42itous | (no subject)

(no subject)

This post is dedicated to

kdsorceress on the occasion of her birthday. (I don't know how interesting you'll find its content, but I wanted to wish you a happy day.)

a bunch of blue berries growing on red stems

a bunch of blue berries growing on red stems

Growing in a particular spot near the bikeway in East Arlington are three plants I'm not familiar with (and also pokeweed, which I know thanks to a post in this space a couple of years ago). Two I'm guessing are not edible; the third sure looks like an edible grape but the fact that there are still many, many bunches of them within easy reach suggests that other foragers know better. I offer cake and ice cream to whomever can positively identify all three. The berries and leaves are grouped in comments below.

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Specimen #1 has very dark berries about 1/4" across.

Its leaves look like bay leaves, maybe slightly bigger.

Its bark is dark brown but flecked horizontally like birch.

perhaps so called choke cherries.

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Specimen #2 has very blue berries on red stems arranged in stiff constellations.

Its leaves look, to the untrained eye, vaguely grape-like but with more separate lobes.

Edited 2015-08-28 18:06 (UTC)

virginia creeper?

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Yep, looks like that's it! That's funny, we have virginia creeper on our property this year but I haven't seen the berries here yet. I think the leaves and berries are very pretty.

Specimen #3 is the one that looks to me like tiny grapes. Each berry is 3/16" in diameter, or maaaybe 1/4" for the biggest ones.

The leaves are grapey too.

Edited 2015-08-28 20:19 (UTC)

Your specimen #3 looks kind of like California Grape, Vitis californica.

The closest guess I have for #2 is maybe elderberry?

The berries on #1 look like huckleberries, but huckleberry leaves are definitely smaller than culinary bay leaves, so all I can say for #1 is not that!

I hope that helps a little!

#3 looks for all the world like a grape, for sure. And apparently, according to this page (http://www.eattheweeds.com/vitis-wild-grapes-2/), trying to ID the exact variety is a fool's errand. So I may go ahead and taste it... the only thing that gives me pause is the fact that there are so many still on the vines in this well-traveled public location. Maybe they're too sour or seedy to be worth eating.

I thiiiink #2 is Virginia creeper, as ID'd by

perspicuity above -- the berries and their stems look very similar to elderberries, but elderberries (according to photos on the internet) hang down a little in bunches, whereas these are stiffer constellations. The leaves are more conclusively different, too.

Yeah, I've picked huckleberries before, and specimen #1 is not them.

perspicuity guesses chokecherry but it doesn't seem quite right. Since I'm pretty sure these are not edible, I'm not very intent on IDing them.

I tasted the grapes! They tasted like grapes. A little sour, but a pleasant flavor. Full of seeds, though -- that would be why other foragers aren't bothering with them.

looks like grapes.

smells like grapes?

concord are tiny right? if these are marble sized, could be muscovite? also greasy sour?

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They're way smaller than marbles. If it were just me, I'd be inclined to taste one, but I wasn't going to let my two-year-old try them, nor potentially poison myself while in charge of her.

*glee!* I have no idea what any of these plants are, but they are very pretty! Thank you!

~Sor

#3 looks very grape-y to me. There are wild grapes all over MA, some interbred with Concord, maybe some with other cultivars. They tend to be sour, but far from fatal. What does your nose say when you crush a fruit or a leaf?

#1 looks very huckleberry-y to me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huckleberry Again, the smell of the fruit/leaves should be informative.

I tasted the grapes! They tasted like grapes. A little sour, but a pleasant flavor. Full of seeds, though -- that would be why other foragers aren't bothering with them.

I think huckleberry plants are shrubs, not climbers. This is definitely a climber. And the leaves seem bigger than huckleberry, based on a google image search.

Thanks for the grapes.

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