Friday, March 23, 2012

pyracantha(s)

The first place I ever lived was in a little studio unit behind the apartment that my grandmother managed in Santa Monica, California. In the front yard, separating the  main building from the neighbors, there was a large hedge covered with bright red berries. When I was a very small child, I remember my mom or maybe my grandmother telling me not to eat the pyrocanthus berries because they were poisonous. (It occurs to me wonder here why you would have an enormous hedge of poisonous berries in your front yard, but never  mind.) From them or from somewhere I also learned that the fruit made the birds drunk. I doubt they were educating me on drunkenness at this young age, but in my mind it is all part of the same lesson.

Now I wasn't even old enough to read at this point, so I don't know how I got the spelling so firmly in my mind as pyrocanthus. Like eucalyptus or who knows what all else, it had a basically Latin sound so I probably filled in the blanks.

A couple of days ago I was self-editing something I'd written and came across a passage where a grown man was telling someone else that the pyrocanthus is poisonous. I had scrawled in the margin "True?" And so, as I came across this question, I decided I better find out.

First, very surprised to learn that it wasn't called pyrocanthus at all, but simply pyracantha. I don't know why the adults in my life seemed to always refer to them in the plural, but when I was hearing pyrocanthus, they were saying pyrocanthas. This is, of course, a pretty minor distinction, but it was odd having reached the over the hill crowd to know that I have been mistaken in this for pretty much my entire life.

The true shocker, though, is that pyracanthas aren't poisonous. (A small caveat follows, so don't go stuffing your mouth with them until we get there.)  In the way that we do want to cling to misinformation even as it falls in tatters all around us, I thought, well, surely there is some variation of opinion on this matter. No. There is no variation of opinion--well, not of informed opinion. The fruit is bitter but it makes a great jelly and as you will see a nice sauce. The pyracantha berry is not a berry at all, but a pome, and as such, related to the apple.

The birds do get drunk on them, though. Well, on the half-rotted, fermented fruit. As anybody would.


I thought  I would include some video on birds getting drunk on pyracantha. I did find a video of a drunk bird, but like videos of drunk humans and maybe even more so, it isn't particularly funny, but a bit sad.

Instead, though, I'll regale you with a couple of  cool videos from  EatTheWeeds.com. Here is where the caveat comes in. Although the fruit is indeed edible, the seeds, like apple seeds are not. The chemical reaction with your body creates a teeny tiny amount of cyanide. Uh, yeah. A few seeds won't harm you, but you can imagine why parents might tell children, and I was far from the only one, to leave these things alone.




22 comments:

  1. This reminded me of chokecherries, which we were told not to eat in childhood. They grew in abundance in a marvelous rock garden in the park, and a man walking through (yes, a stranger) told us not to eat them. Who was that stranger? Why were we kids off alone, somewhat scattered in the rock garden? Hmm, story? Novel?! Dibs!

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  2. "I did find a video of a drunk bird, but like videos of drunk humans and maybe even more so, it isn't particularly funny, but a bit sad."

    Goodness gracious, but that is an acute and toucing observation.
    ====================================
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  3. I had never heard of pyracantha, whether singular or plural. Perhaps this is due to where I grew up.

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  4. Kathleen, if you'll write that story, I'll read it.

    Yes, chokecherries look similar to me too, though darker, but there are apparently quite a few berries and others that can be mixed up with them, like hawthorne and toyon. They probably all fill the same niche in the ecosystem. Probably all depend a lot on attracting birds to be dispersed.

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  5. Peter, yes, though pyracantha seems to have traveled to many parts in the world from its original site in the Caucasus Mountains between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. But they don't seem to be all that partial to colder climates.

    I thought that the drunken birds might be funny, but turns out that isn't true.

    If you have a moment, Peter, would you follow this link to the post I wrote recently on negus and weigh in on something? A Finnish woman added to the comment thread. She is translating Death Comes to Pemberly, and happens to need help on the negus usage. It would seem to be right up your alley. (Though anyone else reading along here can check it out too.)

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  6. I grew up in Santa Monica, and my folks had (and still have) a pyracantha bush. Must be a Santa Monica thing. My mom used to cut branches every Christmas to decorate the table.

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  7. Leslie, I'm sure I knew the whole Santa Monica connection, but I'm pretty sure I never knew what part. Not that you should reveal that here, as your folks still live there, but this apartment was and still is on Twelfth Street right near Montana. I've been past there at some point in the last few years and it's still largely the same, though there is ivy on the front hill we used to roll down. And no pyracantha. I managed to do a quick 'Google walk' last night, once I remembered the street number. I even 'walked' down the alley which the old studio apartment backed on to.

    It's very old Santa Monica, which I like.

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  8. I have Pyracantha in our garden and it provides much needed nourishment for birds in Winter.

    Pruning takes a bit of skill and it's horribly thorny.

    http://www.pyracantha.co.uk/pruning-training

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    1. Yes, the thing I somehow forgot to mention is that the name actually means "fire-thorn". You'd think parents might caution a bit less about the poisonous aspects and a bit more about the thorns...

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  9. We had pyrachantha in our front yard in Dublin and were told the same thing about its deadly properties, thrilling! I don't remember the birds being drunk but I do remember a lot of birdie poo on our sidewalk. Apparently it is a fairly effective laxative as well. Don't try this at home though. Hugs, Ann

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  10. Ann,

    Isn't that funny that this seemed to be such a standard thing to tell children about the plant? And yet they all seemed to keep right on planting it, didn't they?

    Maybe a slight amivilance about parenthood showing through there...

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  11. My folks live on the corner of 20th and Marguerita, which is two blocks north of Montana. As the numbered streets are only two houses long, that means it's pretty close to your old place. And yes, I remember the leaves being very sharp.

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  12. Even closer, actually. I wrote this slightly wrong. My grandmother owned the building on 12th Street, but she went on to manage a complex on Montana at 21st Place. My sisters and I used to love walking around this neighborhood when we visited. I remember the name of Marguerita Street well.

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  13. Wow--I must have walked by that place hundreds of times...

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  14. Yes, it's a bit weird, isn't it? I wonder if we ever met without knowing it. Did you ever go to that library story hour nearby? I believe the woman who led it had had polio.

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  15. I certainly went to the library at 17th and Montana all the time, and maybe I do vaguely remember a woman with a limp...? But I don't remember going to story hour--just to look for and check out books. There was a competition in the summer as to how many you could read in a week and I whipped through 'em.

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  16. Well, I believe she had brace and cane, and I think my mom and I had some sort of discussion about this, which is why it stands out. I would have been about three or four so we are probably talking about slightly different times there.

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  17. I learned so much from you. Thank you. I saw them in Yakima Washington this time of the year. So wonderful to have found this site.

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  18. Thank you, anonymous. And welcome.

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  19. Cotoneaster is often confused with pyracantha...cotoneaster causes stomach distress.

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  20. What's funny, Anonymous, is that I feel that this word came up somewhere just within the last week, and though I knew it was a plant from context, I had no idea what it was. Didn't get around to looking it up at the time, but now I have, so thanks for that.

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