As seen on SW Ash St., in downtown Portland. I don't actually know what sort of tree these are on. My rusty Boy Scout tree identification skillz were pretty much 100% focused on commercially valuable conifers. Hey, it was the early 80's in the Pacific Northwest, and there was still an outside chance that might be a useful job skill someday, so that's what we learned. It may actually be some kind of ash tree, going by some of the photos I'm seeing on the net. Which would be appropriate, and a bit more detail-oriented than the city usually is.
In any event, free to chime in if you know what these are. I say that every so often, and I think I've gotten a response exactly once, plus one non-blog response on a Flickr photo page. Which suggests that the majority of this humble blog's Gentle Reader(s) are either A.) not avid botanists or B.) avid but unhelpful botanists. I'm going to go with option A, since that's what I prefer to believe.
I also don't know whether the fruit you see here is edible or not. I suspect it isn't, on the theory that the city will never knowingly put something out there that homeless people could subsist on, even if it doesn't taste very good. Or possibly I'm overly cynical about that.
Either way, I'm not going to go and suggest that anyone try eating these. Although if you do, strictly of your own free will, and the fruit doesn't kill you, and the pesticides and other assorted cooties also don't kill you, feel free to post a comment and describe what it tastes like. Because I admit I'm just a little curious, albeit not curious enough to try it myself.
1 comment :
I believe that is a Mountain Ash tree you're looking at.
http://herbdatanz.com/mountain_ash_picture_monograph.htm
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