AUTUMN FRUITS

Our native Rowan trees (aka mountain ash) are quickly denuded of berries by birds. The Chinese and Japanese varieties keep their berries longer.

These are the natives.

Rose hips were used as a source of vitamin C, especially during war years, but their preparation is rather laborious.

Hawthorn fruits like the rowans and roses are not entirely smooth; they have a little tuft on the end where the flower was, like apples. Botanically these are known as pomes rather than berries.

A big crop can make the whole tree look rusty.

   

True berries have a smooth skin like a tomato.  These berries pictured below are Woody Nightshade also known as Bittersweet.  Apparently they taste bitter at first with a sweet aftertaste BUT DON'T TRY THEM as they are poisonous.

Black Bryony and White Bryony, which scramble over other plants, are also poisonous but I am not sure which these are.  Should have checked the leaves.

Guelder Rose with its maple-like leaves has been plundered by birds but there are still a few to see.  These berries are only mildly poisonous but probably best to lay off them.

Bramble fruits are botanically 'drupelets' but we all know them as blackberries.  There are still a few left to pick but by October they will have lost their sweetness.

And as well as ivy berries, the fruits of dogwood are black when ripe.