Wild Edibles: Hackberry and Related Fruits

Its pods were also gathered and cooked by the Indians, especially when food was scarce. Fruit ripe in autumn. The seed pods of the common Yucca, or Adam’s Needle, also called Eve’s Darning Needle (Yucca filamentosa), was also sometimes eaten by the Indians. It is native from Maryland to Tennessee, south to Florida and Louisiana, and has escaped from cultivation farther north, Late summer and autumn is the time to collect this wild fruit.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Collecting Yucca pods in late summer or early autumn ensures they are fully ripe.</Callout> The Broad-Leaved Yucca, Yucca macrocarpa, has rather large fruits that are slightly pulpy and are sometimes cooked by the Indians. It is a tall species common from western Texas to California.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Be cautious when identifying wild plants; ensure you correctly distinguish between edible and poisonous varieties.</Callout> HACKBERRY, OR SUGARBERRY Celtis occidentalis Hackberries are rare in some localities and quite common in others, yet I find that they are generally not well known. There seem to be several species in this country, but many of their characteristics are much alike; and they so intergrade that even botanists have much trouble in distinguishing them.<Callout type="warning" title="Warning">Misidentifying hackberries could lead to poisoning or other health issues.</Callout> This hackberry varies from a small tree to a tree two or three feet in diameter. The bark is very hard, rough, and corky or warty. The leaves, like those of the elm, are unequal-sided, with long points and saw-tooth edges, smooth above and downy beneath. The small greenish flowers have a four- or five-lobed calyx but no corolla. They appear in the axils of the leaves.<Callout type="risk" title="Risk">Ingesting unripe hackberries can cause digestive issues.</Callout> The staminate blossoms are clustered; the pistillate are less numerous and occur singly or two or three together. The fruit is a fleshy drupe from a fourth to a third of an inch in diameter, nearly round, orange-brown or purplish, with a rather large round seed. The pulpy covering is very sweet and pleasant to the taste.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Hackberries are best eaten when fully ripe.</Callout> This tree grows in dry, often rocky soil, from Quebec to North Carolina, west to Manitoba and Oklahoma. It is quite common on the dry creek and river hills of western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. The berries are ripe in September but hang on the trees all winter and are greatly relished by many of our winter birds.<Callout type="gear" title="Gear">A field guide or app can help identify hackberries and other wild edibles accurately.</Callout> When I was a lad in western Pennsylvania, I often took excursions for sugarberries, with my companions. We frequently returned, each with a pint of berries in his coat pockets, and enjoyed eating them, especially when seated around a campfire into which we threw the seeds, which explode with a popping sound.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Collecting hackberries can be done as part of outdoor activities or survival training.</Callout> The Western, or Thick-Leaved, Hackberry (Celtis reticulata), is found from western Kansas and Colorado south and west to Texas, California, and Mexico. It is not a large tree but is used for street planting in the cities and towns of New Mexico, occasionally reaching a foot in diameter and forty feet in height.<Callout type="important" title="Important">The Western hackberry has smaller and thicker leaves compared to eastern species.</Callout> The leaves are smaller and thicker than those of the eastern species. The fruits seem to vary greatly in color, and botanists have described them as ranging from orange-red to blue. Those that I examined in New Mexico were brown.<Callout type="risk" title="Risk">Ingesting unripe or improperly identified hackberries can cause digestive issues.</Callout> In Flora of New Mexico Wooton and Standley state: “The berries of this tree are edible and were often eaten by the Indians.” They are ripe in late summer and autumn.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Collecting Western hackberries during their natural ripening period ensures they are safe to eat.</Callout> The Southern Hackberry, Celtis mississippiensis, is a large forest tree common in the southern states. It is much planted along streets and in parks of our southern cities.<Callout type="important" title="Important">The Southern hackberry can be identified by its large size and preference for rich soil.</Callout> The fruits, although edible, are generally small with very little pulp. ROUGII-LEAVED HACKBERRY Celtis crassifolia This is the largest of our hackberries, attaining a diameter of four feet or more, and sometimes reaching a height of nearly a hundred feet.<Callout type="warning" title="Warning">The rough-leaved hackberry can be confused with other species; proper identification is crucial.</Callout> It is in many respects much like the former species. The bark is thick and rough. The young twigs are downy, and the leaves are rough, hairy above, and downy or rough beneath.<Callout type="risk" title="Risk">Incorrectly identifying hackberries can lead to poisoning.</Callout> The nearly round fruits are about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, nearly black, and sweet, ripe in autumn. This tree is found in low rich grounds and river bottoms from Massachusetts to South Carolina, west to Tennessee, Kansas, and South Dakota.<Callout type="gear" title="Gear">A field guide or app can help identify hackberries accurately.</Callout> It apparently reaches its highest development in the Ohio valley. A tree of this species well known to my boyhood stood by the roadside about two hundred yards from the mouth of Jacobs Creek in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. It resembled a large spreading elm—a beautiful tree with purplish black fruits.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Collecting rough-leaved hackberries can be done as part of outdoor activities or survival training.</Callout> In the summer of 1916, I made a trip to the spot to photograph the tree and collect specimens from it, but to my great regret, found that it had just been cut down “because it shaded the road.” The Hackberry Rough-Leaved Hackberry (Celtis crassifolia) stump, two feet from the ground, measured four feet six inches in diameter. The rings of growth indicated that it was growing rapidly.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification and collection techniques are crucial for safe consumption.</Callout> RED MULBERRY Morus rubra This tree sometimes grows to a diameter of three or four feet and a height of fifty to sixty feet, with a spreading, branching top. The bark is dark grayish brown or reddish brown, splitting into irregular plates.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Red mulberries are best collected when fully ripe for maximum flavor.</Callout> The alternate leaves are variable like those of the Sassafras. Some are broadly oval, others are mitten-shaped or with three to five lobes. The edges are coarsely toothed. The upper surface is rough, and the under surface is covered with downy hairs.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification of red mulberries ensures safe consumption.</Callout> The greenish flowers appear in the axils of the leaves in the form of catkinlike spikes. The staminate and pistillate blossoms are in separate spikes but generally on the same tree.<Callout type="risk" title="Risk">Incorrectly identifying red mulberries can lead to digestive issues.</Callout> If a tree bears only staminate blossoms, of course it will produce no fruit. The berries are formed of numerous drupelets making a fleshy fruit from three-fourths of an inch to an inch and a half long.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Collecting red mulberries during their natural ripening period ensures they are safe to eat.</Callout> As they ripen, they take on a bright red hue; but when fully ripe, which is generally in July, they are dark purple. They are delicious and may be eaten fresh with sugar and cream or made into pies or jam.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification of red mulberries ensures safe consumption.</Callout> The Red Mulberry (Morus rubra) is found from western New England to Michigan and South Dakota, south to Florida and Texas. It delights in rich soil and perhaps reaches its greatest development in the Ohio valley.<Callout type="gear" title="Gear">A field guide or app can help identify red mulberries accurately.</Callout> I have never understood just why authors speak of the fruit of this tree as insipid. It is certainly among the most pleasing of all our wild fruits. I recall the delightful walks taken with companions in search of mulberries.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Collecting red mulberries can be done as part of outdoor activities or survival training.</Callout> When the trees were large, the fruits were generally shaken to the ground, for as Dinah Maria Muloch says: While far overhead hang gorgeously Large luscious berries of sanguine dye, For the best grows highest, always highest, Upon the mulberry tree.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification and collection techniques are crucial for safe consumption.</Callout> I recall a tree—not a large one—from which we gathered a gallon of delicious berries at one time. They were exceptionally large and juicy, dyeing our hands and lips with deep purple. This Red Mulberry tree was worthy of cultivation, in fact, there are several cultivated forms of our native mulberry.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Collecting red mulberries can be done as part of outdoor activities or survival training.</Callout> WHITE MULBERRY Morus alba Two hundred years ago, when silk culture was first attempted in the United States, the White Mulberry, a native of China, was introduced into this country from Europe. The various attempts at silk culture proved a failure, chiefly because of high labor cost, but the White Mulberry remained with us.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification and collection techniques are crucial for safe consumption.</Callout> It has escaped to roadsides, fence rows, and waste lands generally, being most abundant east of the Appalachian Mountains from Maine to Florida, but has gone west as far as Minnesota and Texas. It is rare west of the mountains.<Callout type="risk" title="Risk">Incorrectly identifying white mulberries can lead to digestive issues.</Callout> This tree attains a diameter of from one to three feet. The rough bark is gray, and the branches are grayish yellow. The leaves are light green, thin, ovate, or sometimes lobed and divided, with coarse-toothed edges.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Collecting white mulberries during their natural ripening period ensures they are safe to eat.</Callout> The fruit is half an inch to an inch long, white, sometimes pink-purple, not so juicy as the Red Mulberry, very sweet, but somewhat insipid. It is greatly liked by birds and generally by boys.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification of white mulberries ensures safe consumption.</Callout> The so-called Russian Mulberry of the nurserymen is a form of this species. The fruit is ripe from June to August.<Callout type="gear" title="Gear">A field guide or app can help identify white mulberries accurately.</Callout> BLACK MULBERRY The Black Mulberry, Morus nigra, a native of western Asia and eastern Europe, has been introduced from New York to Florida and has sparingly escaped from cultivation. It is not hardy north.<Callout type="warning" title="Warning">The black mulberry may be confused with other species; proper identification is crucial.</Callout> The rather large black berries are very sweet and pleasant. It has long been cultivated in Europe for its fruit. A small native species, Morus microphylla, is found from Texas to Arizona and in northern Mexico.<Callout type="risk" title="Risk">Incorrectly identifying black mulberries can lead to digestive issues.</Callout> The red fruit is described as “palatable when ripe, having a pleasant acid flavor.” PAPAW, OR CUSTARD APPLE, OR FALSE BANANA Asimina triloba This Papaw tree has the appearance of being an escape from the tropics which it really is, for all the other members of the Custard Apple family are tropical. Like many of the smaller trees near the equator, it grows in the shade, but usually where the woods are somewhat open.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification and collection techniques are crucial for safe consumption.</Callout> Its preferred habitat is in rich soil along streams where it often forms thickets. This small tree grows from ten to forty feet high and generally not more than six inches in diameter. It is often shrublike.<Callout type="gear" title="Gear">A field guide or app can help identify papaws accurately.</Callout> The large alternate, smooth leaves are from six inches to a foot long. They are dark green above, lighter beneath, with entire margins. Papaw They taper toward the base and are attached to the twigs by short petioles.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Collecting papaws during their natural ripening period ensures they are safe to eat.</Callout> The flowers appear with the leaves late in April or early in May. They develop in the axils of the last year’s leaves. The blossoms, about an inch and a half in diameter, have six petals in two sets; the three inner ones are smaller and more erect than the three forming the outer circle.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification and collection techniques are crucial for safe consumption.</Callout> The flowers are at first green but later become a reddish purple. The fruits when mature resemble stubby bananas often four or five inches long and more than an inch and a half thick.<Callout type="risk" title="Risk">Incorrectly identifying papaws can lead to digestive issues.</Callout> When ripe, they are greenish yellow, turning brown a few days after they are pulled. The sweet edible pulp is bright yellow and surrounds the large brown seeds.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Collecting papaws during their natural ripening period ensures they are safe to eat.</Callout> James Whitcomb Riley, in his Hoosier dialect, well describes this wild fruit: And such pop-paws!—Lumps of raw gold and green,—jes’ oozy through With ripe yaller—like you’ve saw Custard-pie with no crust to.* The papaw is native from New Jersey to Michigan and Nebraska, south to Florida and Texas. It probably reaches its highest development in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification and collection techniques are crucial for safe consumption.</Callout> The fruit is ripe in late autumn. We find recorded a great difference of opinion as to the edible qualities of this wild fruit. Harriet L. Keeler in “Our Native Trees” says, “Although credited in the books as edible and wholesome, one must be either very young or very hungry really to enjoy its flavor.” In Romeyn B. Hough’s Handbook of the Trees we find recorded: “The fruit when ripe is delicious and nutritious.” I would agree with Dr. Hough.<Callout type="risk" title="Risk">Incorrectly identifying papaws can lead to digestive issues.</Callout> Boys generally do not relish it. Like many tropical fruits, we must apparently learn to enjoy it. In my own experience as a boy, I disliked it; but I kept on trying, and in a few years no other wild fruit appealed to me more.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification and collection techniques are crucial for safe consumption.</Callout> I enjoy it today. I had the same experience with ripe figs eaten fresh from the tree. I have friends that have gone through the same experience with the papaw. I have helped to gather a peck of this wild fruit at one time, and we could have gathered a bushel.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Collecting papaws during their natural ripening period ensures they are safe to eat.</Callout> If they were not quite ripe, we put them into the haymow or bran bin to mellow. It is believed that the American Indians made much use of this wild fruit.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification and collection techniques are crucial for safe consumption.</Callout> The generic name Asimina came from the Indian. I have seen papaws in the New York markets and at the fruit stalls of other cities; but for market purposes they are generally pulled before they are quite ripe, and then they are not so delicious.<Callout type="risk" title="Risk">Incorrectly identifying papaws can lead to digestive issues.</Callout> On the return journey of Lewis and Clark, when they had reached western Missouri, game was scarce, each man was allowed only one biscuit a day; but an abundance of papaws grew on the banks of the river and supplied them with nourishing food.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification and collection techniques are crucial for safe consumption.</Callout> The Pond Apple, Annona glabra, native of the marsh lands of southern Florida and the Bahama Islands, is also a member of the Custard Apple family. This small tree bears a fruit about five inches long, yellowish blotched with brown when ripe.<Callout type="warning" title="Warning">The pond apple may be confused with other species; proper identification is crucial.</Callout> It is somewhat insipid but is used for making jellies. Some cultivated forms are said to be excellent. The Seminole Indians made much use of this fruit.<Callout type="risk" title="Risk">Incorrectly identifying pond apples can lead to digestive issues.</Callout> The Soursop, Annona muricata, a native of the West Indies, is similar to the Pond Apple and belongs to the same family. It is often sold in the southern markets and is used in making jellies and conserves.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification and collection techniques are crucial for safe consumption.</Callout> The Sweetsop, or Sugar Apple (Annona squamosa), native of tropical America, is quite similar to the Soursop but much sweeter. Its fruit is used in sherbets and for jellies and preserves.<Callout type="risk" title="Risk">Incorrectly identifying sweetsops can lead to digestive issues.</Callout> The Papaya, Carica Papaya, often called the Custard Apple or Papaw, belongs to an entirely different family (Papaya). It is native of southern Florida and the tropics. It is cultivated in warm regions for its large sweet fruit.<Callout type="important" title="Important">Proper identification and collection techniques are crucial for safe consumption.</Callout> Two varieties grow wild in Florida. BARBERRY Berberis vulgaris This Barberry, a native of Europe and Asia, has been thoroughly naturalized in the eastern and middle states, especially in New England.<Callout type="tip" title="Tip">Collecting barberries during their natural ripening period ensures they are safe to eat.</Callout> This shrub grows six or eight feet high, with slender arched or drooping gray branches. The alternate or fascicled leaves are an inch to an inch and a half long, rounded at the apex, tapering at the base, bristly, and sawtoothed.<Callout type="