13-Sept Deadly and Delightful Berries

The berry is full of intensely sweet purple juice, but three can kill a child and between twenty and thirty an adult. Death comes after a period of excitement, hallucinations and possibly coma. Be that as it may, it still grows happily along the Thames and is still present in many of London’s parks and gardens. The reason it has probably avoided eradication is that a single bush is capable of producing up to four hundred berries, each of which may contain one hundred and fifty seeds. Birds love the berries and are probably responsible for dispersing it so successfully, along with a sixty per cent germination rate.

Equally dangerous and even more common are yew berries which now festoon churchyards. The seeds, which start off brown and turn purple, are set in a pink jelly-like bell from which each seed slightly protrudes. This seductive pink aril is harmless, but not so the seeds which have been known to stop the heart beating in less than five minutes.

Downland is a particularly good habitat to see a range of interesting fruits at this time of year. The multi-coloured wayfaring trees seen last month are now joined by the fruits of the guelder rose Viburnum opulus which sometimes look like clear coral-coloured glass beads.

There are also now large patches of blood-red stems starting to appear. These belong to our native dogwood Cornus sanguinea which is losing its leaves and revealing its small black berries. As in elder, these are held on brightly coloured stalks. The berries, although edible, are too bitter and astringent to be enjoyed. Another similar-looking bush seen on downs, also carrying black berries, is our native buckthorn Rhamnus carthaticus. In the past these were the purgative of choice even though their effect was more violent and painful than most other remedies. This doesn’t seem to trouble thrushes, blackbirds and great tits all of which appear to relish them. There is another buckthorn also with black berries which is usually much taller and eschews downland for acidic woods in our area.

This is the alder buckthorn Frangula alnus which is also a strong purgative, but this time it was the bark that was used and not the berries. Fieldfares seem to seek it out. At the edges of woods on downland wild privet Ligustrum vulgare usually goes unnoticed until now when its shiny black berries make it stand out more. Although so familiar in London’s gardens it is not well known that the berries of wild privet can kill children and even their juice can cause dermatitis.

For rarer, more unusual fruits it is worth visiting the gardens at Wisley, especially for the crab apple, rowan and whitebeam collections in the arboretum. The usual street crab apples with their eye catching fruits are present e.g. Malus ‘Golden Hornet’ (yellow), M. ‘John Downie’ (rose red) and M. ‘Van Eseltine’ (yellow and pink). Other rarer apples and their even rarer cultivars, some of which have persistent fruits lasting well into winter, include the Toringo crab apple M. sieboldii and Chinese crab apple e.g. M. spectabilis.

The Sorbus collection i.e. rowans and whitebeams is equally diverse. Both start off with green berries that usually turn either orange or scarlet. However, as there are over seventy different Sorbus species and then innumerable cultivars their berries can range from pearly white to carmine, rose pink and crimson. Some, such as Sorbus wilfordiana mix vivid fruit colour with vivid leaf colour. Others such as our own native wild service tree S. torminalis have much more muted speckled leather brown fruits. Whilst at Wisley it is also worth exploring the Viburnum collection and looking for a Solomon’s seal e.g. Polygonatum multiflorum.

The fruits of Solomon’s seal are usually inky blue, each with three distinctive grooves. They form small rows of delicate drooping clusters on the woodland floor. Other rare fruits to seek out include Actaea spicata, Holboellia latifolia, Sauromatum venosum and the uniquely ornamental strawberry pink fruits of the Japanese strawberry tree Cornus kousa. They can all be found at Wisley.