I Found Something in the Woods and I Ate It...

plant from hike august 17 2019.jpg

Something's leaves.

plant from hike august 17 2019 fruit.jpg

Something's fruit.

plant from hike august 17 2019 seeds.jpg

Something's seeds.

This little fruit caught my eye while we were hiking today.

IDK what it is. I googled it on plantnet and it brought up a lot of wild curcubits (the family of cucumbers and melons) and wild squash, as well as domesticated winter squash. My data was too slow to actually go into detailed research and comparison, so I did field testing. I squeezed some of its juice into my forearm and hiked the last half of our two mile cub scouts hike. No irritation, no bitter smell, so I ate it. The flesh around the seeds was custardy and sweet. Smooth like a ripe mango, but not stringy. The outer flesh was slightly sweet, but mostly flavorless, and felt like a dry plum? No bitterness, no tingling, and I'm still alive twelve hours later. Not even pooping funny. So I'm deeming it edible. Quality research here.

@wildhomesteading, anyone, any idea what this was? I have all the seeds and I'm gonna plant them. It would be cool to have a name for what I'm eating. It was at the edge (where everything is), by a trail. The only one I saw the whole two mile hike, and I think the fruit was a tad overripe. The clean seeds look something like a mix between okra seeds and weed seeds. Reminds me of a papaya somewhat...

@riverflows, does this count as NM? Tagging anyway.

Location: North Central Texas, Wise County. August, 2019. Popular hiking trail.



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Interesting! I don't recognize it... never seen it in my area. Did some looking on google and found similar pictures but no full ID just the family name... I hope someone can ID it! :)

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Glad you're not pooping funny, although that's always good for a laugh...

Wow, interesting. Not sure, as my computer screen is jacked up and I can't really make out the actual color or fine details... interesting though, very.

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Loved to learn about a new species (for me) in such experimental detail, would also love to know it's proper name. Let us know. Indeed I recognise the foliage as squash family, now you point it out. At first, the fruits reminded me of "canepas" another new fruit I discovered via a Steemian recently which they eat on Aruba. Again it's the foliage that helps me out to identify a citrus family. So probably also sour!

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I've no idea, but it sounds like it tasted good! Hope someone can identify it...

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That's a really bright red! Does this look like it? https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=IBLI

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Hell yes, mini, I think that's it!

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Nice find then. I hope you get something from the seeds.

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Looks like there's a lot of variability in the leaf shape, some of them are really similar to mine. A wild, native, perennial vine! Exactly what I've been lacking in the garden, and now I've got it naturally, abundantly, and for free!

The scarcity model is breaking! 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

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Good find - great addition to your permaculture food garden!
You're pretty brave to eat it though before IDing it -thank goodness it didn't cause any major digestive problems!
I love finding new wild edibles or ways of proccessing some of the wild foods to make them edible!

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