12-Sept Fruits of September

The streets of London are now lined with rowans and whitebeams largely covered in scarlet berries. The green husks of horse chestnuts stand out as well as endless berries on Pyracantha and Cotoneasters. Keys are now falling from ash trees and maples. Many of the maples have attractive red edges to their keys and this even extends to sycamores. Lime fruits are also spinning down and in wilder areas old female birch catkins are disintegrating into thousands of tiny winged seeds. Perhaps the most striking of the bunches of seeds we notice on trees this month are the rose and lime coloured seeds on the tree of heaven Ailanthus altissima. Newly grown pods also start to be noticed on honey locusts and Indian bean trees as well as the more tropical-looking tassels of seeds on Caucasian wingnuts. In more open areas the seeds of poplars, willows, thistles and willowherbs all continue to float by and goosegrass and burdock fruits get stuck to our clothes.

This harvest does not go unnoticed by London’s fauna, many of which have their own particular favourites. Hawthorn, yew and elderberries are especially sought after by blackbirds and thrushes, a fact borne out by the frequent blue patches of their faeces beneath elderberries and carmine patches beneath yews where the birds have gorged themselves. Mistle thrushes are know to guard rowan trees driving off any other bird that wants to feed and woodpigeons are often shot with their crops bulging with acorns. In woods any harvest beneath trees gets quickly dispersed by squirrels, mice, jays, nuthatches and even rooks. Some birds have even been known to get drunk on rotting apples.

In country lanes, hedgerows are also starting to carry a lot of different fruits. Hawthorn berries and rosehips are particularly common, the latter being loved by finches which have beaks stout enough to tear the fibrous hips to get at the seeds within. There are many different hawthorns to be found in London’s gardens but few are more striking than the three hundred year old wild veterans to be found in Richmond park. The twining stems, often with shrivelled leaves of both black and white bryony, also now get noticed more in hedgerows. Black bryony has heart-shaped leaves with a high gloss whereas white bryony has leaves with five distinct lobes.

They are called black and white on account of the colour of their roots rather than their fruits, both of which are red; those on black bryony being a vivid shiny red and those of white bryony being pinkish red and dull. Although these hanging clusters of succulent-looking berries ask to be picked, they are both poisonous. Fifteen berries of black bryony have been known to kill a child and an even smaller amount of white bryony berries can do the same. Both cause a burning sensation in the mouth shortly after they are eaten. White bryony may then cause the tongue and oesophagus to swell so much that breathing gets restricted but black bryony has even been known to cause paralysis in livestock.

Even so, cattle have been known to break down fences to get at these berries which they seem to get addicted to. Herbalists at one time used them to “cleanse filthy sores” and “griefs of the head”. Caesar Augustus was even said to have worn a wreath of bryony to protect him from being hit by lightning during thunderstorms. Another common climber we now see with poisonous red berries in hedgerows is bittersweet Solanum dulcamara.

These berries, once eaten, cause no immediate symptoms but after a short delay bring on dizziness, drowsiness and trembling. A close relation, black nightshade Solanum nigrum which is more often seen in gardens, has small black berries which are harmless when eaten ripe but can cause delirium if consumed unripe.

The berries of yet another hedgerow climber, honeysuckle, are also now ripe. These tend to be naturally sticky but are still a favourite food of marsh tits which are sometimes seen to hover whilst collecting them.

Sloe berries with their icing sugar bloom are also ripening in hedgerows. They tend not to be picked till after the first frost when they are said to make better gin. In woods the bright vermillion berries of Lords and Ladies Arum maculatum are now a common sight. This strange looking plant with its warm to the touch flowers has excited man’s imagination for so many centuries it has over one hundred different country names. The present one is relatively recent, having only been used since the seventeenth century. Another common one, Cuckoo pint, is likely to be Anglo Saxon.

Pharmacists used to boil the berries in rose oil to make ear drops. Once again this most inviting of berries can cause the mouth to burn before alarming red spots develop over the rest of the body. Fortunately the soreness in the mouth happens so quickly that most people don’t eat enough to get the spots. A wide range of fruits can be seen this month just walking London’s streets and visiting its plant collections. For wild fruits a walk along the North Downs way can always be recommended.