A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Fruit Forum Curious about this Red Berry Tree

Hi All,
Now that November is here, this tree has produced many red berries where it grows in Quincy, MA. I just bit into one of the plump/firm ones and they taste good, a little bit tart and a little bit sweet. But I honestly cannot pinpoint what the flavor is - part apple, part cherry? I want to harvest them and feed them to birds and squirrels, and perhaps I'll have some for myself. I would like very much to know what the species is if anyone knows. They dry on the vine or on the ground and the fruit becomes very syrupy so it suggests that there is sugar inside.

Here is the flickr URL to the pics, one of the tree and one showing the berries, berry clusters, and some leaves, one of the leaves is a fresh one, some might be drier:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankyguitarwatson/sets/72157622768078012/

Thanks.

By they way, there is another species which I will put out - that is sort of similar except more bushlike - I believe it is black cherry. I will post later on.

Cotoneaster?

The birds will pick the shrub clean before the winter is over...

Hey, thanks for the info. They are delicious, particularly near the stem where the berry comes out. I am not sure it's ok for mammals to eat them as I've seen a lot of sites where they say they are poisonous. Frankly, I don't think one or two will hurt much - kind of like pokeweed. It's a shame if it turns out I can't eat more than a few, but it's worth it, they really have a nice taste. Maybe a little poison is good for us.

Thanks very much.

Sounds like a brain/nervous system, respiratory toxin of some sort. I guess the word Amygdalla is where Amygdalin comes from. The poison gets converted into cyanide inside the body - hence respiratory and other symptoms may result in us humans and other animals.

I noticed my left arm burning and slight shortness of breath. So go real easy on these and don't give them to squirrels or other mammals.

But they taste great so I hope squirrels don't go for them like they go for wild cherry.

become a cyano-glucaside or whatever.

Here's an article on a possible explanation for why birds can eat cotoneaster berries even thought they are toxic to some mammals.

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1427051
I will keep reading about this because I want to know more. It seems that peach pits have similar stuff in them - ya know how they say "don't eat peach pits". Well, I want to know why and should be weakly poison ourselves once in a while - does it ward off cancer? Just curious. I think my birds are ok eating the cotoneaster though.

Toxicity

Beta-glucosidase, one of the enzymes that catalyzes the release of the cyanide from amygdalin, is present in human small intestine and in a variety of common foods. This leads to an unpredictable and potentially lethal toxicity when amygdalin or Laetrile is taken orally.[10][11][12]


It would be nice if we could figure out how many berries we can eat before we keel over.