Strawberry guava with green and ripe fruit

  Psidium littorale var. cattleianum: Strawberry Guava

One man’s fruit tree is another man’s weed. My one Strawberry Guava tree is a fruiting delight. However, in the Caribbean, Hawaii, and parts of Florida, it’s an invasive weed, which also means free food. Then again, when you think of it, foragers are always surrounded by food.

Native to the Atlantic coast of Brazil, the Strawberry Guava has been exported to warm places around the world and naturalized. Where you find citrus you will find Strawberry Guava. It was imported into Florida in the 1880s as an ornamental and for fruit production. Closely related to the common guava, it forms dense stands that overpowers local species. Once entrenched it is hard to remove. Currently there are no controls though Hawaii is in the process of importing an insect to slow its growth. All the while it produces fruit.

That it is a guava is not debatable. That its fruit tastes like strawberries is. When the fruit is extremely ripe it can have a momentary fragrance of strawberry. Otherwise to me it tastes more like tart passionfruit.

I have learned that picking the fruit requires timing. The fruit starts out hard and green. At some point they begin to ripen and become mottled, a little, green, a little white, a little red. As a fruit turns color it also softens. At that stage it is perfect for picking. It will be tart, seeds not quite hard yet, and bug free. If you wait until the fruit turns completely red, or even dark red, it will — here at least — be full of fruit fly larvae. That is not to say, however, that the fruit is unusable then. That depends on whether you like the extra protein.

The fruit of the Strawberry Guava can be eaten right off the bush. The seeds are hard so chew strategically. The skin is tart and some folks prefer to scoop out the sweet flesh and seeds not eating the skin. Some prefer just the flesh, which is sweet. The seeds can be eaten carefully or roasted as a coffee substitute. Thus older, wormy fruit can be collected for their seeds. The leaves of the tree can also be used to make a tea. I’ve made the fruit into jelly and fruit leather. You might want to omit the seeds from the fruit leather. They stay hard and challenge your dentistry, but they can be included if you want. The wood is good for smoking meat and can also be made into tools and toys.

The Strawberry Guava is an all-round versatile weed. Perhaps the only draw back, besides being invasive,  is it fruits only once a year and all at once, over and done with within a couple of weeks. I have found if I pick the ripening fruit daily it ripens more fruit and lessens the fruit fly issue.

Pineapple guava

Botanically, the Strawberry Guava is in the myrtle family and is Psidium littorale var cattleianum.  SID-ee-um  lit-aw-RAY-lee  catt-tee-eye-AY-num. Psidium is the Greek word for pomegranate. Littorale is of the sea shore. The variety is named after William Cattley (d. 1832), English horticulturalist  who was the first person to successfully cultivate the species. The Strawberry Guava is also called Psidium cattleianum. Incidentally, there is a Pineapple Guava as well, Feijoa sellowiana. I’ve only seen one. It’s fruit stays green and has an odd cross shape on the end. It drops when ripe but can be picked before that. See picture above.  Its blossom petals are edible.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Evergreen shrub or small tree to 25 feet tall, with gray to reddish-brown peeling bark and young branches round, slightly hairy. Leaves opposite, simple, no teeth, no hair, elliptic to oblong to 3 inches long. Flowers: To just over an inch wide; single at leaf axils, with white petals and a mass of white and yellow stamens. Fruit golfball size, looks similar to small pomegranates, purple red, whitish flesh, sweet when ripe, many seeds.  There is also a yellow edible version.

TIME OF YEAR: Can bloom and fruit all year but bears its main crop in early to mid summer.

ENVIRONMENT: Extreme. It can grow in near dry conditions to a rainforest. The more water and sun, the taller it can grow. Will not tolerate freezing.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Many. It can be eaten off the bush, best when between green and red, mottled. Can be made in to pies, jam, jellies, drinks, sauces, fruit leather et cetera. Seeds are edible but hard. Can be roasted and used to extend coffee or as a substitute. A tea can be made from the leaves. A yellow species can be used the same way.  Again, the seeds while edible are tough and hard on your teeth.

Strawberry Tree Koumaria

Strawberry Tree, Koumaria, Koumara, Pacific Madrone, Madrona

Any plant called “strawberry” other than a strawberry is doomed. Strawberries pack a lot of particular flavor and sweetness. Most other things called strawberry do not.

The Strawberry Guava doesn’t. The Indian Strawberry doesn’t. The Strawberry Tree doesn’t, and its sibling, the other Strawberry Tree doesn’t either. These four fruits have their own flavor and appeal that gets lost in the pronouncement that they are not as good as the strawberry. And that is accurate. None of them are as extroverted as the strawberry, but they are not strawberries. You have to get past that.

Like the rest, the Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo,  is doomed in English, as Arbutus mensiesii related Strawberry Tree. In Greek the former is called Koumaria (koo-mar-ree-AH) which is also the name of a town and a heck  of a lot of hotels. The perfectly round fruit of the tree, a favorite of children, is called Koumara (no i.) Goats love the leaves, as do deer. But best of all, Koumara are Koumara, and they’re good unto themselves. A. unedo takes a year to put on fruit and ripen so it is loosing fruit just about the time it is flowering again. Called madronos in Spanish, Corbezzolo in Italian, and sometimes Bearberry in English as well as the Apple of Cain and Cain Apple. The fruit smells like anise but doesn’t taste like that, more along the lines of a woody strawberry, or a cross between guava and nectarine However, unripe it can cause nausea, on the other hand it can ferment on the branch and cause mild intoxication. From a health point of view it does have Vitamin C. The bark has tannins for working leather or as a dye.

A. mensiesii aka A. menziesii

The second Strawberry Tree is A. mensiesii, also called the Pacific Madrone, or Madrona. Native to northwestern North America, it can be found cultivate in non-hot areas of the country. Every September I get several emails from folks wondering if the fruit is edible because there are Internet reports that it is toxic. It is not. Most folks think it is some kind of dogwood, but it is not. It’s berries are edible but astringent. The Indians made them into cider or just chewed them. A more distant relative, the Mayflower, or the Trailing Arbutus, is also an edible. See a separate entry for that.

Arbutus (arb-YEW-tus) means struggle.  Unedo (YOU-nee-doe)  means “I eat only one” from the Latin unum edo. That can be read two ways: It is so good I only eat one, or it is rather it is uninteresting thus I only eat one. We got that in 50 AD from Pliny the Elder (23 AD – August 25, 79), and we don’t know which he meant. Mensiesii honors the discoverer, Archibald Menzies (1754-1842), a Scottish physician and naturalist.

The Arbutuses are in the heath family. Oddly, A. unedo also grows in Ireland where in Gaelic it is called Caithne. Some think it is a pre-ice age hold over. In might have been introduced by the Beaker People around 4,000 BC according to pollen found in bogs.  Incidentally, there is an old Irish folk song “My Love’s An Arbrutus.” The words are by the recipes below.

Koumaria in blossom

Several species in the genus Arbutus are ornamentals. A. andrachne (the Eastern Strawberry Tree) has small edible berries and cinnamon-colored bark. It is often confused with a hybrid, A. andrachnoides , which has small, hard edible fruit and perfectly smooth bark ranging from deep red to bright yellow. Fruit of the Arbutus marina, however, is edible.

When I travel back to the “old country” the two things I notice about plants is how many familiar ones there are. Weeds are cosmopolitan. Then there are the natives. Edible figs grow wild in southern Greece, as does the deadly Oleander but also thyme, basil, savory, rosemary, oregano and marjoram. In Crete the fruit of the Koumaria is made into a local distillation called Koumaro. Having visited Crete many times I think the Cretans can make tail pipe-kicking radiator fluid out of nearly anything.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: The Strawberry Tree, grows to 15 to 35 feet tall, evergreen leaves are dark green, glossy, two to four inches long, up to an inch wide with a serrated edge.Young leaves have red veins.  Blossoms are white (occasionally pale pink), bell-shaped, like a blueberry blossom, honey scented. Fruit is a red berry to 3/4 of an inch through,  rough surface, maturing 12 months. In southern US the tree is about 10 feet tall. Older specimens have gnarled trunk and branches. Many cultivars including “Compacta, Rubra, Elifn King, Quercifolia, Croomei, Melita, and Werner.

TIME OF YEAR: Fruit usually ripens in later summer or fall. Mealy, amber flesh. Tree blooms autumn into winter

ENVIRONMENT: Native to rocky well-drained soil, full sun except in deserts where it needs partial shade

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Out of hand, jams, jellies, pies, candied fruit, wine and spirits. See recipes below.

 Strawberry Tree Jam

Two pounds of fruit

A pound of sugar

Four ounces orange liquor

Slowly boil the fruit with a little water until soft. Press through a mill then reheat with the sugar and liqueur. Simmer until a drop mounds on a chilled dish.

Option: Add some cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and vanilla for added flavor.

Strawberry Tree Jelly

Arbutus berries, sugar, water.

Rinse fruits. Put them in a preserving pan and cover with cold water almost completely. . Bring on the heat and cook for about fifteen minutes over low heat. Pass the fruit through a cheesecloth, pressing well to catch any juice.

Weigh it.  Mix the juice with its weight of sugar.  Simmer over low heat, skimming rather soft at times. Cooking is complete when the juice forms small beads. Cool before placing in jars.

My Love’s An Arbutus

My love’s an arbutus
By the borders of Lene,
So slender and shapely
In her girdle of green.
And I measure the pleasure
Of her eye’s sapphire sheen
By the blue skies that sparkle
Through the soft branching screen.

But though ruddy the berry
And snowy the flower
That brighten together
The arbutus bower,
Perfuming and blooming
Through sunshine and shower,
Give me her bright lips
And her laugh’s pearly dower.

Alas, fruit and blossom
Shall lie dead on the lea,
And Time’s jealous fingers
Dim your young charms, Machree.
But unranging, unchanging,
You’ll still cling to me,
Like the evergreen leaf
To the arbutus tree.

Strongback fruit

Bourreria succulenta: Soapy Fruit and Viagra

Botanists are feisty in their own way. The Strongback is a good example. Is it B. succulenta or B. ovata? One will say “succulenta” is right by international agreement, the other counters “succelenta” is the mere common term and it’s really “ovata.” Add to that about a dozen colloquial names and the teapot tempest steams on.

Strongback is a member of the Borage family and is another of those tropical fruit trees that sits on the cusp of edible non-edible, between forage food and survival food. Is usually found only in southern Florida and the Keys, good to know if you get stranded in the thousands of islands of Cape Sable. Fruit from several species in Bourreria genus are reported as edible. The Strongback is no exception but they taste on the soapy side.  A tea can be made from its bark.

The sweet smelling flowers last through the summer and pea-size berries are red by October and persist on the tree. Butterflies and hummingbirds visit the tree as well as fruit-eating birds. Evergreen, as the tree ages its branches droop and remind one of a weeping willow. It is often found growing with other special locals including Marlberry, Wild Coffee, Orange Geiger, Palms and Jamaican Caper.

So why Strongback, not Strongbark? The tree, which is on the endangered species list for Florida, has been rumored for centuries to give men strong backs in the bedroom to do what needs to be done. While there has been no testing in the lab to support this the assertion is still made around the Caribbean (see Herb Blurb below.)  Polite folks incorrectly call it Strongbark.

Bourreria (bour-ER-ee-uh) is named for Johann Ambrosius Beurer, an 18th century German apothecary. Succulenta (suk-yoo-LEN-tuh) means fleshy, succulent, and ovata (oh-VAY-tuh) oval in shape.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: A shrub or tree to 30 feet, with a buttressed base, narrow crown, reddish brown bark. Leaves alternate, broad ovals to 4.5 inches long, rounded or notched at the time, yellow green, glossy above, pale underneath

TIME OF YEAR: All year

ENVIRONMENT: Hammocks, moist rich soil

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Ripe fruit edible, a tea can be made from the bark.

 HERB BLURB

The tree has been used to cure thrush and other oral inflammations, a decoction with rum is considered an aphrodisiac in the Dutch Antilles, and the Bahamas, and Puerto Rico and Haiti and Dominican Republic and the Bahamas and also Cuba. It is often mixed with other trees for medicinal uses. Twigs are boiled with the Tabebuia heterophylla or Citharexylum fruticosum (Five Finger or Fiddlewood) to treat back pain or pain at the waist.  It was used to quiet nerves and treat kidneys. A shoot was boiled with Capraria biflora and Turnera ulmifolia (Ram Goat and Ram Goat Dash Along) to treat diarrhea. With Guaiacum sanctum (Lignum Vitae) it was used to treat headache, fever and stiffness in the arms and legs. A decoction with Thouinia discolor and Citharexylum fruticosum (Three Finger and Fiddlewood) was used externally to treat running sores in children.  The inner back was seeped with Swietenia mahagoni and Bursera simaruba ( Mahogany and Gumbo Limbo)  to treat low blood pressure. An emollient from the inner back was used to treat inflamed joints

Cultivated Sugar Cane

 Saccharum officinarum: Sweet Wild Weed

Among the edible wild plants on this site are a few escaped fruit trees and ornamentals that have become naturalized. Let’s add another: Sugarcane.

I’ve grown sugar cane for several years in my yard, neglecting it actually. It grows happily just the same despite the fact I am more than 200 miles north of south Florida and on a dry hill. So that is the first surprise about sugarcane or Saccharum officinarum. It’s a tropical and subtropical plant, found from Florida to Texas as well as Puerto Rico and Hawaii. One does encounter it growing in the wild. It looks like very tall corn that has mated with bamboo.

Sugarcane is actually a grass, a big grass — note the man in the picture above — and a perennial. There are a half dozen to three dozen species — botanists can’t agree –but that is kind of forgivable. Grasses are notoriously difficult to sort out, even when you know what it is. If you think it’s tough identifying mushrooms, try grasses for a real challenge.

Bottom of Sugar Cane stalks

Let me give you two estimates which as first would seem wrong. There are about 195 countries in the world, and about 195 countries grow sugar cane. That’s can’t be because places like Canada and Sweden don’t grow sugarcane. There is a two part explanation. The official number of countries is usually based on the membership in the United Nations. But several countries are not in the United Nations. Also sugar producers call some places countries that are not really countries, such as Puerto Rico and Bermuda. So two different measuring standards come up with the same answer — 195 — but their list of “countries” would be slightly different.

And while sugar cane is really mostly sugar — it is one of the most efficient plants there are — that’s not always a bad thing. In fact, sugarcane was included in military survival manuals because it is nearly impossible to misidentify and it does provide portable energy. You can use a stalk of it (a cane) as a walking stick and for food. You chew the end but spit out the fiber called bagasse (bah-GAS.) Once dry, bagasse burns well.

The clear sugar sap after processing is brown sugar, hence brown sugar is less processed sugar. Then it is bleached white. Also one can never get all of the sugar out of the sap and that becomes molasses, one of my grandmother’s preferred sweetener. She never used white sugar in her life. Any time anything called for sugar in went the molasses.

Sugarcane is probably from the area of India originally. Granular sugar was mentioned in writing some 5,000 years ago. It got to the Mediterranean Basin around 800 AD. Within 200 years there was hardly a village there that was not growing sugar cane. A sweet tooth is the one craving humans are born with. Sugarcane came to the New World some five hundred years later where it played a significant and controversial role, and still does.

Historical fact: Sugar was one of the first pharmaceutical ingredients, a sweetener to mask bitter medicine, hence the lyric… “a little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down.” There are generally three kinds of sugar cane grown, “chewing cane” “crystal cane” and “syrup cane.”

Saccharum officinarum (SAK-har-um of-fee-shee-NAR-um) means “sugar of the shops.” Officinarum comes from Latin and the Romans. Government-approved food and medicine in the Roman Empire were sold in designated shops. It was a standard of quality.  Thus something sold in a shop was what we would call the authorized version, or the official version, the real McCoy.  (See my article on Palmetto Weevils.)

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Giant grass, eight to 20 feet, resembles corn, solid, jointed, juicy stalks, one to two inches thick, tough. Leaves three feet or more long, two to 2.5 inches wide, thick midrib, fine sharp teeth on the edges. Spikelet are white, hairy, plume like, two to three feet long. Can grow straight up or fall over.

TIME OF YEAR: This year’s sugar cane is usually harvested in November, but in a wild stand, nearly year round.

ENVIRONMENT: Moist, low areas as well as abandoned cultivations particularly in the Everglades.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Stems are peeled and chewed for the juice. Or, they can be peeled, crushed and boiled for the syrup. Once a sweet syrup is obtained, or sugar, it can be used for many things, from making wine to fuel.