September Challenge: Edible parts

In September we already celebrate the 9th month of the Tree Year Project.

Only recently I came across a most interesting book of Meret Bisegger called “My cuisine with wild plants” (on amazon in Italian, and German). She talks about all the edible stuff in trees and shrubs around us. Not only the fruit but also leaves, buds, roots etc.

I am interested in all the edible parts of your tree: do you know what parts of your tree can be eaten by humans? (Beside the obvious fruit of lets say an apple tree.)

I didn’t know that the young leaves and buds from the Linden tree can be used for salad. Even the flowers can be used. Now by the end of August, the leaves don’t look very edible anymore, the black most probably comes from the traffic.

A spider on my multitasking Honeysuckle

There are not many insects on my Honeysuckle this year. Maybe the birds eat everything before I see it. But now I have discovered a tiny little spider:

That shrub keeps surprising me with its tropical behavior – berries and new flowers at the same time. And there are at least another fifteen flower buds on it…

Tree Order: Sapindales

The Sapindales order is a large order. More than half of its species belong to two families: rue and maple.

genus Rutaceae

The Sumac Staghorn from Rebecca in West Virgina (too bad there are no updates from the summer)

genus Aeculus – Horse Chestnut

Gwendolen’s tree in the Netherlands

genus Acer – Maples

Sycamores from

• Greg in the UK
• Lucy in the UK (Is it really a Sycamore?)

Maples from

• Michelle of Rambling Woods
• Ivan on West Coast of the US

photo from Rambling Woods blog

Tree Order: Rosales – Mulberry and Elm Family

Two other families of the Rosales are the Moraceae (Mulberry family) and the Ulmaceae (Elm family). There are more families to the Rosales, but the Tree Year has contributions to those two families.

genus Maclura – Mulberry

Marqueta with a post on her Osage Orange (I would love to see how those fruit-balls develop now in fall!)

genus Ulmus – Elm

Georgia and the huge Elm Tree in New York City

photo from the local ecologist blog

Tree Year Project: second half of the year

In the second half of the year of the Tree Year Project a lot of the observed trees will start growing fruits in some sort. So please let us know how the fruits on your tree look like. There are already some posts > Tree Year Posts > about the tree > fruits

My honeysuckle has been blooming since January (one flower). It had the most flowers in spring and they have all turned into red berries. There are still new flowers developing – this shrub has everything on it at once: fruits, buds, flowers, green and brown leaves, seeds from last year…