Hedychium coccinium shoots tasty

The book Cross-cultural Ethnobotany of North East India (1) says the tender shoot of Hedychium coccineum (orange gingerlily) is eaten raw or cooked by the Anals of Chandel District and is cultivated in kitchen gardens for this purpose. There are also a few brief mentions of this use online (2,3). There seem to be no record of this use in the West even though the plant is grown in gardens as an ornamental.

 

I've tried the shoots, they have a mild ginger flavor, not at all overpowering, good chopped up added to a stir fry. They have no fibers and a pleasant crisp texture. You have to peel away the inedible outer layer, this is pretty easy and quick. 

 

I tried what I think is the large variety Hedychium coccinium var angustifolium (narrow leaf ginger), purchased from Coast Palms and Cycads (New Zealand), sold as Hedychium coccinium "Lizzie". They have used the same photo on their website for this plant as used by the Pacific Bulb Society for var angustifolium. It also matches the description of angustifolium given by Branney (4). Mine have not flowered yet so I can't compare them to the photos directly.

It is not clear it is this large variety that is eaten in Asia but it tastes fine. I read somewhere there is no known toxicity in Zingiberaceae but can't find that reference now. Angustifolium is now considered a synonym of coccinium.

 

The plant grows well in Wellington, NZ, (zone 9). It got very tatty in winter, basically deciduous, but grew back fine in spring. It does not mind heavy clay soil and is fine in part shade. Angustifolium is probably too big for small gardens, about 2 m tall.

I'm not yet sure how productive it is, presumably it is reasonably productive if cultivated in kitchen gardens in India for food.

 References.

1)  Cross-cultural Ethnobotany of North East India. A Saklani. S K Jain 1994. 

2) An ethnobotanical note on wild edible plants of Upper Eastern Himalaya, India.

G. Murtem¹ and Pradeep Chaudhry

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305112551_An_ethnobotanical_note_on_wild_edible_plants_of_Upper_Eastern_Himalaya_India

3) Monpa, memory, and change: an ethnobotanical study of plant use in Mêdog County, South-east Tibet, China

Shan Li et al Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine volume 16, Article number: 5 (2020)

   

https://ethnobiomed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13002-020-0355-7

 

4) Hardy Gingers. T.M.E Branney. Royal Horticultural Society. 2005.

Erythronium revolutum pods taste good

 

The boiled green seed pods of Erythronium revolutum taste a lot like beans or peas, very good. They are also of good consistency, like beans or cucumber, and are a respectable size. It seems a little strange to me they are not more popular as a vegetable. 

I could only find one reference to these pods being edible (1) which says the pods of Erythronium species in general were "said" to taste of string beans once cooked. They do list this species specifically amongst others but other than this recent book there only seem to be two older written references to Erythronium pods being eaten, specifically those of  Erythronium grandiflorum (2). I only have access to one of these (3) it simply mentions the flavor of string beans after boiling. It is also a little strange there seem to be no reports of Native Americans eating the pods of any Erythronium, they apparently only ate the underground corms or bulbs, (including those of revolutum)(4). 

American edible plant guru Euell Gibbons says all parts of all Erythronium species are edible, but goes on to mention all parts except the pods(5). There are no confirmed reports of toxicity in any Erythronium (6) but there there is a report Erythronium americanum and Erythronium grandiflorum may be emetic (makes you vomit) despite being used as food (7), very widely in the case of grandiflorum (4). Apparently the supposed emetic effect is at high doses and only in some species (8). It is probably unknown if this effect applies to the pods, I will find out eventually probably.  

 This may be the only perennial shade loving/understory bean substitute, quite valuable in my view. I have not tried the pods of any other Erythronium.

References.

1) Edible & Medicinal Plants of Canada. MacKinnon. Kershaw. Arnason. Owen. Karst. Hamersley. Chambers. 2009.

(Couplan also mentions the seed pods of Erythronium species "reportedly" being eaten without mentioning revolutum (The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America. 1998.) )

2)   https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Erythronium+grandiflorum

3)  A field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Craighead, Craighead, Davis. 1963. 

4) Native American Food Plants. Moerman. 2010. 

5) Euell Gibbons' Handbook of Edible Wild Plants. Gibbons. Tucker. 1979.

6) International Poisonous Plants Checklist. An Evidence-based Reference. Dr J Wagstaff. 2008.

7) https://www.academia.edu/1139225/Food_Plants_in_the_Americas_A_Survey_of_the_Domesticated_Cultivated_and_Wild_Plants_Used_for_Human_Food_in_North_Central_and_South_America_and_the_Caribbean

8) https://www.cultivariable.com/instructions/root-crops/trout-lily-erythronium-spp/

Vietnamese mint most productive crop

 

Vietnamese mint (Polygonum odoratum) has been the most productive perennial crop I've grown in Wellington, New Zealand (hardiness zone 9), I've tried hundreds of crops (still looking for other crops as productive and hassle free). I've found just one Vietnamese mint in the right spot will spread in a year or two to form a patch around 2 meters wide, it will then stop expanding. These patches repress most or all weeds, even outcompeting the dreaded Tradescantia fluminensis. It can be viewed as a groundcover around 1 m tall.

I've found I can harvest one of these patches to get enough for a decent salad most days of the week year round, new leaves keep being reproduced. I've found they need reasonably moist soil in half shade to be productive like this, clay soil is fine. It will grow on steep slopes as long as there is deep soil. It will survive dryer and sunnier spots but will not be nearly as productive. Finding the right spot may require some trial and error.

Most sources say harvest the younger leaves, older leaves are "too tough" or "too peppery". I've gotten used to eating the large older leaves, they probably require a bit more chewing but I like them most of all, probably for their luxuriant appearance and because they can be harvested more quickly or easily. I agree with advice that the leaves are not good to eat if they turn red but this hardly ever happens to mine, perhaps because of the mild climate. I find the leaves need to be eaten immediately after harvest, they deteriorate quickly if stored, they are also no good cooked in my opinion.  

The flavor is delicious and interesting in my opinion but not liked by everyone, it is mildly hot and peppery. It is good uncooked mixed in with a stir fry, or in a salad. The plant is said to reduce sexual drive, this is completely false in my experience.

Non-domination, Anarchic Societies and Democratic Rule of Law.

 

A review of, and thoughts stemming from, "Anarchic Solidarity: Autonomy, Equality and Fellowship in Southeast Asia. (Yale Southeast Asia Studies Monographs)" Thomas Gibson, Kenneth Sillander Ed. 

This book analyses Southeast Asian societies characterized by personal autonomy, political egalitarianism and social solidarity. They include forest dwelling hunter gatherers, shifting horticulturists, sea nomads and peasants. The editors argue these people live what are unrealized utopian ideals for anarchists in the West.

Although this book is about egalitarian societies it is not really an egalitarian book, it's not written for everyone, or even most people likely to be interested in anarchism or equality, it is an academic book written for academics. But  don't see how egalitarian libertarianism can progress practically without consulting science like this.

This book does not claim to know everything about how anarchic societies work, "we have barely started to understand this other way of life" (page 34), this book is an exploration. At times it was quite fascinating but left me with many questions.

The book does offer a lot of expert insight into how anarchic solidarity is made possible such as though sharing, autonomy in choice of residence and associates and direct access to resources and the active promotion of values such as the obligation to be non-competitive (p75), distrust of the pursuit of high status and rejection of egotism (which is of course virtually the religion in "modern" society). The importance of children as central social glue is also covered (this makes me wonder if charismatic leaders exploit this "weakness" we have for the childlike, charisma has been characterized as immaturity, exhibiting qualities such as extreme narcissism, perhaps it is babies, not elders, who are the origin of hierarchy.)

This book also notes some societies are able to "oscillate" between egalitarian and hierarchical organization (p278), which might be the model most likely to be popular in modern society, people want the stuff hierarchical workplaces create, hospitals, cars, the internet, electricity but they want freedom and equality in how they use these things. I can't see many people wanting to abandon all the "stuff" capitalism and the state produce to be "free in the forest", at least not until all that wonderful "stuff" has wiped out most of the human race and nature.

The book also covers, rather briefly, how these societies deal with rule breakers, this is of course the thing that usually horrifies people about anarchism, that it would let criminals run wild. They do deal with and deter rule breakers in various ways, formal and informal public opinion, avoidance and ostracism and rarely even murder in the case of dangerous individuals (P 30) (socially sanctioned killing is perhaps better described as execution). Murder or execution implies exercising power over someone, so cannot really be construed to be an anarchist means of maintaining social order. As in democratic states enforcement of social norms, especially with extreme violations, unfortunately appears to require forceful actions that would normally be prohibited. It is also interesting that dangerous, difficult individuals do arise in such societies, it would be interesting to know if they are less frequent than in our society, does the suppression of egotism prevent psychopathy developing as often for instance, narcissism being a key component of psychopathy.

Most interesting to me was the belief that disease and catastrophic punishment will be inflicted by supernatural beings for violation of social norms, even just quarreling in some cases. This seems like a problem for most modern anarchists who are usually atheists so would not be able to replicate this. This also does not on the face of it seem like an anarchist means of enforcement, it is hierarchical, it seems to me these supernatural beings are providing the same role as law enforcement in states, including dictatorships in many cases, they don't choose or "elect" many of their supernatural beings and they may hate and fear them. Notably this is also probably a much more effective deterrent than the state as supernatural beings are omniscient unlike the state. ( It is also interesting that even many atheists in modern societies talk, half seriously, about "karma", the universe punishing you for wrongdoing, this tendency to believe in non-human forces dealing out justice may be genetically shared by all of us.) 

Finally, fascinatingly, the universal instinct for dominance Franz de Waal says is found in all primates including humans seems to be marginal at best in these societies, it is "quite wrong.. that human subjects are everywhere driven by the same simple desire to maximize their power" (p 282). What has happened to this instinctive dominance hierarchy with these people? Is it that they appear egalitarian because they are defeated members of the wider population, at the bottom of the dominance hierarchy of societies in SE Asia, as Dentan's essay seems to suggest.

Or have they delegated the alpha male role to supernatural beings, including the law enforcement role alpha males can provide (this is how it looks to me, this is not in the book). This is a very interesting possibility to me, that the alpha male role can be given to a human creation, to "gods". Perhaps this made it possible for humans to share an alpha male, a "god" with different communities over great distances making orderly, civilized relations over great distances possible. This is a bit like the replacement of the alpha by the farmer in domesticated animals (which David Attenborough talked about somewhere).

I think this is like rule of law in democratic states in many respects, we make the ultimate "alpha male" a human creation: written laws. Much like supernatural beings in these egalitarian societies, they are not even alive, are external to all of us and we are all equal before them in a very real sense, this is perverted in various ways such as the rich being able to afford better lawyers of course, but even lawmakers and law enforcers are equally subject to the law.

This was the main novel idea this book gave me, it may be impossible to have human societies without alpha "males" but perhaps democratically created law can be an artificial "alpha male" that serves equality, fellowship and freedom just as gods and spirits do in these societies. Not an idea anarchists have often considered, they are usually so busy hating everything about the state, but you could possibly have laws created by participatory democracy which many argue is potentially consistent with the values of anarchism or non-domination.

Hedychium spicatum fruit tasty

There are a few references to the fruit of Hedychium spicatum being eaten in the Himalayas (Ref 1,2).

I find they are quite tasty, similar but not identical to ginger, I think maybe a bit like aniseed too. I ate the seeds as well. The bright red color is also pleasing. Although they are rather small and a bit soft and delicate I think they are a worthwhile perennial fruit, or vegetable, it is probably more of a vegetable in culinary terms, it's not very sweet. The only detailed report says they are eaten cooked in the Himalayas but I enjoyed them raw, good in a salad.

 They ripened in June in Wellington, New Zealand, minimum temperature around 2 C (35F), so a good mid-winter temperate climate crop. They are hardy to -15 C (5 F) (Ref 3) but it's possible the fruit would not survive long enough to ripen in much colder climates. 

I found one in light shade produced fruit but another in slightly more shade did not. They propagate themselves to an extent by underground rhizomes(4). Being about 1 meter tall it can co-exist with most weeds, around here at least. It is reasonably productive but I found not all flowers produced fruit.

The flowers, young shoots and rhizomes are also edible (Ref 1,2,5). 

References

1) Himalayan Wild food.com

2) himalayan voices.org

3) Hardy Gingers. T.M.E. Branney. 2005.

4) https://www.hardy-plant.org.uk/docs/blogs/shademonth/2018/oct18.pdf

5) Ethnobotanical study on wild edible fruits, spices and aquatic plants traditionally used by the Garo tribe of Meghalaya. K D Singh & B Mathew

https://nopr.niscpr.res.in/bitstream/123456789/56296/1/IJTK%2020%281%29%20117-121.pdf

 

Dryopteris dilatata rhizome edibility

Uncooked Dryopteris dilatata rhizome, cross section.

I find the flavor of cooked Dryopteris dilatata (broad buckler fern) rhizome, to be good, not excellent. It's a bit like sweet potato as reported by Turner et al (1) but not quite as good or sweet I'd say, I did not think it was much like coconut as reported. It also reminded me of salmon a little, I don't think it was just that it is the same color as salmon. I've only tried one rhizome, I think a taste could well be acquired for it.

I harvested the rhizome in late autumn (in New Zealand), the plant still had leaves, apparently Dryopteris species are usually harvested in late autumn or early spring before the leaves have developed (2) it's possible the time of harvest affects quality.

Turner & co report Dryopteris rhizomes are boiled for a long time until tender. I boiled them for one hour, they were quite soft, probably they could be cooked for shorter periods I think.  

It is worth noting that all the reports of edibility for this species come form North America/Canada, yet all modern authorities I can find say this plant is not native to the Americas, rather Europe and Asia (3). Experts note how Dryopteris dilatata is very hard to distinguish from several American native Drypoteris such as Dryopteris expansa (definitely used as food) and is closely related, if not a cross with this plant and Dryopteris intermedia (4). It is not at all clear to me that Dryopteris dilatata is the species described as edible in the ethnobotanical and historical accounts, though I found the taste basically matches the description. 

Toxicity is also an issue. The related male fern, Dryopteris filix-mas, is extremely toxic raw (5), though reportedly was eaten cooked by American Indians (6). Other Dryopteris have only been found to contain the milder toxin thiaminase (7) which is destroyed by five minutes boiling (8). There are no reports of poisoning from Dryopteris dilatata in the International Poisonous Plants Checklist. An Evidence-Based Reference (2008), which includes livestock poisoning, there are many for Dryopteris filix-mas. I noticed no ill effects after ingesting one cooked rhizome of dilatata.

It is probably not significant that there is no ethnobotanical record of Dryopteris dilatata being eaten outside of America. Most if not all of the many Dryopteris eaten by American Indians are also present all over Europe and Asia but are not recorded as having been used as food outside of America.

I would say this very neglected crop is one of the best for growing in heavy shade/understory (9) but have not yet tried growing it in these conditions here in New Zealand. The rhizome is also basically on the surface so is easy to harvest, requiring little or no digging. Peeling the rhizome, as the American Indians do (or did), is a bit fiddly. The plant is clump forming so propagates itself to an extent, it has gone wild in parts of New Zealand so may also self sow. It is reportedly vigorous (10) so it sounds like it may somehow be reasonably productive even with very little direct sunlight, although Lukasz Luczaj says fern rhizomes take many years to reach full size (11).     

References:

1) EDIBLE WOOD FERN ROOTSTOCKS OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA: SOLVING AN ETHNOBOTANICAL PUZZLE. N Turner et al  J. Ethnobiol. 12(1):1-34 Summer 1992

2) Edible and Medicinal Plants of Canada. MacKinnon et al. 2009. 

3) e.g., Kew Gardens https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:30117034-2

4) Unraveling reliculate evolution in North America Dryopteris (Dryopteridacea). E Sessa, E Zimmer, G Givish. BMC Evolutionary Biology 12, 2012

DRYOPTERIS DILATATA (HOFFM.) A. GRAY IN NORTH AMERICA Donald M. Britton Rhodora

Vol. 64, No. 759 (July-September, 1962),

 5) https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/dryopteris

6) Native American Food Plants. An ethnobotanical dictionary. D Moerman. 2010. 

7) https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Dryopteris+dilatata#:~:text=Dryopteris%20dilatata%20is%20a%20FERN,ripen%20from%20July%20to%20September.

8) https://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/pdf-content/mfr2883.pdf

9) "may sometimes be dominant or the only species in deep shade" Biological Flora of the British Isles: Dryopteris carthusiana, D. diatata and D. expansa. K Runk et al. 2012

10) https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/dryopteris-dilatata/#:~:text=Broad%20Wood%20Fern%20is%20a,tall%20with%20a%20similar%20spread.

11) Lukasz Luczaj. Edible Ferns of the World. 2022. (page 100).

Unripe fruit of mountain pawpaw bitter

There is a report from Purdue University online that the unripe fruit of Carica pubescens is boiled or roasted in the Andes and eaten as a vegetable (1).  I tried boiling some small very unripe green fruit. After ten minutes they were intensely bitter and were a bit too firm. After 1 and 2 hours of boiling the bitterness was reduced considerably and the texture was much softer and better, but I still found them too bitter to be enjoyable. 

It seems likely either the locals resort to it only when they are desperate or they have acquired a taste for the bitterness, which is very unusual with food but not unheard of. It is also possible they are normally cooked for extremely long periods, for days perhaps by fire, but not very likely. It also seems possible the report is inaccurate, although this would be surprising coming from Purdue, possibly it was confused with the more widely reported use of unripe Carica papaya fruit as a vegetable.

A New Zealand nursery also says the unripe fruit of the mountain pawpaw-babaco cross "rainbow valley" can be eaten as a vegetable but it is also bitter.

1.  https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/1492/fruits.html

"Electric" cars powered by coal from national grid

 Adverting Complaints Authority COMPLAINT NUMBER 23/033 

ADVERTISER Toyota New Zealand 

ADVERTISEMENT Toyota New Zealand Television DATE OF MEETING 20 February 2023 OUTCOME No Grounds to Proceed Advertisement: 

The television advertisement for Toyota is promoting the Lexus RZ car. The voiceover says "The driver wanted to feel the road, to respect the planet …". The Lexus RZ is described as "all electric". 

Complaint: This ad says the Lexus R2 is fully electric and allows you to care for the planet. 

It is completely false that electric propulsion cars are fully electric in New Zealand if they are powered off of the national grid as 20% of our power is generated by coal. 

This is not only false it is dangerously so as people who drive them can be self-righteously deluded they are saving the planet when they are destroying it as much as conventional car users, perhaps more. 

This is not the fault of the car manufacturer, it is a failure of government policy that our national grid is not fully based on renewables, adding more electric cars to the road will probably mean far more coal will be need to be burned with the current grid. 

I have heard of someone in New Zealand who powers his electric car with his own solar panels, this is much better but still can’t be called fully electric as petroleum is still used in the mining, manufacturing and transportation of solar. 

This applies equally to many other ads for "electric cars" of other companies of course but I understand I can only complain about a specific ad. 

 

The relevant provisions were Advertising Standards Code - Principle 2, Rule 2(b), Rule 2(h); Principle 2: Truthful Presentation: Advertisements must be truthful, balanced and not misleading. Rule 2 (b) Truthful Presentation: Advertisements must not mislead or be likely to mislead, deceive or confuse consumers, abuse their trust or exploit their lack of knowledge. This includes by implication, inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, unrealistic claim, omission, false representation or otherwise. Obvious hyperbole identifiable as such is not considered to be misleading. Rule 2(h) Environmental Claims: Environmental claims must be accurate and able to be substantiated by evidence that reflects scientific and technological developments. 23/033 2 

The Chair noted the Complainant was concerned the advertisement was misleading because it describes electric propulsion cars as fully electric and good for the planet without taking into account the source of the electricity. The Chair said the term “all electric”, in this context, means the car is “powered purely by battery” 1 , without using any fuel. She noted this term is generally applied to such vehicles regardless of the source of the electricity used to power the car. 

The Chair said consumers interested in electric cars would be aware the claim related to the battery power source and many consumers choose electrified cars because they produce fewer exhaust emissions than petrol or diesel cars. 

The Chair said the advertisement was not likely to mislead or confuse consumers and did not meet the threshold to breach Principle 2, Rule 2(b) or Rule 2(h) of the Advertising Standards Code. The Chair ruled there were no grounds for the complaint to proceed. 

Chair’s Ruling: Complaint No Grounds to Proceed

To the office of Hon James Shaw, Minister of Climate Change and Associate Minister for the Environment (Biodiversity). 01/03/2023

Dear Minister,

 I think the encouragement of electric "clean" cars with things like discounts is a deadly and ridiculous "greenwash" while 20% of our electricity grid is powered by coal.

 

It allows people to smugly and self-righteously think they are doing something for the environment when they are actually making things far worse. 

 

Adding more "electric" cars to the road will mean we have to burn more coal given the complete lack of government leadership in encouraging the gargantuan expansion of renewables needed to power a nation of car addicts. It will also drive up the price of scarce electricity for essentials such as household heating.

 

Electric cars also still produce 40% of the emissions of petrol cars, it is misleading to call them clean. If more people in the world end up using them than petrol cars or use them more often because they are cheaper we may be even worse off in terms of emissions. 

 

I think we will have to move away from our addiction to transportation and focus on reducing and eliminating the need and desire to travel such great distances over and over for work, shopping and play, presumably through physical localization and decentralization and working from home where possible.

 

I see the environment as the most important issue today but have little or no faith in the Greens to come up with anything relevant. 

 

Sincerely

 

David Nicholls