet or so. That made getting off the trail easier but timber rattlesnakes were happy to take poison ivy’s place. Saw one up close and personal. It was well-fed. When you go up you go towards colder weather which influences plants and animals. On top of Roan Mountain on the North Carolina-Tennesse border in early September blueberries were just in season (and totally unpicked.) Blackberries were fruiting as well, and also unpicked with many drying in place. Following the modern call of the wild does not seemingly include knowing the plants around you.

Young sheep sorrel was just beginning to grow and I even found luscious chickweed just starting to blossom. Said another way elevation can extend harvest seasons. I am often asked which plants are edible along the Appalachian Trail. I answer with three questions: Which way are you hiking (north or south) what time of year, and at what elevation? Flatland foraging is elevation static; mountainous foraging is dynamic.

Donations to upgrade: If you’d lie to donate to this website and newsletter you can use this Go Fund Me link, this PayPal donation link or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.  And I am in the process of writing to folks who are interested in exchanging some webmastering for foraging classes. As they used to say when we had television with antennas, stay tuned.

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

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and some 8,000 others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.

This is weekly newsletter 373. 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.

If you are in the habit of eating wild mushroom then you’re waiting for the spring rains. Local this usually happens in latter April or early May. That and warmer ground temperature tells mushrooms to grow. As a prelude I had my first edible wild mushroom find of the season this week.

Old Man of the Woods, Strobilomyces sp.  is a rather distinct mushroom. There are a few variations  — a microscope helps to sort them out — but they are all edible. There are at least three species in North America and are in a group of mushrooms called Boletes. These mushrooms do not have gills but rather pores on the underside. The saving grace is none of them cause lasting organ damage if you eat a toxic one. There is a short check list one can use to tell if a Bolete is a potential edible.  In Europe most of the Boletes are edible, in North America most are not, and in The South if not Florida many are unidentified. Opinions vary on the Old Men. Some cook and eat the entire mushroom. Others just the cap with pores throwing away the stems, others just the cap throwing away the pores, and some not liking the texture dry the pore-less cap, powder it, and use it for flavoring. I like the cap with pores fried which is how I cooked the one at the top of the newsletter. To me they taste like Porcini mushroom. The only drawback is you find only one or two at a time.

One local trio of edible mushroom we are waiting for are called “Milk Caps.” When broken or scraped all three weep a liquid, often white. It is not a latex but is called that. The liquid, however, can also be light yellow or watery. That the mushroom is the weeping helps you identify the genus, sometimes the species. Common locally is the Lactifluus hygrophorides, L. corrugis, L. volemus var. volemus and L. luteolus. The latter is edible but smells strongly like a dead fish.  I picked some twelve pounds of them last year. They’re a substantial mushroom with a good flavor and texture. They are also fairly easy to identify. It has a ruddy cap, slightly felt-like to touch, wide-space gills, and bleeds a white fluid that does not stain the mushroom. 

Perhaps the most coveted wild mushroom locally is the Chanterelle. We have several species and sometimes they are difficult to sort out. That is not just in the field. The genus is, as they say, is under revision and the names are changing. Experts can’t agree exactly how many species there are and how many of them are found locally. It’s fairly easy to tell if one has a Chanterelle. It’s a bit more of a challenge to figure out which Chanterelle you have. I collected some 22 pounds of them last year. They are distinct enough in flavor and texture to hold their own in recipes. I like them sautéed with scrambled eggs.

Perhaps no ornamental was championed as much as the Pineapple Guava. However the perfect shrub for many places never really caught on. There could be several reasons for that. It probably didn’t help that a close relative, the Strawberry Guava, is a severe invasive species in some locations.  The shrub also does not get showy. It’s almost always drab. And while the blossoms are extroverted you have to hunt for them. While the entire blossom is edible most people only eat the petals. Five or six months from now they will be dark green fruit that stay green as they ripen. They just get softer. The shrub is easy to identify when in blossom. To read more about both guavas, go here.

Let us revisit what is blossoming this time of year: The Eastern Coral Bean. It is also sometimes called the Cherokee Bean. What is odd about this plant is the edible flowers produce toxic beans.  So we do not eat the red and black beans. A few of the red blossoms are edible raw but they are usually boiled then mixed with other foods notably scrambled eggs. When you cook the blossoms they turn light green. The distinctive shape of the leaves makes the shrub easy to identify. Young leaves are edible cooked but are marginal fare. Like the Pawpaws above they prefer dry, sunny places. A few raw red blossoms seem okay but if eaten in larger amounts they can be mind altering and approaching dangerous. Boiled they are fine. (Juice from the shrub’s stems, by the way, has been used to treat scorpion stings.)  You can read more about the Eastern Coral Bean here.

What’s the old saying? Close but no cigar. That might be the case with Foresteria segregata. Also called Florida Privet and Swamp Privet, you can find it anywhere from brackish waterways to an intentional ornamental in landscaping. The straight limbs were used for arrows and the blue berries possibly used for ink. I suspect the species has never worked its way into ethnobotanical literature because the berries taste bad. I’m not sure, however, if the story ends there. Yes, the berries are not considered edible. That said I have not found any references to toxicity but that might be because they are too foul to eat. However, it is in the Olive family and olives don’t taste good unless “cured.” What I wonder is 1) if the fruit are edible if 2) they are treated (meaning cured)  like olives?  It’s pure speculation on my part. They could be toxic for all I know. But it’s an idea.

Foraging classes: Saturday’s class is in my own backyard, so to speak, Orlando, Blanchard Park. The rain should be past but it might be a little chilly. Sunday’s class is in Eagle Park Lake in Largo, a site we haven’t visited for several months.

Saturday, April 20th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet next to the tennis courts by the YMCA building.

Sunday, April 21st, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. Arrive earlier than later as it is Easter and the park can fill fast.

Saturday, April 27th,  Red Bug Slough Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233.  9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot. 

Saturday, May 4th, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 32706. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet by the bathrooms. 

Sunday, May 5th: Ft. Meade Outdoor Recreation Area, 1639 Frostproof Highway, Fort Meade, FL 33841. (Frostproof Highway is also Route 98.)  9 a.m to noon. Meet at the brown bathrooms in the middle of the park which is due south from the highway. 

Saturday, May 11th,  Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m to noon. Meet just north of the science center in the north section of the park. 

Sunday, May 12th, Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge, 2045 Mud Lake Road, DeLeon Springs, FL. 9 a.m. to noon. A few hundred feet after crossing the railroad tracks on Mudlake Road there in the parking lot on your right.  We meet there. This is a hike of approximately four miles, two out and back mostly native species, very few ornamentals. While the walking is easy we are exposed to the elements, sun on a clear day, wind on a cold day. Check the weather, dress appropriately. Bring water, wear suitable footwear. Know that as it is federal land it can be closed anytime for any reason without notice. 

Saturday, May 18th, Florida State College,  south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246.  9 a.m. to noon. We will meet at building “D”  next to the administration parking lot.

Sunday, May 19th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house.

For more information or to sign up for a class go here.

Foraging is more than identifying edible wild plants. It also involves knowing how to cook them, when they are prime to harvest, and subject of this review, where to find them. In real estate the mantra is “location, location, location.” We could use that with plants but a refinement would be “environment, environment, environment.”

We know not to look for swamp plants in a desert, unless there is an isolated spring there such as an oasis. Likewise, few cactus grow in swamps though there are exceptions. We also usually find salt tolerant plants near the shore or inland near salt licks (and sometimes along northern roads salted every winter.) But some of those salt-tolerant plants will grow in your garden and do not need to be in a salty environment. Sea Purslane is found on the shore or near brackish water where its job is to build soil by forcing the wind to slow down and drop sand. But, it will also grow in your garden, no salt or wind needed. Other plants are more picky and won’t grow well if not in their preferred location.

For example, one species I am long-familiar with is Blueberries. They like soil on the acidic side, a pH below 7 on a 14-point scale. I grew up in poor-soil Maine where one could find 120-acre fields of nothing but Blueberries. Yet where I live in Florida Blueberries are found in small colonies in isolated pockets. Why? One answer is Florida is a limestone plate (alkaline not acidic) so it is a waste of time to look for Blueberries unless there are acid-producing pines, oaks or perhaps cypress nearby. I planted Blueberries specifically bred for Florida but one has to amend the soil — the amount of acid — nearly as much as one has to work daily to keep a pool from turning green. They eventually died, one of my few failures.

Another example is Dandelions. I have observed for several decades that Dandelions don’t like Florida, or at least the areas of Florida I visit. They like acidic soil. It might be it is not Florida’s heat they don’t like but rather the alkaline (“sweet”) soil. The few places I have seen Dandelions growing have been areas of acidic soil again near pines and often oaks. Dreher Park in West Palm Beach is a good example. What Dandelions there are there can be found growing in lawn grass amongst oaks. While I have also found Dandelions year round they tend to favor the winter months such as November through February.

Some plants can do well in nearly any soil. Henbit, Dead Nettle and Shepard’s Purse are good examples. However, a close relative of Shepard’s Purse, Poor Man’s Pepper Grass, likes soil on the alkaline side. This means you probably won’t find Pepper Grass near Pines and Oaks. Plants that like acidic soil (below a pH of 7.0) that you can find near Oaks and Pines include Eastern Bracken Fern, Curly Dock, Mullein, Nettles, Violets, Pineapple Weed, Plantagos, Wild Radish, Sheep Sorrel, Sow Thistle, and wild Strawberries. Plants that like it on the “sweet” or alkaline side besides Pepper Grass? Wild Carrots, Lamb’s Quarters, Amaranth, Pokeweed, White Mustard, and Purslane. Don’t look for those in an oak scrub or with a lot pines around.

Besides the pH of soil the kind of soil can make a difference. Chicory likes “heavy” soil meaning lots of clay, or rocks. Also liking heavy soil is Broadleaf Dock, Daisies, Milkweed, Plantains, true Thistles, and Wild Garlic. Plants that can endure hard packed soil include Field Mustard, Morning Glories — some of which are edible — and Pineapple Weed (it used to grow in our gravel driveway.) Going the other directions, plants that like sandy soil include Goldenrods, Sandspurs , Horsemint, and Spurge Nettle. Plants too look for in agricultural soil include chickweed, Dandelions, Lambs Quarters, Plantains, Amaranth and Purslane. And while Florida Betony can grow edible roots in rich loam or sand it tends to grow larger and easier to harvest roots in sand.

By their very presence some plants can tell you about what’s in or not in the soil. Burdock likes soil very high in iron and sulfate but low in calcium and manganese. Chickweed and Dandelions like low-calcium low-phosphorus soils. Crabgrass likes very low levels of calcium, phosphorus but high levels of chlorine, magnesium and potassium. Oxalis and Hop Cover, however, prefer low levels of calcium but high levels of magnesium. Purslane and Mustard like high phosphorus levels.

If you see a healthy patch of White Clover you know the soil is lacking in nitrogen. Or said another way, you won’t find happy White Clover in nitrogen-rich soil. I suspect that holds true for other members of the pea family as well. Because of preferences you will usually not find amaranth and clover growing together. Red Clover, however, prefers to grow in areas of soil high in potassium. Wild Garlic also likes high potassium as well along with chlorine, magnesium, and sodium.

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

Want to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Do you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified? On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations around the world 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. One special section is “From the Frightening Mail Bag” where we learn from people who eat first then ask questions later. You can join the forum by clicking on “forum” in the menu.

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com have gone well. Thank you to all who have contributed to either via the Go Fund Me link, the PayPal donation link or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.

This is weekly issue 351.  

All newsletters and photos by Green Deane

A few newsletters ago it was mentioned Mulberries were in blossom (photo left.) There’s plenty of green fruit now and a few early-ripening ones. Resembling over-grown blackberries but completely sweet you eat all of it except the short stem… or you can eat that, too. In fact, I just nibble them off the tree. Like many fruit trees they are highly seasonal, producing for perhaps a month though with a bit of travel you can extend the season. You have to work with its schedule not yours. The Mulberry is also considered a trash tree locally because it drops a lot of purple-black berries on oh-so-clean sidewalks and manicured lawns. In fact, they’ve even bred a fruitless ornamental variety … have your mulberry but don’t eat it, too… Don’t forget the young leaves are edible cooked. To read more about the Mulberry go here.  To see my video on Mulberries, click here.

Creeping Cucumber are starting to fruit. In Sarasota the fruit was not only ready for picking but some fruit were ripe enough to collect seeds for propagation. Mid-state they are small vines not quite blossoming, and, in Jacksonville the frost-intolerant cuke is barely up. Mentioned many times in recent newsletters the Creeping Cucumber makes a nice trail-side nibble and salad ingredient. Oddly they don’t pickle well but I suspect that might be caused by not removing the blossom end before pickling. To read more about the jelly-bean size cuke click here. To see my video on these mouse cucumbers go here.

While it is too early for a lot of Coco-plums we found a few in Port Charlotte. They do resemble a small plum with an almond-like seed inside. Made into jam and jellies or eaten out of hand, the pulp is often disparaged by writers and called forgetable. It is mildly sweet and has a texture similar to wet marshmallow fluff. It is not a competitive commercial texture but tasty enough. The seed however, removed from it’s woody hull, tastes like Granola. Ripe Coco-plums can be red, white or blue, or dark purple. The most common variety used in landscaping in south Florida is the Chrysobalanus icaco var. pellocarpus, the so-called “red tip” because its young leaves are ruddy. Oddly Coco-plums are about six weeks apart from the west and east coast of Florida at the same latitude. I have noticed the difference many times. You can read about Coco-plums here. My video is here.

Foraging classes this week include a new location, Ft. Meade Outdoor Recreation Area. This is about a mile east of Ft. Meade, Fla., which is really getting close to the true center of the state. This will be my first class at this location so there is a lot of exploring to do Saturday. And the next day, Sunday, my class is in West Palm Beach. More about that below.

Saturday, March 30th: Ft. Meade Outdoor Recreation Area, 1639 Frostproof Hwy, Fort Meade, FL 33841. (Frostproof Highway is also Route 98.)  9 a.m to noon. Meet at the brown bathrooms in the middle of the park which is due south from the highway. 

Sunday, March 31st,  Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m to noon. Meet just north of the science center in the north section of the park. 

Saturday, April 6th, Florida State College,  south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246.  9 a.m. to noon. We will meet at building “D”  next to the administration parking lot.

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

Saturday, April 20th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet next to the tennis courts by the YMCA building.

Saturday, April 27th,  Red Bug Slough Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233.  9 a.m. to noon.

To learn more about the classes or to register for one go here.

In West Palm Beach, Sunday’s class location, the last of the “winter” foragables easy to find: Pellitory, Poor Man Pepper Grass, and False Hawks Beard. You can see Amaranth and a lot of pink-blossomed Oxalis. We usually nibble on Smilax tips,Purslane, a few dried Dove Plums, just-sprouting and the ever-popular blossoms of the Blue Porterweed, which is something of a Green Deane Special being the first foraging website to mention its edibility. The class location, Dreher Park, also has an excellent large Silk Floss Tree (Ceiba speciosa.) Totally covered with huge thorns it has an edible seed oil. Perhaps it is not a practical edible but it is an impressive sight. There is also a Tropical Almond, always tasty. My video on the Tropical Almond is here.

A couple of non-edible flowers were seen this week, both of which should be avoided. The Mexican Poppy is starting its seasonal run. It can have yellow or white blossoms and is extremely well-armed. Covered with prickles it visually it carries a stern warning: Don’t mess with me. The Mexican Poppy might have some medicinal uses but is not edible. I see it often near and about railroad tracks, sometimes in arid pastures. The other species and potentially more dangerous is Butterweed. I don’t know which of the two are more toxic but Butterweed has the complication of resembling wild mustard when young. When it blossoms Butterweed clearly is not a mustard but from a short distance away and a quick glance there is a resemblance. It also does not have a mustard taste. In fact it has a mild flavor but DON’T EAT IT. The species contains pyrrolidines. The plant can put you in the hospital and threaten your life. It will damage your liver.

During our foraging class in Port Charlotte this last week we found some early ripenening Surinam Cherries. That location also has two variety of the Suriname Cherry, black fruited and deep red fruited. Surinam Cherries taste awful until totally ripe. Even then many folks do not like the flavor. Your pallet will either say this is food or this is not. No in betweens. Seriously. You either eat them again or never again. But if you are going to eat them make sure they are very ripe. In the black/dark purple variety they are indeed black when totally ripe. With the red-fruiting variety you want a deep fire-truck red (with blue tones) not an orange Ferrari red. Some people like the red ones better, others the black. I like both but am trying to grow the latter from seeds. And while they are everywhere locally there was one particularly nice example on the West Orange Bike trail about a quarter mile east of the Killarney Station. It was cut down as was a fruiting persimmon. Eliminating fruiting trees from public land reduces liability, or so the lawyers will tell you. To read more about Surinam Cherries go here. (And I realized only today that I do not have a video on the Surinam Cherry. Will have to take care of that.)

Want to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Do you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified? On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations around the world 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. One special section is “From the Frightening Mail Bag” where we learn from people who eat first then ask questions later. You can join the forum by clicking on “forum” in the menu.

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

Also blossoming nearly everywhere locally are Spiderworts. The species can be found all year which is good because unlike many plants they don’t go rank as the season go on. However, they like this time of year and are in profusion now. Some folks eat them raw — the entire plant above ground is edible — some cook them. My latest adventure with Spiderwort is to pickle them. Fermenting, like wine making, is an art and you learn many things along the way. Among them is that I, as a bachelor, should not make gallons of any ferment. They do store well but will run you out of house and home. For a while I even had a second refrigerator for my ferments (and a separate room for wine.) Now I make ferments them in small batches… call it “artisan.” Above right is a small batch in a peanut butter jar. I cut the stems into four inch lengths, stuff as many as I can into the jar — pack very, very tightly — push the unopened blossom down on top, then add salty water ( a tablespoon of non-table salt per cup.) On top goes a glass plug to keep the vegetable matter below the surface of the water, which is extremely important. (You can use a suitable rock.) Then put the lid on loosely and put in a saucer and let it work. It will give off gas and liquid. But in a couple of weeks you will have some nice, sour, Spiderwort. I did add a good amount of Poor Man’s Pepper Grass for flavoring. I have an article on Spiderwort here. You can see a video on Spiderwort here. (You Tube is becoming a time machine. I made that video ten years ago this month on a $149 Flip camera. I was pushing 60 in that video, now 70.)

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com have gone well. Thank you to all who have contributed to either via the Go Fund Me link, the PayPal donation link or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.  

This is weekly issue 348.

Going north to forage is pleasant this time of the year because it’s like going back in time a few weeks to find some favored plants still producing. Goosegrass, which I have not seen for a while in the central part of the state was very alive and happy in Gainesville this past Saturday. Chickweed was still abundant there as was Pellitory. We found one example of Sheep’s Sorrel. A nice find was Wild Allium still not old enough to put on cloves. Some call it an onion others call it a garlic. To read about it go here.

Black Cherry vs Laurel Cherry: This is a good time to highlight the differences between wild Black Cherry and wild Cherry Laurel, both native. That latter not only has fruit on it now but is also blossoming. The fruit of the Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) is edible when ripe. The fruit of the Cherry Laurel (Prunus caroliniana) is always toxic. A quick look at the leaves can tell them apart. The Black Cherry has consistently small teeth around the entire edge of the leaf. And if you look at the backside of the leaf the main stem near the base will have hair on both sides for about an inch. The hair starts out whitish but will change to light tan and then dark brown as the season progresses. The soft Black Cherry fruit is dark red to purple with a dimple in the end.

The Cherry Laurel leaf is quite different. It’s teeth are sporadic, especially on older trees or older leaves can have no teeth at all. Younger leaves can have many teeth but they are not consistent or well-organized. Also the back of the Cherry Laurel leaf does not have any hair along the stem. Instead it often has two red-gray-green dots near the base. They can be faint but each leaf will have those dots, which are really glands. They also are not in the exact same spot all the time. Very young leaves can have red spots, then gray or they can fade greatly. Cherry Laurel leaves also smell of almonds or maraschino cherries when crushed which is cyanide (assuming you are among those who can smell cyanide. Many people cannot.) The hard fruit of the Cherry Laurel is dark blue to black and pointed. NOT EDIBLE. Besides the fruit the leaves are toxic to most mammals.

Although it may sound odd the Black Cherry tree also looks like more like a typical cherry with its bark being more checkered than the Cherry Laurel. I have read there are Pin or Red Cherries growing in Florida but the only edible one I’ve ever see here is the Black Cherry. I grew up in Maine where we harvested choke cherries to make jelly and wine. The read more about the Black Cherry go here.

This week’s arguable question is “can you eat elderberries raw?” I call it “arguable” because no matter whether I say yes or no someone will email me and tell me I’m wrong. My answer is “yes and no” which means I will irritate both sides. There are a few variables but it’s fairly easy to sort out.

First, elderberries contain two kinds of toxins, an alkaloid, and, cyanide-producing glucosides. The alkaloid is present in unripe berries. It is not a problem in ripe berries but ripe berries still have cyanide-producing glucosides. This discussion is only about ripe elderberries. If we are referring to dark purple elderberries, such as Sambucus canadensis or Sambucus Mexicana, the answer is yes, you can eat a few raw if you are an adult, very few if you are a child. If we are talking about red elderberries  (Sambucus pubens and Sambucus racemosa for example) the answer is definitely no regardless of your size. You can only eat the cooked pulp of red elderberries and then no seeds. Red elderberries were a staple of some Indians but only after much processing.

In shirt-sleeve language the cyanide-producing glucosides is usually sugar and cyanide bonded together which break apart on digestion producing a small amount of hydrocyanic acid aka prussic acid… cyanide.  Your body can tolerate some cyanide. Thus eating raw ripe berries becomes a function of how many of these molecules there are, how much you ate of them, how large are you and how much water there is in your digestive system which probably relates to how quickly you digest them which means how quickly is that cyanide release. A few raw ripe berries usually does not bother an adult any more than eating half-a-dozen apple seed. More than a few ripe purple elderberries can make a child ill usually with digestive upset and vomiting. Same with an adult but it takes a few more berries. Raw elderberries are well known to cause nausea. Cooking (or drying) ripe purple elderberries eliminates the problem completely. I’ve eaten a tablespoon of raw ripe purple elderberries at a time and not been bothered. But I know of many adults who have eaten a handful and gotten sick, not death-door ill but sick nonetheless. The amount of toxicity is considered mild which means little when you’re feeling lousy.

Ripe Red Elderberries are different than purple ones. They have much more potential cyanide material in their seeds and cooking does not get rid of that problem completely. That is why Native Americans ate only cooked Red Elderberries with the seeds removed, a labor-intensive process. Said another way red elderberry seeds cannot be eaten raw or cooked but red elderberry pulp can be eaten after cooking, and even that is debatable. When the natives ate too many Red Elderberry seeds their antidote (and I don’t know if it worked or not) was to drink lots of water and consume salmon oil.

So the answer is yes you can eat some ripe, raw purple elderberries but no you should not eat a lot, if only to be safe. Personally I think ripe dark purple elderberries taste far better dried or cooked than raw.  Drying or cooking drives off a musty flavor they tend to have and improves the flavor.

Foraging Classes: Saturday’s class this week is in Sarasota, always a pleasant park to visit. Sunday’s class is a little different: It is in downtown Winter Park. There are plenty of plants to see and also introduces foraging in a small city environment… and there are a couple of coffee shops along the way.

Saturday, February 9th,  Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233.  9 a.m. to noon. 

Sunday, February 10th, 329 N. Park Avenue, Winter Park, FL. 9 a.m. to noon.  Meet in front of Panera’s. Parking is free in the parking garage behind Panera’s. 

Saturday, February 16th, Jervey Gantt Recreation Complex, 2390 SE 36th Ave., Ocala, FL, 34471. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the entrance to the pool, aka Aquatic Fun Center. 

Sunday, February 17th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot at the intersection of Bayshore Road and Ganyard Street.

Saturday, March 2nd, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. Meet near the tennis court near the YMCA building.  9 a.m. to noon

Sunday, March 3rd, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon. The preserve has no official bathroom or drinking water so take advantage of the various eateries and gas stations before arrival. 

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

Sunday, March 10th, Haulover Canal, Merritt Island National Refuge, north of the Kennedy Space Center, 9 a.m. to noon or later. Because of its shape this class requires the most walking and climbing, about four miles’ worth. We meet at the end of the northwest jetty where they also launch kayak tours and have thoughtfully left Port-o-Lets. Also take into consideration that the time changes that weekend so don’t be late.

Let’s start this out with a fact: Seven billion gallons of water are used every day to water lawns and outdoor plants in the United States. Every day, seven billion galllons. Now read about Burton Knight, who has a degree in horticulture and lives in the Junius Heights Historic District of Dallas, Texas. As you probably know that area is vulnerable to drought. Water is often in short supply. With that in mind Knight removed the sod from in front of his house and installed xeriscaping including rocks, low-water plants and cacti: Native and very Texas. A local commission that watches over “historic districts” ordered him to tear it all out. Why? The cactus, the commission said, are not “historically appropriate.” The commission demanded Knight put back the non-native grass, in other words, a lawn.

According to the Dallas Morning News: For Knight rising water needs and a hotter, drier Texas as a result of global warming make up the state’s most urgent environmental crisis. He said his case suggests that the cultural norms that earned Dallas a reputation as a water hog are still deeply entrenched. “How can you say the cactus is not historic”? asked Knight, whose degree is from Texas A&M university. “Guess what crop has the greatest consumption of time, energy, water and chemicals? Turf grass.”

Columnist Jacquilynn Floyd pointed out how selective the preservationists are: “Living in a historic district shouldn’t be- can’t be- like living in a museum. Wood stoves and ice wagons are historically accurate, too, but they don’t really meet modern requirements…. a neighborhood can aged with grace and still evolve to adapt to a changing environment.”

It is interesting that the water-saving native plants in Knight’s front yard are unacceptable in the historic district but the car in the yard is acceptable. Why isn’t the commission also calling for the elimination of cars and demanding folks use the more historically correct horse for transportation?

While most municipalities still operate under the mentality that “Grass is God” some are changing. In Glendale, Arizona, just northwest of Phoenix,  residents can earn $150 to $750 depending upon how much grass they remove from their lawn.  And here’s a fact you can use: You can cut the water needs of your yard up to 50 percent by decreasing the grass to 40% of the total space and increasing trees to 60% of the total space. If you have the typical-size lawn that still leaves 2500 square feet to mow, or for the kids to play on… or teather a milk-producing goat… A few years ago I wrote and recorded an editorial for National Public Radio Holland about lawns and trees. I recently made it into a video you can watch here.

The Florida Herbal Conference is February 22-24. It’s their eighth annual event and for the eighth year I will be teaching there. You can learn quickly at conferences because you are getting a distillation of information from teachers with years of experience. Any questions can be answered quickly and to the point, no rummaging around to resolve an issue. You’re also with like-minded folks so there’s instant camaraderie. You are the majority. For more information go to: Florida Herbal Conference.

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com have gone well. Thank you to all who have contributed to either via the Go Fund Me link, the PayPal donation link or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.  There are many needs left such as expanding the foraging teacher page and the page on monotypic edibles. I’m still having a hard time finding articles I wrote!  There’s always something and such things get more complex and expensive every year. Indeed, the average email cost to send each newsletter is $20.

Want to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Do you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified? On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations around the world 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. One special section is “From the Frightening Mail Bag” where we learn from people who eat first then ask questions later. You can join the forum by clicking on “forum” in the menu.

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

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

This is weekly issue 341.

Pineapple Guava blossoms are edible and peppery. Photo by Green Deane

Perhaps no ornamental was championed as much as the Pineapple Guava. However the perfect shrub for many places never really caught on. There could be several reasons. It probably didn’t help that a close relative, the Strawberry Guava, is a severe invasive species in some locations.  The shrub also does not get showy. You have to hunt for the extroverted blossoms. While the entire blossom is edible most people only eat the petals. Five or six months from now they will be dark green fruit that stay green as they ripen. They just get softer. The shrub is easy to identify when in blossom. To read more about both guavas, go here.

Surinam Cherries, which are not really cherries, can have a wide fruiting period. So far this season I have found shrubs with tiny green fruit to a large tree-shaped specimen already dropping ripe fruit. I think the latter has jumped the season significantly.  There are two varieties, black fruited and deep red fruited. Surinam Cherries taste awful until totally ripe. Even then many folks do not like the flavor. Your pallet will either say this is food or this is not. No in betweens. Seriously. You either will eat them again or never again. But if you are going to eat them make sure they are very ripe. In the black/dark purple variety they are indeed black when totally ripe. With the red-fruiting variety you want a deep fire-truck red (with blue tones) not an orange Ferrari red.  To read more about Surinam Cherries go here.

Pawpaws are easy to spot now.

Once you’re done reading this newsletter turn off the computer and go find some Pawpaws. Now is the time locally to identify one of the more common species we have. The photo to the left is from a pasture in Volusia County near Gemini Springs. There are hundreds of Pawpaw blossoming there now and all along the bike trail through the area (as well as true thistles and Maypops.) In a few months there will be a lot of fruit here if the woodland creatures don’t get to them first. It is, after all, their grocery store. We have Pawpaws with cream-colored blossoms and some dwarf versions with purple blossoms. While you can find them in nearly any dry location pastures are a good place to look because pastures are easy to find and livestock tend to not eat them.  This is one species you can also find while driving. Just look for five-foot shrubs with cream-colored blossoms as you go by. You will see Pawpaws. To read more about Pawpaws go here.

Humming birds like the Eastern Coral Bean

Also blossoming this time of year is the Eastern Coral Bean, sometimes called the Cherokee Bean. What is odd about this plant is the edible flowers produce toxic beans.  So we do not eat the red and black beans. A few of the red blossoms are edible raw — with precautions — but they are usually boiled then mixed with other foods notably scrambled eggs. When you cook the blossoms they turn light green. The distinctive shape of the leaves makes the shrub easy to identify. Young leaves are edible cooked but are marginal fare. Like the Pawpaws above they prefer dry, sunny places. A few raw red blossoms seem okay but if eaten in larger amounts they can be mind altering and approaching dangerous. Boiled they are fine. (Juice from the shrub’s stems, by the way, has been used to treat scorpion stings.)  You can read more about the Eastern Coral Bean here.

Partridgeberry. Photo by Green Deane

In the Carolinas in August I see a lot of Partridgeberries, also called Twin Berries because the separate blossoms fuse into one berry. They are edible but mild. That said  partridgeberries are attractive with striking red berries and deep green leaves. They  are not extroverted but if you see them the little fruit are attractive. I have seen them Gainesville and Wekiva State Park just north of Orlando. According to the USDA chart the species is not in the county but U.S.D.A. maps are often quite out of date. Seasonally Florida and the mountains of North Carolina are — as far as the Partridgeberries are concerned — about five months apart. As with the Carolinas these were spotted in damp but not inundated soil. You can read more about them here. 

Foresteria segregata

Odds and ends of the weekend: What’s the old saying? Close but no cigar. This weekend I saw two plants, one I had never seen and one I had not seen in many years. The latter was Foresteria segregata, in Largo, Florida. Also called Florida Privet and Swamp Privet, you can find it anywhere from brackish waterways to an intentional ornamental in landscaping. The straight limbs were used for arrows and the blue berries possibly used for ink. I suspect the species has never worked its way into ethnobotanical literature because the berries taste bad. I’m not sure, however, if the story ends there. Yes, the berries are not considered edible. That said I have not found any references to toxicity but that might be because they are too foul to eat. However, it is in the Olive family and olives don’t taste good unless “cured.” What I wonder is 1) if the fruit are edible if 2) they are treated (meaning cured)  like olives?  It’s pure speculation on my part. They could be toxic for all I know. But it’s an idea.

Rumex paraguayensis 

The other plant looked like a “dock” to me, also called Rumex. There’s about a dozen and a half Rumex in North America, many of them native while several imported. Merritt Fernald, who was the main botany Ph.D. at Harvard for half a century, said they were all edible but most of them bitter. We have several locally: R. hastatulus and R. acetosella are tart, the latter not native. R. verticillatus, the Swamp Dock, is also commonly seen and bitter. Two other introduced species locally — and in the rest of North America — are Rumex obtusifolius and Rumex Crispus, the latter also know as edible Curly Dock.  The “dock” we saw in Cassadaga, Fl, didn’t seem to be any of those. Because there were a lot of small leaves on the flower spike it could be R. paraguayensis, which is reported in the state but in limited locations. If it is R. paraguayensis is it edible? That took a bit of digging. I found an article called “Wild Food Plants and Fungi Used By The Polish Community in Misiones, Argentia” published in the Journal of Human Ecology, December 2015.  The fifth entry on Table One says R. paraguayensis leaves were eaten raw in salads and cooked in soups. It was also not listed as a famine food. You can read the full article here.

And another reminder that loquats are in full fruit now and wild garlic is in season. In fact at our Largo class were were taken to a wild garlic location. Thanks Carolyn! Oh yes, in last week’s top photo the edibles were Dandelions, Oxalis, Commelina, and False Hawk’s Beard. There’s also a young nightshade that if allowed to grow probably would have been Solanum americanum.  I say been because the lawn has since been mowed. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Do you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified? On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations around the world 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. One special section is “From the Frightening Mail Bag” where we learn from people’s mistakes. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

Green Deane DVD Set

Spring orders have started their annual  increase. All of Green Dane’s videos available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for this newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in slightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each.  Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. They make a good gift for that forager you know. Individual DVDs can also be ordered. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right of this page or you can go here.

Classes are held rain or shine or cold.

Foraging Classes: Foraging classes this week range from mid-state in Orlando to the southwest side and Sarasota. While some winter plants remain the spring edible are making their seasonal run so there’s plenty to see and taste.

Saturday, April 14th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. Meet at the pavilion east of the tennis courts near the YMCA.

Sunday, April 15th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233, 9 a.m. 

Saturday, April 22nd, Spruce Creek, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127, 9 a.m., meet at the pavilion. 

Saturday, May 5th, Florida State College,  south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246.  9 a.m. We will meet at building “D”  next to the administration parking lot.

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

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com and fund a book are going well and has made the half way mark. Thank you to all who have contributed to either via the Go Fund Me link, the PayPal donation link or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.  Recent upgrades have been paid now the Forum needs work and several function problems need to be fixed specifically the search and categories.  A new server also being considered.  The other issue is finding  an indexing program or function for a real book. Writing programs used to do it automatically if you designated a term for indexing. Now that most books are ebooks most writing programs do not provide and indexing function. 

Foraging is more than identifying edible wild plants. It also involves knowing how to cook them, when they are prime to harvest, and subject of this review, where to find them. In real estate the mantra is “location, location, location.” We could use that with plants but a refinement would be “environment, environment, environment.”

Sea Purslane tolerates salty ground.

We know not to look for swamp plants in a desert, unless there is an isolated spring there such as an oasis. Likewise, few cactus grow in swamps though there are exceptions. We also usually find salt tolerant plants near the shore or inland near salt licks (and sometimes along northern roads salted every winter.) But some of those salt-tolerant plants will grow in your garden and do not need to be in a salty environment. Sea Purslane is found on the shore or near brackish water where its job is to build soil by forcing the wind to slow down and drop sand. But, it will also grow in your garden, no salt or wind needed. Other plants are more picky and won’t grow well if not in their preferred location.

Blueberries, Roan Mt. North Carolina.

For example, one species I am long-familiar with is Blueberries. They like soil on the acidic side, a pH below 7 on a 14-point scale. I grew up in poor-soil Maine where one could find 120-acre fields of nothing but Blueberries. Yet where I live now, in Florida, Blueberries are found in small colonies in isolated pockets. Why? One answer is Florida is a limestone plate (alkaline not acidic) so it is a waste of time to look for Blueberries unless there are acid-producing pines, oaks or perhaps cypress nearby. I planted Blueberries specifically bred for Florida but one has to amend the soil — the amount of acid — nearly as much as one has to work daily to keep a pool from turning green. They eventually died, one of my few failures.

Dandelions like acidic soil.

Another example is Dandelions. I have observed for several decades that Dandelions don’t like Florida, or at least the areas of Florida I visit. They like acidic soil. It might be it is not Florida’s heat they don’t like but rather the alkaline (“sweet”) soil. The few places I have seen Dandelions growing have been areas of acidic soil again near pines and often oaks. Dreher Park in West Palm Beach is a good example. What Dandelions there are there can be found growing in lawn grass amongst oaks. While I have also found Dandelions around the year they tend to favor the winter months such as November through February. With environment in mind let’s survey some plants and what soils and conditions they like. 

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

Some plants can do well in nearly any soil. Henbit, Dead Nettle and Shepard’s Purse are good examples. However, a close relative of Shepard’s Purse, Poor Man’s Pepper Grass, likes soil on the alkaline side. This means you probably won’t find Pepper Grass near Pines and Oaks. Plants that like acidic soil (below a pH of 7.0) that you can find near Oaks and Pines include Eastern Bracken Fern, Curly Dock, Mullein, Nettles, Violets, Pineapple Weed, Plantagos, Wild Radish, Sheep Sorrel, Sow Thistle, and wild Strawberries. Plants that like it on the “sweet” or alkaline side besides Pepper Grass? Wild Carrots, Lamb’s Quarters, Amaranth, Pokeweed, White Mustard, and Purslane. Don’t look for those in an oak scrub or with a lot pines around.

Wild Garlic likes thick soil.

Besides the pH of soil the kind of soil can make a difference. Chicory likes “heavy” soil meaning lots of clay, or rocks. Also liking heavy soil is Broadleaf Dock, Daisies, Milkweed, Plantains, true Thistles, and Wild Garlic. Plants that can endure hard packed soil include Field Mustard, Morning Glories — some of which are edible — and Pineapple Weed (it used to grow in our gravel driveway.) Going the other directions, plants that like sandy soil include Goldenrods, Sandspurs and Spurge Nettle. Plants too look for in agricultural soil include chickweed, Dandelions, Lambs Quarters, Plantains, Amaranth and Purslane. And while Florida Betony can grow edible roots in rich loam or sand it tends to grow larger and easier to harvest roots in sand.

Crab Grass likes low calcium soil.

By their very presence some plants can tell you about what’s in or not in the soil. Burdock likes soil very high in iron and sulfate but low in calcium and manganese. Chickweed and Dandelions like low-calcium low-phosphorus soils. Crabgrass likes very low levels of calcium, phosphorus but high levels of chlorine, magnesium and potassium. Oxalis and Hop Cover, however, prefer low levels of calcium but high levels of magnesium. Purslane and Mustard like high phosphorus levels.

Clover prefers low nitrogen soil.

If you see a healthy patch of White Clover you know the soil is lacking in nitrogen. Or said another way, you won’t find happy White Clover in nitrogen-rich soil. I suspect that holds true for other members of the pea family as well. Because of preferences you will usually not find amaranth and clover growing together. Red Clover, however, prefers to grow in areas of soil high in potassium. Wild Garlic also likes high potassium as well along with chlorine, magnesium, and sodium.

This is weekly issue 299.  

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