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native fruits of America
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Posted by button20 zone 7 (My Page) on Tue, Nov 17, 09 at 21:32
| Hello everyone, I am new to this forum and was wondering what are the native fruits that grow here in North America naturally. I was wondering b/c it seems all the other countries have these cool, tasty fruits while America has the.....IDK:) |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: native fruits of America
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Persimmon
Pawpaw
Blackberry
Raspberry
Blueberry
Cranberry
Gooseberry
Serviceberry/Juneberry/Saskatoon
Mulberry
Native crabs(OK, the taste is VERY tart - but some folks like 'em.)
Plums(numerous species)
Cherries
Elderberry All right, the rest of y'all take it from here - I know there are more, but I've hit the wall. |
RE: native fruits of America
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Strawberry
Mahonia (Oregon Grape)
Nannyberry
Highbush Cranberry
Mayapple
Salaal
Hawthorn
wild grape
currant
thimbleberry
salmonberry
huckleberry
Prickly Pear Cactus (Lots of other cactus fruit) OK....who's next, there must be more... |
RE: native fruits of America
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| Dwarf whortleberry- the only one I could think of not on the above lists! |
RE: native fruits of America
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| There would be quite a few more if "America" includes more than North America. Even with it just as NA, Mexico would bring in some of the avocados. Also, pond apple in south Florida is edible, if admittedly not esteemed. Maypop is edible. Native Americans ate saw-palmetto berries (a shipwrecked Englishman described them as tasting like "rotten cheese steeped in tobacco juice" [after that I of course had to try one and agree]). Physalis (related to Chinese lantern), a weedy herb, has edible fruit (perhaps it is an imported weed though; I'm not sure). And notably, all the pumpkins and squashes and peppers are technically fruits, some of the former of NA origin or at least there at European contact. |
RE: native fruits of America
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| Various huckleberries, osoberry, bunchberry, hackberry, nagoonberry, crow berry, banana yucca. I think they're all native or have native species. I there are some more that are real southern ones, like the false mastic, Texas persimmon, or seagrape, but I can't really think of any other cold hardy ones that haven't been listed yet. I'm certain that there are more, but I can't remember any of them right now. |
RE: native fruits of America
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| Also, aronia, madrone, bearberry, buffalo berry, wintergreen, toyon, and fringe tree, but some of those are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. If you want to learn more, there's a very good Wikipedia list of fruits, and there's a Youtube video series on eating native plants. |
RE: native fruits of America
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| Seagrape! I should have remembered that. Some of the best jelly I have ever had, but now decades ago. Also there in the marginal tropics, cocoplum (Chrysobalanus). Not a plum and more like marshmallow in consistency. Escaped guava (not native) is common too. Cherry of the Rio Grande presumably (a Eugenia I believe), if in fact it refers to the US/Mexico Rio Grande. |
RE: native fruits of America
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| Hey great list we've compiled but we forgot one thing (maybe more). It saved many a sailor from scurvy... -Rose Hips note* one cup of de-seeded rose hips is equal to 10 - 12 dozen oranges in vitamin C! |
RE: native fruits of America
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| I actually did think of rose hips but assumed they were not native. |
RE: native fruits of America
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| Muscadines, fox grapes, mustang grape. Nuts
pecans
hickories
black walnut
butter nut |
RE: native fruits of America
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| WOW I didn't even Know some of these even existed...hahah especially all these funky berries. Thanks you guys so much, I really do appreciate it:):):)!! |
RE: native fruits of America
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| Nuts Chestnut
Chinkapin (sp)
beechnut |
RE: native fruits of America
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| kinnikinik berries, make'em into pemmican |
RE: native fruits of America
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| Grouseberries, and I'm not grousing here! ...roses: there must be a few native rose species that form hips. |
RE: native fruits of America
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| If Mexico and "Central America" are considered North America (Panama Canal being the North/South divide): Their native range starts in Mexico and runs south from there. Cacao, peppers, tomato, tomatillo, soursop, sugar apple, white sapote, mamey sapote, sapodilla, canistel, mamoncillo, and vanilla are all native to roughly the same area. |
RE: native fruits of America
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| "America" is too vague, so I'm throwing pineapple guavas (feijoa) of Paraguay (S. America) into the mix. |
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