Wild Berries & Fruits Field Guide of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri

by Teresa Marrone

Overview

Learn to identify wild berries and fruits with this handy field guide, organized by color.

Get the popular field guide by expert author Teresa Marrone, and get started on your way to becoming a forager. Teresa has been gathering and preparing wild edibles for more than 20 years, and she shares her foraging experience with you. Use this book with confidence as you learn about more than 200 species found in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. The species are organized by color and then by form, so when you see a red berry, go to the red section to learn what it is.

Book Features

• Species organized by color, then by form
• Full-page photos and insets showing each plant’s key identification points
• Interesting tidbits about the plants’ many uses
• Range maps, ripening calendar, and more
• Over 200 wild berries and fruits in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri

Learn what’s edible and what to avoid with this easy-to-use field guide. Fact-filled information contains the particulars that you want to know, while full-page photographs provide the visual detail needed for accurate identification.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591932482
Publisher:	Adventure Publications, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/08/2010
Series:	Wild Berries & Fruits Identification Guides
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	483,225
Product dimensions:	4.38(w) x 6.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Teresa Marrone has been gathering and preparing wild edibles for more than 20 years. She was formerly Managing Editor of a series of outdoors-themed books, and is the author of Abundantly Wild: Collecting and Cooking Wild Edibles in the Upper Midwest, as well as numerous other outdoors-related and regional cookbooks. Teresa has also written many magazine articles on wild foods and cooking, and has rekindled an early interest in photography. Wild Berries & Fruits Field Guide of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri combines her various skills and interests into a clear, concise, easy-to-use book that helps the user appreciate the diversity of the various wild berries and fruits that grow in this region. Teresa lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Bruce.

Read an Excerpt

Common Elderberry
Sambucus canadensis

HABITAT: This native shrub grows in moist areas, such as river and stream banks, woodland edges, shelterbelts, thickets, abandoned fields, roadsides, meadows, and ditch edges. It prefers full sun to part shade.

GROWTH: An open shrub, 5 to 12 feet in height, with a broad, rounded crown. Branches are yellowish-gray, with numerous warty lenticels (breathing pores); older bark is greenish or gray, streaked with white. White flowers grow in large, showy umbrella-like clusters; stemlets are reddish. When the flowers fall and berries are developing, the plant is easy to spot because of the groupings of rounded, purplish flower stemlets, which have a lacy appearance.

LEAVES: Compound leaves, each with 5 to 11 leaflets, grow oppositely on the stem; leaves are 6 to 10 inches long and nearly as wide. Leaflets are 2 to 4 inches long and one-half as wide, broadly oval and tapered on both ends; edges are sharply toothed. The top sides are dark green and smooth; the undersides are paler and may be downy.

FRUIT: Round berries, about 3⁄16 inch in diameter with three to five seeds, grow in drooping, flat-topped clusters (cymes). Berries are green when immature, ripening to deep purple or purplish-black; stemlets are reddish-purple. The berries are edible, and are juiced to make jelly, jam and wine. Leaves, stems, seeds and all other parts of all elderberry species are toxic. Common elderberry might be confused with the red elderberry (pg. 148), which is rare in our area. See below for more information about this plant; its berries are inedible.

SEASON: Flowers appear in early summer; fruits ripen in late summer.

COMPARE: Red elderberry (pg. 148) has similar growth habit and leaves, but its berries are bright red and grow in rounded clusters, rather than the flat-topped clusters of common elderberry. Red elderberry, which is inedible, ripens a month or more before common elderberry.

NOTES: Some sources list this plant as Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis. The flowers are used to make wine, and also a tea to treat headache.

Common Elderberry
Sambucus canadensis

HABITAT: This native shrub grows in moist areas, such as river and stream banks, woodland edges, shelterbelts, thickets, abandoned fields, roadsides, meadows, and ditch edges. It prefers full sun to part shade.

GROWTH: An open shrub, 5 to 12 feet in height, with a broad, rounded crown. Branches are yellowish-gray, with numerous warty lenticels (breathing pores); older bark is greenish or gray, streaked with white. White flowers grow in large, showy umbrella-like clusters; stemlets are reddish. When the flowers fall and berries are developing, the plant is easy to spot because of the groupings of rounded, purplish flower stemlets, which have a lacy appearance.

LEAVES: Compound leaves, each with 5 to 11 leaflets, grow oppositely on the stem; leaves are 6 to 10 inches long and nearly as wide. Leaflets are 2 to 4 inches long and one-half as wide, broadly oval and tapered on both ends; edges are sharply toothed. The top sides are dark green and smooth; the undersides are paler and may be downy.

FRUIT: Round berries, about 3⁄16 inch in diameter with three to five seeds, grow in drooping, flat-topped clusters (cymes). Berries are green when immature, ripening to deep purple or purplish-black; stemlets are reddish-purple. The berries are edible, and are juiced to make jelly, jam and wine. Leaves, stems, seeds and all other parts of all elderberry species are toxic. Common elderberry might be confused with the red elderberry (pg. 148), which is rare in our area. See below for more information about this plant; its berries are inedible.

SEASON: Flowers appear in early summer; fruits ripen in late summer.

COMPARE: Red elderberry (pg. 148) has similar growth habit and leaves, but its berries are bright red and grow in rounded clusters, rather than the flat-topped clusters of common elderberry. Red elderberry, which is inedible, ripens a month or more before common elderberry.

NOTES: Some sources list this plant as Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis. The flowers are used to make wine, and also a tea to treat headache.

Table of Contents

Introduction

• About this book
• The range maps
• What is a fruit?
• How fruits are arranged on the stem
• Leaf form and arrangement
• Safety and plant identification
• What is not included in this book
• Not ripe yet!
• Be certain, be safe: Wild grapes
• Ripening calendar for edible fruit
• How to use this book
• Sample page

The Berries and Fruits

• Green
• Yellow
• Orange
• Red
• Purple
• Blue
• Black
• White

Helpful Resources and Bibliography

Glossary

Index

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

New books aid in identifying and preparing wild fruits and berries
- By SYLVIA ANDERSON
St. Joseph News-Press

t may seem shocking to some, but before grocery stores and drive-through food chains, people were able to eat off the land. And to a degree, you still can - if you know what you're doing.
Fruits and berries grow wild everywhere, but most of us don't know which ones are safe to eat and what to do with them when we do find them. That's why Teresa Marone decided to write "The Illinois, Iowa and Missouri Wild Berries and Fruits Field Guide " She has been gathering and preparing wild edibles for more than 20 years and is the author of numerous outdoors-related cookbooks. Her field guide categorizes each fruit species as toxic (poisonous), not edible, edible or delicious, so you know which berries to pick and which to leave. Her companion cookbook, "Get Cooking with Wild Berries and Fruits of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri," provides more than 175 recipes using the region's edible berries and fruits. We caught up with her recently while she was hunting for berries in southern Ohio. Here's an excerpt fromher interview with the News-Press.

Q Where are good places to pick wild fruits and berries in Northwest Missouri and Northeast Kansas?
A. Most state and national parks will allow picking of berries and fruits for immediate consumption, but not for commercial use - such as selling at a farmer's market. In general, one needs to check with local authorities to be sure it is legal to harvest wild berries and fruits. Local parks often have walking paths that go through wooded areas, and as long as the park doesn't spray for weeds and has no restrictions about picking, these can be great places for berries. Rural areas can be excellent, but one always has to ask permission from the landowner before entering the land and picking. I often pick around office parks in the outer suburbs, because these often have shelterbelts of trees, shrubs and native vegetation left for visual appeal; no one ever seems to care if I pick wild berries in these places. Sometimes, I've even found edible wild fruits in boulevard strips or on fences surrounding shopping malls, lumber yards and places like that.
O. What berries are in season now or are coming up?
A. I'm seeing ripe elderberries all over the place right now in Ohio, which is pretty similar to your area; blackberries are also starting to ripen right now and purple-flowering raspberry are still producing. Other fruits that are ripe right now - or very quickly - include gooseberries, ground cherries, plums, chokecherries,wild pears, mayapples, maypops (the fruit of the passionflower vine), crab apples and pawpaws. Grapes and blackhaw ripen in late summer to early fall. Persimmon ripen much later in the fall but are truly wonderful.
Q. How should they be stored if you can't cook something right away?
A. Most wild berries and fruits are fairly perishable. Whole berries that have no hard pits, such as blackberries, blueberries, ground cherries and gooseberries, can be frozen on a baking sheet in a single layer then packed into freezer bags or container until needed. Berries that have hard pits, such as chokecherries or black cherries, should be juiced or processed into pulp; then the juice or pulp can be frozen or canned until needed. Pawpaws can be mashed and frozen raw. Crab apples and wild pears can be cut up or cooked into sauce (like applesauce) and then canned or frozen. In addition, many wild berries and fruits make excellent fruit leathers; simply puree, then spread on a sheet and dehydrate in a dehydrator or a very low oven. Delicious!

Lifestyles reporter Sylvia Anderson can be reached at [e-mail]

St Joseph News Press - Sylvia Anderson

Enjoy fruits of your labor with these recipes

Two new books worth noting are "Wild Berries & Fruits Field Guide of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri" and
"Cooking with Wild Berries & Fruits of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri."
These two books complement each other, especially if you like to go out foraging for what you eat. The field guide is user-friendly, helping you learn what is edible and what to avoid. The cookbook features exciting recipes to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Both titles are available at local book stores or through Adventure Publications by calling [phone], online at www.adventurepublications.net.
Author Teresa Marrone has been gathering and preparing wild edibles for more than 20 years. She was formerly managing editor of a series of outdoor-themed cookbooks and other books. She also has written magazine articles on wild foods and cooking.

The Register Mail - Carol Moore