To start, I have a photographic memory. Not a very good one (I can’t memorize an entire page of text in a single second) but I learn best through pictures. To me, photographic memory is just another form of visual learning, rather than learning via spoken word. I dream of the day of a photo-based search engine (We’ll see what the future holds). Anyways.
As a forward: Part of my foraging education has been similar to grade school flashcards. I flip through my foraging books, looking at the pictures and reading the names (I would say this is how I best enjoy books). I find more value in the foraging books with large color photos over hand-drawn pictures (or no pictures at all).
I was amidst raspberry picking one day, when I saw a low canopy of leaves, each plant about 1½’ tall and each leaf about 8-9” wide. The leaves were quite tropical in appearance (it’s kind of what makes them stand out the most to me) and umbrella shaped. The individual leaf-lobes are split and circle the base like several snake tongues.
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| Mayapple Grove (Mandrake Plants) in Mid-August, When Mayapple Fruits are Ripe |
I immediately said to my SO, “I think these are mayapples, and they should have an egg-shaped fruit just under the leaves… look, there it is! These are mayapples!!”
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| Ripe Mayapple (Mandrake) Fruit |
I had read that animals really like mayapples, and each day one or more disappeared during the ripening process. So of course, I jumped the gun and picked one that wasn't quite ripe. It was still green with large portions of white. The white is normal, and I would say it really doesn't go away, even on the ripe fruits. But the fruit needs to be yellow and no green. A soft exterior is also a good sign of ripeness.
I had several locations where I had spotted mayapple plants. However, only the location that was fenced had any left! The rest were bare. My best assumption is the deer (they are prolific around the city areas because there is very little hunting).
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| Ripe Mayapple (Mandrake) Fruits |
Mayapples, when ripe, have an edible fruit interior. And it is amazing! I love trying new things, but I love it even more when the new things actually taste good. It tastes a little bit like pineapple, but a much softer texture. I don't WANT to say slimy, but it does slurp a little.
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| Mayapple (Mandrake) Edible Fruit Interior |
The fruit is edible, but the seeds are not! Make sure to spit those out. There might be a lot of immature seeds (smaller than 1 mm in diameter and dark colored), but they are unavoidable.
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| Mayapple (Mandrake) Seeds |
Let the seeds dry for a few days on a paper towel or plate and they can be planted! Well, after stratifying. That means they must go through a low temperature/freezing process that mimics Winter. Think of it this way: If you have a ceramic bowl, and you fill it with water, freeze it, thaw it, and freeze it again, the bowl will eventually crack and/or break. The shell of some plants (such as cherries, black walnuts, peaches, etc.) need to go through this process so that the seedling can sprout.
I also read that you can dig up the rhyzomes in the spring and replant them at will, but I have not tried that method myself.
Or you can just plant the seeds in the Fall and let Winter do the work for you!
