Do you know what these are? About the size of a small fingernail....
Taxus fruit. Drupe-like, as opposed to like berries (cherries, peaches, apricots, and almonds are also drupes). They are in fact arils. If you want to drive yourself crazy with the right names for the right fruit types, follow this link.
Candy, with caution.
Taxus as in yew tree, or shrub. Quite dignified and beautiful evergreens often abused in the badly maintained hedges that pass for 'landscaping' in so many American front yards. And the fruit is ripening now, if you live in this late summer hemisphere.
The red flesh is wonderful - very sweet, and like jelly. Avoid the seed, which is toxic. It's potentially easier to crunch up than the armoured shells of cherry, apricot and peach kernels, which each have their own secret weapons lurking in their little, exposed hearts (don't we all)?
Taxol, derived from the bark and needles of yew trees, is a potent weapon in the chemotherapy arsenal. Discovered and named in the late 60's, questions about the sustainable harvest of yews to produce taxol arose two decades later: "Three [Taxus brevifolia, Pacfic yew] trees are needed to provide enough taxol to treat one patient, meaning that about 38,000 trees a year would have to be destroyed to treat ovarian cancer patients in the United States..." (New York Times, 1992).
Taxus species other than the marginalized Pacific yew were targeted, and a synthetic form of the drug, was developed.
I love the way the seed is wrapped by the fruit, like a present. I collected this small handful yesterday from a hedge around the corner.
Today I will collect some more.
Actually, at first glance, I thought they were something else that I saw on a food blog as a snack: raspberries with a chocolate chip stuffed in them!
ReplyDeletefascinating ! they look like sweet red jujubes
ReplyDeleteGasp! I wondered about these every time I saw them ripe on yew hedges - silly me for not thinking about FINDING OUT if they are edible. Thanks Marie!
ReplyDelete:-)
DeleteRemember to spit the pip out. Not that you'd want to eat it - very bitter.
Foolproof way of ensuring the both the species' continued survival :)
Deletecuz, u kno, eating the pip would be death
ReplyDeleteToxic - as I said. But I don't why anyone would crunch it up. The seed tastes horrible.
DeleteYou tried eating it?!
DeleteNo, of course not, :-) but I tasted it.
Deletepretty tasty though, i must say, in their own slimy way
ReplyDeleteSo cool! I am compiling a list of plant sources of drugs for a class I teach, so this will be a nice addition to explore! Thanks!
ReplyDelete