Only the blossoms of one Bougainvillea, Brasiliensis is usable.

We use the sepals not the flower itself.

Bougainvilleas are often referred to as a toxic plant.  The reason given is that scratches from their thorns infect easily. The thorns are coated with a substance that can cause contact dermatitis. Symptoms are a rash, tenderness, and itching. It can resemble poison ivy. Any wounds should be cleansed and care for. Bougainvilleas are not forager friendly except one, the purple variety, B. brasiliensis. 

On page 161 Cornucopia II says “Bougainvillea Brasiliensis, Purple Bougainville, In Mexico the flower bracts are used for making an attractive, violet colored water drink (agua fesca) called agua de buganvilia. It is said to have a refreshingly delicate taste. Other types of bougainvillea are not suitable for making the drink.” 

B. brasiliensis can also be redish instead of purple.

In the Four O’Clock family, there are four to 18 Bougainvillea species. Botanical egos can’t agree. The plant was named after Admiral Louis Antoine, Count of Bougainville, who was in charge (1767) when the plant was first seen at now Rio de Janeiro by Europeans, in this case Frenchmen sailing around the world (and unwittingly at the same time taking the first woman to go around the world, Jeanne Baret.) 

Modern Bougainvilleas are a hybrid between Bougainvillea spectabilis (the species discovered in 1767) and Bougainvillea glabra.  There are also 300 varieties which makes identifying parentage difficult. 

Green Deane’s Itemized Plant Profile.

Bougainvillea distribution in North America

IDENTIFICATION: A sprawling, woody vine that behaves like a shrub with showy flowers of yellowish-white waxy tubes surrounded by three 1 to 2 inch long colorful bracts. Bougainvillea can reach 40 feet tall/long. Bloom colors including purple, scarlet, orange and pink. The species is evergreen. 

TIME OF YEAR: Spring to fall

ENVIRONMENT: Full sun, the more sun the more blossoms. 

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Purple bracts and be used to make a tea or other beverages. Four blossoms per cup is used. For a cough remedy lemon juice is added and honey or sugar. Heat water, add blossoms, let seep, remove blossoms before drinking. This drink is also made as a cough remedy. 

Ackee must be carefully harvested and prepared.

Delicious and deadly, that’s ackee. 

Native to Africa and a common food in the Caribbean Islands Ackee is eaten at home and in restaurants in Jamaica and canned in brine for export. Because Ackee killed some 5,000 people between 1886 and 1950 the raw fruit is officially banned in the United States though you can buy it frozen or canned. I knew someone who had a tree in his yard. Like the tomato it’s a fruit that’s used like a vegetable and is the national dish of Jamaica.  

Jamaican Ackee Pizza

You will find this tree either wild or intentionally cultivated in Central and South Florida. The toxin in the fruit is hypoglycin, an amino acid unnatural to our bodies. It causes a severe drop in blood glucose. The arils are toxic before the fruit naturally opens called “yawing.” The seeds are always toxic. If even a tiny little part of seeds are left in the ripe arils it can make you sick. The rind has saponin and is used to poison fish. 

The botanical name Blighia sapida is name for Captain William Bligh of “Mutiny on the Bounty” notoriety. He got the nomenclature nod because he was the first one to take the plant to Kew Gardens in London in 1793. Sapida means savory, delicious or prudent and wise… a questionable name for this national fruit.  

I’ve eaten Ackee once raw and it reminded me of cheese in flavor and texture. Indeed, there are four dozen cultivars and they are split between “butter” or “cheese” types. The “cheese” type is pale yellow and solid and often used in canning. The butter type is more delicate and more often used fresh. 

All of Ackee is toxic except the ripe aril.

If we combine two reports we learn 100 grams of fresh ackee aril has 10 grams of carbohydrates, 3.45 grams of fiber, 19 grams of fat, 9 grams of protein and 140 calories. There’s 500 IU of vitamin A and 68 mg of vitamin C which is your daily need. Iron is 5.52 mg, calcium 30 mg,  B1 (thiamin) 0.10 mg. B2 (riboflavin) 0.18 mg, and B3 (niacin) 3.74 mg.   

A tall evergreen tree, most poisoning happen in the winter because the tree does not get enough sun exposure. If raised from a seed the tree can fruit in as little as three years.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile 

IDENTIFICATION: Medium to large tree, 30 to 75 feet, alternate pinnate leaves with six  to eight leaflets with short stems; shiny green, stiff, six to eight inches long.

ENVIRONMENT: Grows well in well-drained, deep, fertile soils but also non-fertile soils such as sand and calcerous bedrock 

TIME OF YEAR: January March, October-November. 

METHOD OF PREPARATION: The aril is edible only when the fruit naturally opens. It must be separated from the fruit and the seed and absolutely no part of the seed is consumed.  The red tissue and veins that attach to the aril must be removed. The aril is edible raw and turns yellow when cooked. Don’t over cook as it will fall apart easily. You can get ill from canned fruit.

Jabuticaba fruit grows on the trunk and limbs of the tree.

In its native Brazil the Jabuticaba is by far the most popular fruit. The Dutch knew about it in 1658. Jabuticaba made it to California by 1904. It’s a common ornamental and there are many cultivars” Sabara, Paulista, Rajada, Branca, Ponhema, Rujada, Roxa, Sao Paulo, Coroa, Murta, and Mineira.  

Per 100 grams Plinia cauliflora fruit has 45.7 calories, 0.11 grams of protein, 0.08 grams of fiber, 0.01 grams of fat and 12.58 gams of carbohydrates. Vitamin A is absent but it has 22.7 mg of vitamin C which is about a third of your daily need. The B vitamins are B1 (thiamin) 0.02 mg, B2 (riboflavin) 0;02 mg, and B3 (niacin) 0.21 mg. Two minerals are reported: Calcium 6.3 mg and phosphorus 9.2 mg. 

Called Myrciaria cauliflora a second name for the species is Plinia cauliflora.

It’s a short tree planted in warm areas of North American and a common ornamental in Florida and the Gulf Coast. One is reported to sustain an 18F freeze and continued to thrive and fruit. Jabuticaba means “like turtle fat” referring to the fruit pulp, or, it means “tortoise place.” Take your pick.  Myrciaria is from the Greek myrike (μυρίκη) which was the  Greek name for the “tamarisk” a tree that is aromatic. In English it means Myrtle. Cauliflora means cauliflower-like. Plinia is Dead Latin for filled, full, rich, whole, perfect, well-equipped. You might remember from history Pliny the Elder and Younger. 

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Slow-growing tree, shrubby, usually not more than one two yards, profusely branched starting close to the ground, thin outer bark that flakes, evergreen leaves, glossy, leathery. Fruit on trunk and branches. Round or pear-shaped, tough skin, ranges from bright green to dark purple appearing to be black, slight muscadine grape flavor can be astringent. Pulp gelatinous, juicy, translucent all-white to light rose in color clinging to the seeds. Untrimmed trees fruit the best. The one you will see locally is probably the Sabara. From flower to fruit is four to five weeks. 

TIME OF YEAR: All year in warm areas but heaviest in March  and April or September. In some areas they fruit twice a year. 

ENVIRONMENT: Jaboticaba grow best on deep, rich, well-drained soil but also grow and bare in sand over  limestone. If you are going to plant some they should be 30 feet apart. They tolerate light freezes. 

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Out of hand. Squeeze the fruit between your thumb and forefinger. It causes the skin to spilt making the pulp easy to get at. The seeds are edible but not usually eaten. Once harvested they ferment quickly. They can be made into wine, jelly and jam how much skin to remove is a matter of personal preference as they have tannins. 

You can’t rummage around the woods as a forager without running into someone’s marijuana patch. Locally the most likely place to find said is on spoil islands, the ones created by dredging. Kids row out, have a party and toss away the seeds. What is not surprising those abandoned seeds grow into plants the kids don’t recognize as the same plant they are smoking. 

We don’t have a full nutrition panel for Marijuana, Cannabis sativa… yes it does have some nutrition. A 1991 book on indigenous diets reported 100 grams of seeds has a whopping 421 calories, 27.1 grams of protein, 27.6 grams of carbohydrates, 25.6 grams of lipids, 20.3 grams of fiber, 2.1 mg of B3 (niacin) 0.3 mg of B1 (thiamin) 1.7 mg of B2 (riboflavin) and half an IU of vitamin A. On the mineral side it has 970 mg of phosphorus, 12 mg of calcium, and 12 mg of iron. 

Actually the seeds are achenes and were cattle food in Europe after oil extraction. Most seeds contain 30% oil, according to a report in the 29th edition of the Journal of Economic Botany, July-Septmeber 1975. The oil was called “oleifera” which is now confusing as an important food tree has the same name, Moringa oleifera (elsewhere in this book.) 

The plant was originally put in the Nettle family then the Mulberry group and later Hops. Some think it might be related to Elms. The genus “Cannabis” comes form the Greek word κάνναβις (kánnavis.) That probably was Scythian or Thracian and most likely was borrowed from the Persian Kanab and (as is often the case) that probably came from India. Sativa is Dead Latin for “cultivated.”  While those in India and China long ago knew about the drug properties of the species the Greeks did not nor the Egyptians or Hebrews. There exists some hemp cloth from China that is perhaps 6000 years old. It was first cultivated in the Americas in 1545 in Chile, Nova Scotia in 1606 and 1632 in the Puritan settlements of New England. Among that study’s finding — they grew an experimental plot in Ottawa — was that fiber hemp can also contain drug properties.  

Green Deane’s Itemized Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Needs no identification.

TIME OF YEAR: Summer in cold climates, year round in warm. Male plants die after shedding pollen, female are killed by frost. In cold Ottawa — for science — they grew 900 pounds on a half acre.

ENVIRONMENT: Like most plants sun, water, good soil. Despite it chemical armaments it can suffer from insect predation.  

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Numerous.