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Name That Plant!

Please help identify fruiting tree/vine

14 years ago

Hello!

This is my first summer in my new home and we have a pair of these odd trees, they're stout (about 5.5 feet tall) and the branches sort of resemble vines. They're prodicing a raspberry-like fruit that starts yellowy-green, turns red as it ripens, then is almost blackberry coloured when fully ripe.

With 3 small children at home what I really want to know is whether the fruit is edible?

Any help is much appreciated!

I have pictures here (I can't resize them to upload here at work!):

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xTF2fwMlSKo/SmXtN26-oKI/AAAAAAAAB_E/fnLR6G7iTOA/s1600-h/DSC06436.JPG

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xTF2fwMlSKo/SmXtJjnukYI/AAAAAAAAB-8/QkOpLBOMiN4/s1600-h/DSC06440.JPG

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xTF2fwMlSKo/SmXtADx3j6I/AAAAAAAAB-0/WhQZeGhNxds/s1600-h/DSC06441.JPG

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Comments (4)

saltcedar
14 years ago
Mulberry, possibly Morus alba 'Pendula'.
xerxia
Original Author
14 years ago
Wow, thank you, that looks exactly right. Thank goodness they're not toxic, the little one has been eyeing the berries!
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lycopus
14 years ago
The unripe fruit are toxic and can cause nausea and hallucinations. Not a problem if your little one is old enough to be told to wait until they turn purple-black.
fatamorgana2121
14 years ago
Not only edible but very tasty! Makes a great pie and eats fresh out of hand well too! They don't keep well in the fridge so eat or use right away.

While I too have read that the unripe fruit are toxic, from personal experience I suspect that is only with very unripe fruit. We tend to eat them from a dark red on to the purple-black color. But this can be an excellent teaching tool for a parent to teach plant safety, knowing positively before eating, what plants to avoid, and so on. Before my kids were allowed to pick and eat their own berries, they had to learn how to be safe, id the good as well as bad, and learned to treat what they don't know as poison.

FataMorgana

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