Re: [aroid-l] aroid fruit

From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at msn.com> on 2003.07.27 at 14:50:09(10442) Dear Friends, To the list of 'edible' aroid fruits, add Taccarum, Synandrospadix and Dracontium soconuscum (all S. American, all sweet and pleasant tasting, though not much 'size/volume' to them), and of all things Dieffenbachia sp., as Dr. Croat has reported that the fruits of this, perhaps THE most 'dangerous' aroid (I have a fatality recorded), are also sweet and pleasant tasting! We sampled the ripe fruit on Philodendron soli. in Fr. Guyana, they too were very sweet-tasting and pleasant. I do NOT recommend that ANYONE experiment of tasting aroid fruit! NOT a safe hobby!!!! Recently I was demonstrating the wonderful taste of my ripe Monstera fruit in my front yard to my Guatemalan friend, he must have bitten a TINY bit of the covering caps, and he was in pain! I don`t know if Peter mentioned it, but the fruit/seeds of the S. American giant aquatic aroid Montrichardia are reportedly roasted and eaten by natives per Deni Bown in her WONDERFUL book on Aroids. Jason, an interesting note on a birds ability to consume hot chile peppers, as a boy our parrot LOVED to eat the hottest peppers, our scotch bonnets, but afterward would demonstrate one of the commoner symptoms of the eating of these hot fruit, which as boys we often demonstrated after eating slices of green mangos dipped in chile-laden salt, he/she would 'pant', holding his beak/mouth open, tongue thrust outward and 'kicking', for a long period after eating. I believe that the 'heat' of these fruit affected him! The smaller 'bird peppers' were eagerly consumed off the bush by palm tanagers and the giant crested fly-catchers, but were swallowed whole due to their smaller size. Good Growing, Julius Boos +More WPB, Florida >>Arum fruits have a sweet, slightly astringent flavour that soon gives way to intense burning of the soft parts of the mouth and the throat. I don't have precise details of the ages of the children reported to have died after ingensting Arum fruits, although for those I have such data ages ranged from 3 to 9 years. Pete ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2003 2:48 AM Subject: Re: [aroid-l] aroid fruit > "Peter C Boyce" wrote: > > >On the last point, very frequently the ripe fruits are 'protected' by > >various irritant crystals and/or chemicals and in Europe red and > >orange-berried Arum and Dracunculus are both irritant and poisonous with > >there being several deaths recorded resulting from children ingesting Arum > >maculatum and A. italicum berries. So, remember that attractive colour, > >smell & taste doesn't always man that the fruit are safe to ingest - I'd > >recommend that you proceed carefully! > > > Do those Arum spp. have attractive tate, or only smell and colour? Small children (how small were they?) are known to ingest things experimentally, rather than because they taste good. > > On a similar note, birds' digestion is very different from ours, and it may be that certain fruits are designed to attract birds, while at the same time protect against mammals. The "hot" flavor of chile peppers is an example of this -- birds can eat chiles without the irritation experienced by mammals, because their mouths are drier. Small fruits like berries are more likely to be bird-dispered, while larger fruits like apples and oranges are more likely to be mammal-dispersed. > > Jason Hernandez > Naturalist-at-Large

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