Foraging and Identifying EDIBLE black nightshade berries

Latin Name: Solanum nigrum, Solanum americanum and Solanum ptychanthum
Common Names: Black nightshade
Season: Summer through mid fall (northern states/Canada), early summer through fall and early winter (southern states/Mexico)
Edible: Yes, ripe fruit (see note about young green leaves)
Flavor: Excellent 
Medicinal and nutritional value: Undetermined, probably similar to tomatoes 

Identification difficulty: Intermediate

Warning: The plants known as "black nightshades" are in the nightshade family, which has some infamously poisonous and deadly members, including deadly nightshade, Atropa belladonna. The plants we will be discussing today are more closely related to tomatoes and eggplants, and have fruit that is edible when FULLY RIPE and cooked. Unripe fruit has been known to be deadly poisonous, especially to children. Even though we will go over how to safely identify and forage these plants, especial care should be given whenever foraging the nightshade family, and you must consult with several reliable sources regarding identification and safe consumption of these plants. As always, this blog is intended as a guide, but not the sole guide. 

Nightshade. The very name is nearly synonymous in our cultural consciousness with poison. This is odd because, unless you have an allergy, there's a good chance that you eat nightshades most every day. 

Tomatoes, potatoes, yams, eggplant, sweet and spicy peppers, these are all fruits in the nightshade family that are readily eaten in North America and Europe. Central and South American countries frequently eat even a wider variety of nightshades, including groundcherries, tomatillos, and naranjilla. In Southeast Asia one could also find goji berries among the list of commonly eaten nightshades. 

The plants we are going to talk about today are members of the genus Solanum, specifically Solanum nigrum (European black nightshade, African black nightshade or Old-World black nightshade), Solanum americanum (American black nightshade, glossy black nightshade or new-world black nightshade), and Solanum ptychanthum (Eastern black nightshade or Indian black nightshade). The three species of black nightshades are in the same genus as tomatoes, (Solanum lycopersicum), potatoes, (Solanum tuberosum), and eggplants/aubergines (Solanum melongena). 

Collectively, these plants are called black nightshades in North America, a name which encourages confusion and fear with another black-fruiting nightshade called deadly nightshade, or Atropa belladonna. In Europe, these species are sometimes known as garden huckleberries, but the name huckleberry refers to a completely different plant, related to blueberries, in North America. 

In honor of spooky season, I thought it would be fun to share this post in October. Happy Halloween, everyone!

Black nightshade caution and controversy

I'm trying to get more confident at identifying
black nightshades at this young stage so that I may 
try the cooked young leaves. 

There are many sources, including some very official ones, that will tell you that the fruit of black nightshade plants is poisonous. Many state websites state that the ripe fruit is less poisonous than the other parts of the plant, but poisonous nevertheless. Some people say they eat the ripe fruit raw, and still others say it must be cooked. 

Additionally, there are many sources which will tell you that the young leaves and stems are edible cooked and used as a pot-herb in many parts of the world. Still other sources will tell you that the plants may be edible in say, Africa, but become poisonous in North America. There is also the possibility that these nightshades might hybridize with other members of the genus Solanum, and that's why people have found poisonous leaves. . .

So what to believe? Well, I don't know everything, so I am only sharing with you here what I DO know. and that is that I have eaten the fully ripe, black berries, both completely raw and fully cooked and have suffered no ill effects. I have not eaten the young green leaves, but if I do I will let you know. I will not make any statement I have not personally tried myself. 

That said, I would be willing to try young black nightshade leaves, as I trust the sources who say they are edible, but personally I find the young plants difficult to distinguish from other, potentially poisonous nightshades. The plants are hard to tell apart before the flower buds form, and once the flower buds do form, you shouldn't be eating the leaves any longer. 

Mature old-world black nightshade plant, Solanum nigrum, growing on my own property,
portion of a woman's size 10 foot (mine) for scale.
Plant is covered in flowers and both ripe and unripe fruit. 
Photo taken north of Dallas in late May.

Mature American black nightshade, Solanum americanum, growing in one of the most disgusting alleyways in downtown Dallas TX, and absolutely loving it.
Covered in flowers and fruit (I didn't eat, given the location).
This picture was taken in mid-December.

Black nightshade identification

A special note on identification

The three "black nightshade" plants are different but have overlapping features, which makes grouping them together into one ID post rather tricky. Solanum nigrum and Solanum americanum are the most different, and Solanum ptychanthum is kind of like a mix between both features. In fact, some speculate that S. ptychanthum might be a hybrid species from intermixing between the native and introduced plants. Regardless, I will do my best to specify which features are the same and which are different between the species. 

• S. nigrum, commonly known as black nightshade or European black nightshade is native to Eurasia but has spread throughout the Americas, Australia/Indonesia/New Zealand, and parts of Africa.
• S. americanum, commonly known as American black nightshade or glossy nightshade, is native to northern South America, Central America, the southern and west-coast states of the United States, and--surprisingly--Australia. It has spread beyond it's native range and can be found throughout the Americas, and has been introduced to many warm-climate regions of the world, including the Mediterranean and many parts of Africa. 
• S. ptychanthum, or eastern black nightshade is found throughout North America and into Central America. Whether it is native or not is debatable. If it is not native, it is debatable where it originated. There is speculation that it is a hybrid species between S. nigrum and S. americanum. Despite having a larger range than S. americanum, it is less commonly encountered than either of the above species. 

In my experience in the US, S. nigrum is far and away the most abundant of the black nightshades, followed by S. americanum (most abundant on the east coast), while S. ptychanthum is quite rare. Indeed, I am not 100% sure when I have identified it and that I wasn't actually finding a weird S. nigrum. 

S. ptychanthum leaves looking a bit more lanceolate than either other black nightshade, 
but with features that resemble the other 2, including some scalloped edges like S. nigrum,
but also some smoothness at the end of the leaf, like S. americanum.

Black nightshade plant and stem features

• Black nightshade is a weedy looking plant, not much more than 2 feet tall, often much shorter, and between 8 inches and 4 feet in diameter. 
• Black nightshade is multi-branching, and will grow stretched out where conditions are less than ideal, but will grow full and bushy where it has good soil and shade. 
• Black nightshade stems are green (S. americanum) or green with red/purple branch nodes (S. ptychanthum and S. nigrum). In some cases of heavy sunlight, S. nigrum and S. ptychanthum will have fully red-purple stems.
• Black nightshade will reach its full size somewhere in late spring, but will not fruit until summer.

Purple/red blotches at the stem joints of S. nigrum; also note the unripe fruit, (which is poisonous),
with calyxes that are smaller than the berry.

Scalloped leaves on S. nigrum; S. americanum has smooth leaf edges.

Black nightshade leaf features

• Black nightshade leaves are generally diamond-shaped or pointed-egg shaped. Leaves are shorter on the side attached to the petiole (leaf stem) and elongated after the widest part of the leaf. In poor growing conditions these leaves can be more lanceolate.
• S. nigrum leaves can be quite large when mature, as large as a deck of cards. These leaves will have large scallops on the leaf edges. S. nigrum leaves are a solid bright green to emerald green with a prominent central mid-vein. Veins branch off the mid-vein and angle forward to the leaf edge. 
• S. americanum leaves are around 1/3 to 1/2 smaller, not much larger than an extra-large chicken egg, at the largest. American black nightshade leaves are emerald green and may have a "mottled" light green pattern, like a turtle's shell. S. americanum leaves have a central mid-vein, and the veins that branch off angle forward, but they don't go to the leaf edge, instead they curve into the next vein. 
• S. ptychanthum leaves have features resembling both S. nigrum and S. americanum. 
• Leaves do NOT appear as a compound leaf, which is to say, they do NOT appear like multiple leaflets growing off a central leaf stem. (More on this later)
• Most black nightshade leaves are lighter on the underside than on the top, but only slightly. The undersides are definitely not silvery or white. S. ptycanthum, however, can have purple or dark grey on the underside of the leaf.

Both S. nigrum (left) and S. americanum (right) exhibiting what
I've termed "fractal threes" leaf growth. Many nightshades grow leaves like this.

"Fractal threes" leaf growth

Many plants in the nightshade family exhibit a leaf growth that I call "fractal threes" -- I'm not sure if there is a scientific name for the term. If you look at the image directly above, you will see that leaves grow in sets of 3, which then continually add in triads. 

The image of  S. nigrum (left) has 3 large leaves, but the 2 bottom leaves have grown 2 more leaves each, making them into new sets of 3. Additionally, the  2 smaller leaves on the top set each have tiny little leaves growing, again producing sets of 3. Unfortunately, many other nightshades, including poisonous ones, also exhibit this feature. 

Another detail of the repeating patterns of threes in nightshade leaf growth,
this example is S. nigrum

Black nightshade flower features

• Black nightshade flowers have WHITE petals with yellow centers. Petals are not yellow, and especially not purple, blue, pink or burgundy. 
• Black night shade flowers have 5 petals, arranged like a traditional star--NOT a bell or tube.
• The petals of black nightshade flowers are straight at first, but eventually bend backwards, making the flower resemble a firework.
• The yellow anthers, at the center of the petal cluster, are quite prominent and stick out significantly. 
• Flowers grow in clusters, where each flower is on a stem, but the stems come together at a single point attaching to the branches. Together the flower stems bow slightly, reminding me of the ribs on an umbrella. 
• Flowers do not grow individually, nor do they grow in a line

Focus on the calyxes

Black nightshade calyx features

The calyx is a "whorl" or "crown" of sepals (flower parts) after the flower has seemingly died away. The calyx is most often green and will resemble a leaf formation to the untrained eye. The calyx appears on top of the fruit, where the fruit stem attaches. 

• Black nightshade berries have 5-part calyxes that are SMALLER than the diameter of the berry, and curve backwards towards the fruit stem. 
• The calyx looks like leaves forming a crown at the top of the berry.
• Black nightshade calyxes are green/dark green and not purple or reddish
• Calyxes are rounded on the ends, or come to soft points; they do not come to long, sharp points that look like daggers or claws.

S. nigrum fruit showing green fruit, partially ripe red/green fruit and 
fully ripe black fruit. Only the ripe fruit should be eaten.

Black nightshade fruit features

• Black nightshade fruits in summer and fall, into winter in the Southern United States. The plant will frequently have both flowers and fruit on it at the same time, helping with identification. 

• 

  Unripe fruit, which is poisonous, should not be eaten

  Black nightshade fruits are green when unripe and black* when ripe.
• Fruit ripens from green to dark green to purple-green to black. It never has a yellow, orange or red phase. If you find fruit in these colors you have the wrong plant.
• Fruit is small, slightly smaller than a pea (1cm/.4 of an inch) for S. americanum and S. ptychanthum, and slightly larger than a pea for S. nigrum. When green, fruit is the size of a pencil eraser. 
• Berries are shiny/glossy for S. americanum, and matte or dull for the other two species of black nightshade.
• Berries grow in clusters, NOT INDIVIDUALLY. The clusters hang from fruit stems, all of which come together at one point. The fruit also does not grow in a line. 
• Ripe black nightshade fruit are filled with tiny seeds that surround a central core (rather like a tiny tomato). Between the seeds the flesh is juicy and translucent, like a grape but softer and purple. 

* Some varieties produce reddish-orange fruits, but these do not grow in North America, and should not be eaten if found unless you trust a local expert to identify them for you. 

Very young black nightshade

Very young black nightshade leaves are edible, but resemble far too many other members of the nightshade family, including poisonous or deadly species. I currently avoid young nightshades and recommend the same for anyone who isn't very experienced. 

Purslane cucumber avocado yogurt gazpacho

As mentioned in my last post, my husband and I have a semi-wild, semi-cultivated space in our front yard that is covered in edible plants, both planted and wild. 

One of these plants that basically edges the entire length of the space is a favorite of mine--purslane! 

Purslane is one of the most nutritious wild plants that one can forage. It's a succulent native to North Africa and the Mediterranean, but has become either naturalized or invasive (depending on whom you talk to) in the southern United States. 

Purslane forms dense mats, becoming a succulent groundcover

Purslane has one of the highest concentrations of magnesium you can find in a plant, higher than spinach. It also has high levels of various anti-oxidants, calcium, sodium and Omega 3 fatty acids. It's actually one of the only terrestrial plants that has Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) fatty acid, most commonly found from animal sources. Generally vegan supplements use algae to provide this nutrient. However, purslane doesn't have enough of it to support your body's need all alone. It's just a fun fact!

Purslane also has high concentrations of oxalic acid, and so it shouldn't be eaten by those with liver or kidney disorders. 

I have a post all about purslane, including how to identify it, click here.

Personal story time

One of our many thriving basil plants 

Last Friday I had to undergo a total thyroidectomy. I am in recovery and doing extremely well. For example, I was given 7 days of double-dose  painkillers (omg!) but only ever took one pill at a time, and then only for 2 days. 

I've had to sponge bath since Friday though, and I am desperately looking forward to my first shower since the surgery. By the time this posts I expect I will finally have had one, I can shower again on Wednesday. My hair is a greasy mess, I can't seem to get it clean with a sponge bath. 

Anyway, I was told that I would need at least a week of cold, soft foods only, so the weekend before last I took some time to prepared a bunch of cold soups I could put in the freezer, and this gazpacho was one of them. Because I was freezing it, I didn't actually add the yogurt when I made it originally. Instead I mixed it in after defrosting. For this reason, my yogurt measurements might be a bit off. 

While mixing the soup, I was originally going to add cilantro, but tasting it as I was making it, I knew that was the wrong choice. I wondered out to the herb garden and decided that the freshness and subtle sweetness of Italian basil was required. 

Fortunately, the basil has been growing like mad this year. We have 6 very large, very full plants, despite making pesto every other weekend. 

Purslane, cucumber, yogurt & avocado gazpacho recipe

Serves 6-7 as a side or starter. Recipe can be halved

• 4-5 cups of roughly chopped purslane, about 1 large colander full
• 3 English cucumbers or 8 Persian cucumbers, roughly chopped
• 4 large avocados, just ripe or slightly underripe, skinned, seeded, and roughly chopped
• 1 medium lemon
• 8 medium fresh basil leaves
• 2 cups of water or unseasoned vegetable stock
• 1 clove of garlic, sliced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 5 cups of yogurt

Horseweed, lavender and parmesan savory shortbread

Over the past few years, my husband and I have been trying to fill in some holes in the landscaping of our front yard. During the bad winters of 21 and 22 several very, very, very large bushes died, leaving a bare area of more than 20 feed wide and about 12 feet deep in front of the dining room window. 

We didn't want to refill the area with more non-native, water guzzling landscaping bushes, and have instead been trying to find shrubs and perennial plants that fit our very restrictive list:

• 

  Early flowerbud on my surviving lavender

  Native or easy to naturalize, but without the risk of becoming invasive
• Low water or true xeriscape
• Good for pollinators
• Edible or medicinal (or both!)
• Grows densely enough that I don't have to weed

So far we have a large mat of native-to-the-southwest blanket flower (Gaillardia) surrounding the ginkgo tree (which fortunately survived), an English lavender shrub that was supposed to be 6 plants but only one survived, a seedling Feijoa (Acca sellowiana) which I believed had died twice but came back stronger each time, and a native-hybrid "hot lips" sagebush (salvia microphylla) which seems to be trying so hard to die and I just won't let it. There were supposed to be 3 different sages with 3 different flavor profiles, but this is the only one which has (so far) survived. 

Given all the plant deaths, what has survived covers barely 1/10th of the available space. But on the plus side, the weeds that have popped up in the remaining area are all edible. The crown jewel of wild plants in the space must be the very large black nightshade, Solanum nigrum, which produces an insane amount of fruit, but must be cut back repeatedly or it will fully engulf the salvia. Also popping up are wild lettuce, Asiatic dayflower, purslane, and some other nightshades I can't quite identify yet, but I think might be groundcherries (Physalis).

An ancient understanding of herbs

There is a historical tradition in many parts of Italy, that when it comes to curing meats, like capicola, you want to season the meat using the same herbs plants that the pig itself has been eating. So while a generic capicola curing packet might contain thyme, juniper and fennel, the small, local batches that have been done the same way for centuries will use ONLY fennel from the region, only thyme from the hillsides where the animals roam, and only the local juniper berries that fall and are gobbled up by the pigs. 

Horseweed & lavender,
I actually added a bit more than this

The thought behind this is that when things grow together it is both flavorful and healthful to consume them together. 

Why do I bring this up?

Well, this is what inspired me to make this recipe. You see, I saw the horseweed growing so abundantly in and around the lavender that I couldn't help but wonder if the two would taste good together. And the combination is WONDERFUL!

Savory shortbread recipes have been trending for a while. Or maybe they are past trending, I tend to only become aware of trends by the time they have largely ceased to be trends any longer. But regardless, they often contain thyme and rosemary. I do like thyme in small amounts, but I really don't care for rosemary. So I was excited to try the idea of the recipe with other herbs I enjoy. 

Savory horseweed, lavender and parmesan shortbread recipe

Makes 25-30 shortbreads, depending on size. Can be doubled or tripled.

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 8 tbs / 4 oz / 1 stick of butter (I used grass-fed European butter)
• 4 oz parmesan cheese, grated*
• 1/2 cup finely chopped, freshly picked horseweed and lavender, about 3/4 cup un-chopped
• 2 medium navel oranges, juice and zest
• Pinch of kosher salt (omit if using salted butter)

*Don't buy pre-grated cheese here, it's worth it to grate your own--and very easy to do in a food processor. Pre-grated parmesan has cellulous added to keep it from sticking together, and that will really mess with the subtle flavors here. 

Images a bit out of order, from left to right: 
The butter softened and whipped, the finely chopped herbs, and the zested orange. 
All of this was done in the food processor.

Healthy green marinara with sow thistle

Those of you who follow me on Instagram might remember seeing the image I shared of my green marinara sauce last March, when I promised a recipe to follow on my blog soon. 

And then I did not do that. 

But better late than never, as they say. A warmer than usual February has triggered the earliest spring plants to sprout, including one of my annual favorites, prickly sow thistle. 

Early spring prickly sow thistle, picked last Friday

That vivid green color is all natural

I really, really love this recipe. Unlike a pesto, this is completely vegan (unless you add cheese on top). It's also low in fat, since oil isn't a key ingredient. And each serving is also a full serving of leafy vegetables! That last point is especially important since sow thistle is incredibly nutritious, rich in potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, selenium and a number of important vitamins. 

It's really surprising how creamy this sauce is, considering that it has no cream, milk, coconut milk or cheese. 

Foraging prickly sow thistle: pictures, flowers, leaves & identification for Sonchus asper

Latin Name: Sonchus asper
Common Names: Prickly sow thistle, spiny sow thistle, sharp sow thistle, rough milk thistle
Season: Early spring
Edible: Yes 
Flavor: Good
Medicinal and nutritional value: Vitamin rich, antioxidant strong, liver and kidney purifying 
Identification difficulty: Beginner

The leaves of this plant are at a good stage for harvest

Despite the texture, prickly sow thistle is one of the edible wild plants I look forward to the most every spring. 

If you can work around the prickles, which is easy enough to do when planning dishes that need to be pureed (like sauces and soups), you are rewarded with a wonderfully rich leafy green. The flavor is generally very mild with only a slight bitterness, comparable to swiss chard or belgian endive, to add complexity. Most everyone who eats leafy greens will enjoy properly prepared prickly sow thistle. 

Perhaps even better, prickly sow thistle is extremely common 

Nutritional & medicinal benefits

The sow thistle family (Sonchus) is one of the ones where a significant amount of research has been done into nutrition and potential medicinal benefits. Sow thistles have long been accepted as health foods, associated with liver and kidney purification. 

Recent studies have shown that the sow thistles, particularly the prickly sow thistle, are antioxidant powerhouses. Antioxidants have been shown to reduce the effects of aging, both on the body and mind. They also lower your cancer risk. 

While antioxidant extractions are available in pills, syrups, etc., studies show that the best way to gain the positive effects of antioxidants might simply be to incorporate a large number of antioxidant-rich foods into your diet. 

All three sow thistles were found to be rich dietary fiber and in vitamin E, though smooth sow thistle (Sonchus arvensis) had the highest concentrations. Like most leafy greens, sow thistles have a lot of valuable minerals, including potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, sodium and selenium. Smooth sow thistle is the best of the 3 for potassium, common sow thistle has the highest concentration of iron and prickly sow thistle offers the most calcium. 

As an added bonus, sow thistles DO NOT have large amounts of oxalic acid, even though they exhibit red coloration. They contain less than 10% of the oxalic acid found in spinach or swiss chard, for example, and less than 5% of the oxalic acid in purslane. 

To learn more about the antioxidant properties of prickly sow thistle, check out this article from the National Library of Medicine. 

To learn more about the nutritional qualities of the sow thistle genus, please read this article from the National Library of Medicine. 

History as a food crop

There are three, common, wide-spread sow thistles: Common sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceus), prickly sow thistle (Sonchus asper) and smooth sow thistle (Sonchus arvensis). They are native to Europe, particularly the Mediterranean regions. They are now found throughout temperate North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East, and much of Asia and Africa. 

A good-sized haul of prickly sow thistle leaves,
ready to cook and eat

Our earliest record of sow thistles as a food comes from the ancient Greeks, who considered it to be strengthening, and used the non-prickly varieties in salads, especially during winter time when greens were scarce.

Europeans in the middle ages valued the sow thistles for animal feed. The name "sow thistle" comes from farmers feeding the plant to sows with piglets; it was believed that this plant increased lactation.

As traditional agriculture became the standard in Europe and European colonies, like the U.S., sow thistles came to be regarded as common weeds, and a great deal is spent to eradicate them. 

But that is not always the case in areas where sow thistles have spread. 

As European agricultural practices spread with colonization, many native species of plants, which were essential food sources for the native peoples, were wiped out. Eurasian plant species had evolved a centuries-long history of competition, due to exposure to other plant species spread via trade routes. As a general rule, these plants could out-compete native species, which is why dandelions, plantains, sow thistles and others are considered common weeds today. 

But many native peoples have embraced the "weeds" traditional agriculture rejects, and have used them to supplement or replace native plants that have been decimated. Sow thistles in particular are consumed by the Māori of New Zealand and the by the native peoples of the rural Brazilian rainforest regions.

In addition to the three most wide-spread sow thistles there are many regional species, especially in Africa and some hype-local species in places like the Canary Islands, some of which are used for food.