Ripe Tallow Plums are tangy and a delightful trailside nibble. Photo by Green Deane

Ximenia americana: Known by Many Names

If I listed this edible under its botanical name few would find it. On the other hand it has some three dozen commons names in several languages. So which one does one choose? In English, Tallow Plum is the most accurate.

Tart Tallow Plums, Photo by Green Deane

It has also been called the American plum, blue sour plum, monkey plum, mountain plum, seaside plum, Spanish plum, wild plum, hog plum, and yellow plum though it is not a plum but its leaves can be bluish. Other names include pepenance, coastal prune, spiny prune, Brazilian apricot, spiny apricot, wild apricot, little apricot and little wild apricot though it is not a prune nor an apricot.  Then there is ocean cherry, wild cherry and cherry — no, it is not a cherry either; sea lemon, seaside lemon, wild orange, and wild lime…and no it is not a citrus. Others prefer devil’s apple, fiddle apple, little apple and wild quince. Yes, you guessed it again: It is not an apple or any apple relative. Some even call it the Wild Olive. No, it is not related to the olive but it is in the Olax family. Olive/olax… tenuous at best. There is also a darker side with names like purge-nut, cagalera (diarrhea) and fransman moppe (Frenchman’s complaint) a reference to what too many of the seeds can do.

It got the name Tallow Plum because of the waxy texture of the fruit. Botanically it is Ximenia americana (that’s hem-MAY-nee-uh a-mer-ih-KAY-na.) It was named for the Spanish monk Francisco Ximenez, a native of Luna in the Kingdom of Aragon. Americana means of the Americas. It is an important food source in Ethiopia and Brazil. 

Green they were used to numb gums.

Found in Florida and south, locally it likes dry scrub areas. The picture above came from the southwest side of the entrance road to Haulover Canal parking lot on the north end of Kennedy Space Center. Tallow Plums here in Florida range from a few feet tall to sprawling shrubs five or six feet tall.  In southern hammocks, however, which are islands of hardwoods in wet areas, it can grow to 35 feet. 

Tallow Plum is gangly and has small thorns.

The yellow fruit, sometimes orange/red particularly when dropped off the tree, is edible raw or cooked. It can range from a bitter-almond in flavor to sweet. The flesh is somewhat astringent and sticky. There is no particular aroma of the fruit but the flowers have an intense lilac aroma. Young leaves, which have a strong aroma of almonds, can also be well-boiled then eaten in small amounts. Think famine food.  Do not eat them raw. They contain hydrocyanide.

The oil of the seed is also edible and used for cooking. It has 10 fatty acids, seven unsaturated yielding a total unsaturation of 92.42%. The oil contained essential fatty acids of Linoleic (1.34%), Linolenic (10.31%), Arachidonic (0.60%) and varying levels of unsaturated higher fatty acids, specifically Eicosatrienoic (3.39%), Erucic (3.46%) and Nervonic (1.23%) acids. The level of Oleic acid  is 72.09%. the fruit has chigh levels of vitamin C (160,26 mg per100 g), yellow flavonoids (43,12 mg per100 g), total extractable polyphenols (3066,48 mg per 100 g) and antioxidant activity (365,55 g fruit/g DPPH e 251,70 μmol Trolox/g.

The pulp of the seed itself is purgative raw, and is used as a seasoning. A few can be eaten after cooking but if too many cooked ones are consumed, like the raw ones, they becomes a most efficient laxative. The fruit is known to quench thirst, is used as a drink and in making jams and jellies. In Tazania the Sandawe (Bushmen) rely on the fruit as a staple. The seed oil is use for skin moisturizing and as of this writing is commercially available costing $5 and ounce, not counting shipping. 

Addendum March 2018: A strapping, young, adult male reported to me that he ate about 20 Gopher Apples and 10 Tallow Plums at one sitting. They gave him temporary premature ventricular contractions which he verified by a heart monitor. And they went away in a short while. Thus we don’t which fruit might have caused said, or a combination of them, the amount, or if it was a personal sensitivity or something else entirely. 

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: A shrub to a small tree, branches long, zig-zaggy, vine-like, semi-climbing, thorny; leaves alternate, yellowish-green in the scrub, darker green in hammocks, oblong or elliptic, rounded or notched at the apex, or spine tipped, one to three inches long, some times in clusters of three.  Flowers yellowish, four petals, 3/8 inch wide, hairy within, very fragrant, similar to lilac, in small clusters. Fruit a broad oval or nearly round, to 1.5 inches long, skin smooth, bright yellow to orange red, flesh yellow, bitter almond to sweet flavor, sub acid to acid. Seed large, oval, buff-colored with white nut like kernel.  The wood is very dense and the plant can be parasitic.

TIME OF YEAR: Spring and fall

ENVIRONMENT: Dry scrub lands to hardwood hammocks. For several decades I only found them in coastal areas. But this past year I found one under a pine west of Orlando, mid-state.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Fruit edible raw or cooked, used for juice, jelly, jam and wine. Kernel roasted but in limited quantities, seed oil is edible and can also be used in making soap, lubrication and a vegetable butter. Young leaves can be boiled and eaten sparingly.  Raw fruit picked when unripe.  The fruit is high in Vitamin C and oil that has been used externally on hair and as a skin softener.

HERB BLURB

The bark, fruit, and leaves have several medicinal uses. Leaves and twigs are used to treat fever, colds, as a laxative and an eye lotion. Leaves are used for headaches, angina, and a poison antidote. Roots are used for skin problems, headaches, venereal disease, sleeping sickness, and water retention. The fruit has been used for constipation. The bark has been used for febrile headaches, bath water for sick children, for kidney and heart complaints, and applied to skin ulcers. Stem bark methanolic and water extracts of showed a spectrum of activity against E coli, P. vulgaris, S. aureus, P. aeruginosa and B. subtilis.

Coral Vine is not a slow creeper.

Antigonon leptopus: Creeping Cuisine

The Antigonon leptopus ( an-TIG-oh-non LEP-toh-puss) inspires local names everywhere it grows: Tallahassee Vine, Honolulu Creeper, the Christmas Island Crawler, as well as Confederate Vine, Mexican Coral Vine, Mexican Creeper, Chinese Love Vine, Chain of Love, Queen’s Jewels, Desert Bleeding Heart, and Queen’s Wreath.  Other names include: Kadena de Amor, Flor de San Diego, Rosa de Mayo, Corona de Reina, Hierba de Santa Rosa, San Miguelito, and Fulmina. Natives called it Coamecate, Coamecatl, Chak lol makal, Cuamécatl, Gui-bakushu, Mamasa-sai and Tunuc. It’s also called the Rose of Montana, but does not grow there.  In most countries where bellies are full, it’s called an invasive weed.

Related to the seagrape and in the buckwheat family, the Coral Vine is a native of Mexico and is widely cultivated in South America. In other pan tropical places it is an escaped ornamental. It tolerates poor soil and a variety of light conditions. While a hungry man would view that as a reliable food source, most first-world governments think of it as difficult to eradicate. In Florida, where it is naturalized, it is considered a Category II invasive exotic (I have often wondered why they don’t think the same way about non-native citrus.)

A fast-growing climber, the Coral Vine grabs via tendrils and can reach 40 feet in length in old age. Its leaves are heart shaped, sometimes triangular, crinkly edged, with reticulated veins (looks wrinkled.) They are officially around one three inches long though I think they grow larger. The flowers are arranged in panicles, pink to white, blooming from spring to fall, many times year around. It is an evergreen in some climates or looses its leaves for a little while in other areas.

Coral Vine Roots: Photo by Marabou Thomas

The Coral Vine is well-equipped to proliferate itself. It produces a huge amount of seeds, which also float. The edible seeds, and or other parts of the vine, are favored by birds, raccoon, deer, pigs and sheep. Bees and butterflies like it because least least 41.6% of its flowers are open at a given time. The plant can also reproduce via its edible tuber which grows larger with age.  It likes pinewoods, fence rows, yards, disturbed ground even marshy areas. Climbing by tendrils, it tends to smother what it ascends.

Least you think the Coral Vine is just another pretty invader it’s medicinal as well. An extract of its leaves and flowers inhibit lipid peroxidation. It’s an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and analgesic. A hot tea made from the aerial parts is used to relieve symptoms of the cold and flu. A leaf tea is also made to treat diabetes and high blood pressure. In the kitchen the cooked roots are nutty, and the leaves and flowers are dipped in flour, fried and served with pasta. The flowers are also mixed into omelet. The seeds can be roasted, winnowed, then ground and used like flour.

Antigonon is from Greek and means opposite angle, think elbow, a reference to the blossom arrangement. Leptopus is a Greek/Latin mess that comes from the Greek word Leptos meaning thin or delicate. Lepta is pocket change and lepto is a moment.  If you prefer the Greek the pronunciation would be LEP-toh-puss (as in cat.) The Latin would favor lep-TOE-puss. There are four to eight species of Antigonon — depending on who is counting. A second one grows in south Florida,  A. guatemalense.  It has larger leaves and hairy stems. Its edibility is unknown to me.

The vine is found throughout the southern United States, Central America and South America.  It is also found on Africa — it got to Egypt by 1805 — and 98% of the Pacific Islands including American Samoa, the  Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Galapagos Islands, Guam, Hawai‘i, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Midway Island, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Island, Samoa, Tonga, the Philippines. It is also found on most islands in the Caribbean. It can be grown as an annual or a container plant at least as far north as St. Louis. It is also found in India, Australia, and England, and is known to grow in southern California but not blossom there.

 Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: A twining vine, clings and climbs with curled tendrils to 40 feet. Leaves: ovate, heart-shaped, soft, pronounced veins on underside, reticulated on top. Flowers: on branch terminals, reddish or light pink, or white.  Petioles 2cm or longer, whereas on the A. guatemalense they are 1 cm or shorter.

TIME OF YEAR: Roots anytime they are large enough to harvest, often deep. Blossom when in season, in warm areas nearly year round, in cooler areas until frost.

ENVIRONMENT: Nearly any environment will do. Flourishes with good water and plenty of sun

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Roots cooked — some say raw, I do not personally know that — seeds roasted and winnowed. Flowers and leaves cooked.

 HERB BLURB

Tea prepared from the aerial parts of Antigonon leptopus is used as a remedy for cold and pain relief in many countries. In this study, A. leptopus tea, prepared from the dried aerial parts, was evaluated for lipid peroxidation (LPO) and cyclooxygenase (COX-1 and COX-2) enzyme inhibitory activities. The tea as a dried extract inhibited LPO, COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes by 78%, 38% and 89%, respectively, at 100 microg/ml. Bioassay-guided fractionation of the extract yielded a selective COX-2 enzyme inhibitory phenolic aldehyde, 2,3,4-trihydroxy benzaldehyde. Also, it showed LPO inhibitory activity by 68.3% at 6.25 microg/ml. Therefore, we have studied other hydroxy benzaldehydes and their methoxy analogs for LPO, COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes inhibitory activities and found that compound 1 gave the highest COX-2 enzyme inhibitory activity as indicated by a 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) at 9.7 microg/ml. The analogs showed only marginal LPO activity at 6.25 microg/ml. The hydroxy analogs 6, 7 and 9 showed 55%, 61% and 43% of COX-2 inhibition at 100 microg/ml. However, hydroxy benzaldehydes 3 and 12 showed selective COX-1 inhibition while compounds 4 and 10 gave little or no COX-2 enzyme inhibition at 100 microg/ml. At the same concentration, compounds 14, 21 and 22 inhibited COX-1 by 83, 85 and 70%, respectively. Similarly, compounds 18, 19 and 23 inhibited COX-2 by 68%, 72% and 70%, at 100 microg/ml. This is the first report on the isolation of compound 1 from A. leptopus tea with selective COX-2 enzyme and LPO inhibitory activities.

Bioactive Natural Products and Phytoceuticals, 173 National Food Safety and Toxicology Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. nairm@msu.edu.

Ti was once raised for food, now it is a common ornamental.

Cordyline fruticosa: Food, Foliage, Booze

Simply called Ti (tee) Cordyline fruticosa spent most of its history with humans as a food, a source of alcohol, or a medicine. Now its foliage is in demand with many showy cultivars.  Ti is probably native to southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea. It was carried throughout much of the Pacific by Polynesians who used the starchy rhizomes for food. An outdoor ornamental in warmer areas of the Earth today Ti is found naturalized in eastern Australia and many of the larger tropical Pacific islands including the Hawaii.  It’s a common potted plant in cooler climates. The point is you should be able to find it nearly everywhere, often with other people taking care of it for you. And if you are so inclined you can even make a Hula skirt out of it.

“Scarlet Sister” is a popular variety

Boiled roots taste like molasses and were used to make a beer that was reported to cure scurvy (but modern references to its nutrition are scarce.)  Some say the Hawaiians learned to distill Ti beer into a stronger brew from convicts in Botany Bay, Australia. Young leaves are used as a potherb. Older leaves are used to wrap food, make clothes, rain capes and for thatch. Ti leaves are to wrap foods for grilling, steaming or baking. Dried leaves should be soaked to soften before using.

One word of caution. Don’t confuse the Ti with the Dracaena. Ti leaves have a petiole (stem) arching out from the trunk or branch. Dracaena leaves clasp the trunk or branch.  Dracaena will also burn your mouth and hands.

Two species are regularly reported as food sources. C. fruticosa and C. australis. Cordyline (kor-dih-LYE-nee) means club-like, referring to the look of the roots. Fruticosa (froo-tee-KHO-sah) means fruit.  Australis (oss-TRAY-liss) means southern.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

Starcy roots are usually baked

IDENTIFICATION: Cordyline fruticosa is an evergreen shrub with a strong trunk which does not usually branch, 10 feet in height. Also a small house plant with colorful foliage, leaves 15-30 inches long, 4-6 inches wide, varying in color from shiny green to purple, red, yellow, purple and white. In mature plants, the leaves are tuft-like in appearance on the top of the stems, leaves along the stems with young pants. Flower fragrant, usually yellow or red, berry-like red fruit

TIME OF YEAR: Year round

ENVIRONMENT: Partial shade to nearly full sun, moist soil. Like humidity. Prefers water without Fluoride.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: C. australis: Young leaves and shoots eaten raw or roasted. Roots eaten or brewed after cooking. C. fruticosa. Roots cooked for food and brewing, young leaves cooked as a potherb. Also used to wrap food. The roots were slow roasted for days to get a molasses-like syrup which was then used for alcohol production. One way to use the leaf is to wrap food in it then cut the center rib out leaving two smaller wraps then cook (such as steam.)

This original article was first written in July 2011 by Green Deane.

Waxy White Indian Pipes

Monotropa was almost a monotypic genus. Instead of having one species in the genus there were two: Monotropa uniflora and Monotropa hypopithys. Now they are two genera, Monotropa uniflora andHypopitys lanuginosa

Most references to the Monotropas are medicinal but Merritt Fernald in his publication “Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America” mentions the Monotropa uniflora as barely edible. He writes on pages 305-306: “So far as we are informed, the only person who has reported upon it is Prest, who states the fresh plant is almost tasteless but that when parboiled and then boiled or roasted it is ‘comparable to asparagus.’ Our own single experiment was not gratifying in its result.”

Professor Merritt Fernald

That’s not promising. Fernald was the main botanical man of his age. Born in Orono, Maine, he was soon at Harvard and never left becoming the expert in eastern North American flora. He published the above book in 1943. Fernald died in 1950 two weeks shy of his 77th birthday. His book was republished in 1958. I own a copy. Nearly 40 years later in 1996 it was reprinted virtually unchanged. In the introduction, written during World War II, Fernald echoed some sentiments now familiar to us: “Nearly everyone has a certain amount of the pagan or gypsy in his nature and occasionally finds satisfaction in living for a time as a primitive man. Among the primitive instincts are the fondness for experimenting with unfamiliar foods and the desire to be independent of the conventional sources of supply. All campers and lovers of out-of-doors life delight to discover some new fruit or herb which it is safe to eat, and in actual camping it is often highly important to be able to recognize and secure fresh vegetables for the camp-diet; while in emergency the ready recognition of possible wild foods might save life. In these days, furthermore, when thoughtful people are wondering about the food-supply of the present and future generations, it is not amiss to assemble what is known of the now neglected but readily available vegetable-foods, some of which may yet come to be of real economic importance.”

The blossoms turn down until seeding

Fernald thought little of the Monotropa uniflora and by accident or intent left out of his book’s bibliography who Prest was. That struck me as a challenge. I accepted. I eventually found a W.H. Prest who was the author of Edible Plants of Nova Scotia circa 1904-1905. He seemed a likely candidate. Experiment Station Record, Volume 23, United States Office of Experiment Stations, Agricultural Research Service, says on page 668 that Prest’s plant list was: “…a popular description of plants which have little commercial value, but which may be used for food in case of necessity.” More digging filled the name out to Walter H. Prest, of Bedford and Halifax, Nova Scotia. And it wasn’t much of a publication, just notes. They were included in the Proccedings of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science, Volume 11. Prest was a dues-paying member and participating fellow. On page 413 Prest gets to the Monotropa in note 67 (of 77) the first and only entry under “Parasitic Plants.” He writes:

Monotropa uniflora L. Indian Pipe, locally “Death-Plant.” White semitransparent stalk 2 1/2 in. to 5 in. high, with highly organized flower of five petals, without smell, stalk with thin transparent scales or leaflets, tender and almost tasteless. Parboil, then boil or roast, comparable to asparagus. In dry or moderately dry soil in thick woods, June to August. Generally distributed and abundant.”

Like Fernald, as far as I can tell Prest’s reference is the only reference to Monotropa uniflora’s edibility and perhaps the original that everyone now quotes via Fernald. At least we know Fernald copied it faithfully.

Prest’s Gold Mining Book

As for Prest, more than a century ago on page 387 of the proceedings introducing his list he wrote: “These notes on edible wild plants of Nova Scotia are the result of my early experience in the backwoods, and are offered with the hope that they may prove of benefit to those whom business or accident may lead temporarily beyond the reach of the resources of civilization.  While some of the wild fruits here mentioned, such as the blueberry and cranberry, are of commercial value, others are included because they may assist in sustaining life at a critical time. While lost in the forest persons have perished through a want of knowledge of the resources which nature has bounteously provided in many sections at certain seasons of the year. As these resources are more animal than vegetable, the latter class has been much neglected. Therefore, the result to a lost man, unprovided with weapons or the means of snaring, trapping or catching game of fish, might be perhaps serious. I propose, therefore, to tabulate these edible plants, so far as known to me, and describe as freely and popularly as possible, all that have come under my personal notice….”

That’s another voice reaching across time about food. The next question would be who was Prest and what were his credentials? There might be an answer.

I don’t like articles with “holes” in them, missing bits of information whose absence irritates the reader. Call it the journalist in me but I wanted to know more about our single referencer. As far as I can tell he was Walter Henry Prest, born 1856 in Spry Bay, Nova Scotia, to Edward Isaac Prest and Ann Elizabeth McKinley. He married Maude Tuttle and died in Halifax in 1920. Prest — which is a variation of Priest — got out in the woods because

Eskers were once tunnels rivers flowed through under glaciers

he collected plants and was either a geologist or a gold prospector or both. He’s probably the author of “The Gold Fields of Nova Scotia: A Prospector’s Handbook” Halifax: Industrial Publishing Company, (1915). His original list of plants was published in 1901 in a small 23-page volume shared with another author on a different topic: Phenological observations in Nova Scotia and Canada, 1901 ; 2. Labrador plants (collected by W.H. Prest on the Labrador coast north of Hamilton Inlet, from the 25th of June to the 12th of August, 1901.) As mentioned earlier Prest was a member of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science and a year before he died read at least one paper there on the 12th of May 1919 “On The Nature and Origin of the Eskers of Nova Scotia.” An ekser is a long narrow winding ridge made up of layers of sediment and marks where there used to be a flowing tunnel through a glacier. Some are hundreds of miles long. That’s also where plants grow above the barren rock and where animals den.

Now we have a more complete picture of our forager. Prest had scientific grounding with a foot in geology, a foot in botany and some peer review. And if he knew about prospecting he was also out in the wilds a lot. Whether a long time without asparagus makes Monotropa uniflora as palatable as asparagus is another issue.

Hypopitys lanuginosa aka Monotropa hypopithys, Pinesap

The chlorophyll-less plant is widely distributed throughout most of North American and only absent from the southwest, intermountain west and the central Rocky mountains. Distributed yes but not commonly encountered. I see it now and then and never paid it much attention until I received an inquiry. It lives off fungi that get their energy from trees.  Monotropa means “once turned” (the blossom turns before releasing seed) and uniflora means “one flowered.” The entire plant is waxy white. The other species in the genus is a bit of an issue.

Monotropia hypopithys,  also called Pinesap, has the same growth pattern but instead of white it is yellow to gold and hairless in the summer, red and hairy in the fall. Dr. François Couplan in his book “The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America” says on page 192 that M. hypopithys “is reported to be edible raw or cooked. It  contains two glucosides, one of which yields by hydrolysis an essential oil containing methyl salicylate. The plant is antispasmodic and expectorant.” Sound more like medicine than food to me. It has also been renamed Hypopitys lanuginosa (lan-oo-gih-NO-suh) the latter meaning “wooly” or “downy.”

There is also a spelling issue with it, hypopithys or hypopitys. Books favor with the “H” and the Internet without, which suggests to me the books are right. More so, hypopithys/hypopitys is said to mean “under pines.” Linnaeus, who named the species, always used hypopithys as did Fernald, above, when Fernald rewrote and expanded Gray’s Manuel of Botany, which I have. As mentioned, I think there is something wrong in either the spelling, the translation or both. Then again, timing could also be an issue.

Boiled 15 minutes and still tasted bad

In Greek, modern or ancient, it is difficult to find the “H” sound associated with pines. Written language, after all, just reflects what people say. In Ancient Greek one word for pine was pitus, PEE-tus and one can see how that could be written in Dead Latin as pitys. No “H” as in hypopitys (high-poh-PIE-tees.) I would agree that means “under pines.” However, there was a wood nymph in Greek mythology named Pithys. Wood nymphs were called that because they stayed in the woods, also where Indians Pipes are found, only in the woods. Hypopithys (high-POH-pith-eez) would mean “under wood nymphs.” Linnaeus knew his Latin and Greek and consistently used the “H” in hypopithys. He was also the original dirty old man with a gutter sense of humor (you should read what naughtisms some of those botanical names translate into.)  I suspect hypopithys, under wood nymphs, was the original naming, not as it has become referred to, hypopitys, under pines. Thus I think we had first the right spelling and the wrong translation; hypopithys, under wood nymphs mistranslated as under pines. Now we have the wrong spelling but the right translation of the wrong spelling, hypopitys, under pines and translated as under pines. Having read a lot of and about Linnaeus I think hypopithys, under wood nymphs, was more his frisky style.

Emily Dickenson, age 17

Both species are reported to be edible but because of the rarity of edibility reports and definite glucosides in the second species I would be careful. There might be a reason why only Prest says they are edible though he died nearly 20 years after writing that. If I find some more locally I’ll let you know.

I should also note the pale plant also drew the attention of Emily Dickinson, pale poet and closet romantic. In 1882, four years before Dickinson died, her neighbor, Mabel Loomis Todd, painted a watercolor of Indian Pipes as a gift to Dickinson.

Watercolor to gravestone

In a thank you letter to Mabel, Emily said, “That without suspecting it you should send me the preferred flower of life, seems almost supernatural… I still cherish the clutch with which I bore it from the ground when a wondering child, and unearthly booty, and maturity only enhances the mystery, never decreases it.”

In 1890 the same image of the Indian Pipes appeared on the cover of the first posthumous edition of Dickinson’s poems. The image was also reproduced on Mrs. Todd’s gravestone in Wildwood Cemetery in Amherst, Massachusetts.

 Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Indian Pipes

IDENTIFICATION: Monotropa uniflora: From 10 to 30 centimeters. The entire plant is a translucent, “ghostly” white, sometimes pale pinkish-white and commonly has black flecks. The leaves are scale-like and flecked with black on the flower stalk (peduncle). As the Latin epithet uniflora implies, the stem bears a single flower. Upon emerging from the ground, the flower is pendant (downwardly pointed). As the anthers and stigma mature, the flower is spreading to all most perpendicular to the stem. The fruit is a capsule. As the capsule matures, the flower becomes erect (in line with the stem). Once ripened, seed is released through slits that open from the tip to the base of the capsule. The plant is persistent after seed dispersal. By the way, when the plant is unfertilized the “blossom” face down. When fertilized they point up.

TIME OF YEAR: Flowers from early summer to early autumn

ENVIRONMENT: Mature, moist, shaded forests in thick leaf litter.

METHOD OF PREPATION: Monotropa uniflora, parboiled, roasted or boiled. Monotropa hypoythis reportedly raw or cooked. Again, be wary of glucosides.

This original article was written by Green Deane in 2011.