Disaster Bay, Green Cape. © JPM, 2023. Australia is a huge island-continent with far more places to go than can possibly be accomplished in any one lifetime. Following on from an exploratory week in Perth, Western Australia, my wife and I used a second week of annual leave this year to explore the far south coast of our current home state, New South Wales.
We had been as far south on the NSW coast as Bateman’s Bay a few years earlier, and well before, alas, my interest in wild food foraging had kicked in. This time we went further to Narooma, Bega, Eden and Green Cape. It was a veritable treasure-trove of discovery! Not including the 8 unidentified plants and two mushrooms I am still pondering over, I found more than 35 other edible plants, most native, some not, growing in this productive and beautiful region over my four day stay. Let’s see what I got!
Berry saltbush (Rhagodia candolleana) occurs in coastal areas of the east. The fruit is edible but tends to be bitter; the foliage can be boiled or steamed and eaten as greens. © JPM, 2023. Cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana), also known as groundberry in the US, is an introduced weedy species. I found several stands of it in multiple locations, and given the number of discarded, papery calyxes the locals knew about them too! Fruit is ripe when it falls to the ground, or else leave fruit a few days to ripen after picking from the plant once the calyx turns yellow. © JPM, 2023. Sedges (Lepidosperma gladiatum, top, and Lomandra longifolia, bottom) are common forage on the east coast: starchy white leaf bases are plentiful and seeds can be ground into a very tasty flour. Note the difference in leaf tips and seeds between these otherwise similar plants. © JPM, 2023.
Sea rocket (Cakile maritima & C. edentula) is another introduced weed found on many temperate and subtropical beaches around Australia. One of the cruciferous vegetables because of its 4-petalled 'cross' (crucifix) flowers, it has a pungeant, hot flavour reminiscent of wasabi or horseradish. © JPM, 2023. Samphire or glasswort (Sarcocornia quinqueflora) made another appearance, much to my delight. © JPM, 2023. While it may be well past wattleseed season, several common species (Acacia decurrens, left; Acacia longifolia sub. sophorae, centre and right) ooze edible gum year-round. It tends to be chewy but bland, although some species are nutty or sweet. Dark gums are bitter, lighter-coloured sap like these are rather palatable. © JPM, 2023. Boobialla (Myoporum boninense, pictured) is a common coastal and inland plant with multiple species in the genus, including the arid-region western boobialla (Myoporum montanum). Tim Low said they should be left to the birds, but I found these fruits at Tathra headland to be pleasant, tasting faintly like lilly pilly with peppery overtones. © JPM, 2023. Some usual suspects found across the country: sea celery (Apium prostratum, top left); purslane (Portulaca oleracea, top right); dock (Rumex obtusifolius, bottom left) and wood sorrel or sour sop (Oxalis pes-caprae, bottom right) growing happily in various locations. © JPM, 2023. Kangaroo apples (Solanum laciniatum, pictured) made an appearance at Boyd's Tower. Sadly the fruit was just coming on and was no-where near ripe. © JPM, 2023. Plantain (Plantago major, left; P. lanceolata, right) is a common forage plant across Australia's agricultural regions. The leaves are bitter, but made decent additions to salads and soups. Seeds and their husks can be used as a laxative, being equivalent to psyllium husks in products like Metamucil, and make a decent porridge on their own. © JPM, 2023. Probably my favourite and most dependable coastal forage, karkalla (Carpobrotus rossii) is fabulous eating, tasting somewhat between a salty fig and a strawberry. This is a fraction of what was available to me on this journey. © JPM, 2023. Blackberry nightshades (Solanum nigrum, top; S. americanum, bottom), regularly maligned as the 'deadly nightshade' were abundant after the wet summer this year. Unripe (green) berries are toxic and should not be eaten; black berries (glossy or matte) are edible. Some cultures in Africa and Asia (triple) boil the foliage for consumption as well. © JPM, 2023. I was extremely pleased to discover one of our native raspberries (Rubus moluccanus). *Delicious!* © JPM, 2023. I was incredibly surprised to find this tiny, round capsicum (Solanum pseudocapsicum - Credit: Ross) growing wild on a bush walk. © JPM, 2023. Wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum) is another of the cruciferous vegetables. It has very rough, spiky foliage and stems and can send up wads of 4-petalled flowers. The entire plant is edible, but the root is often pungeant and hot; some specimens I've harvested on Mt. Ainsley, Canberra, had big fat radishes. The best part is the flowers; these are delicious in salads, sandwiches or steamed like broccolli. © JPM, 2023. Scurvy weed (Commelina cyanea) is a pretty frequent weedy native. It was gleefully harvested by early colonists to combat scurvy, a task at which it still excels to this day. Note the pinkish stem-sheath on the leaf, which is hairy (centre photo, on right side) - this is an important feature distinguishing them from introduced (and white-flowered) Tradescantias. © JPM, 2023. Native nettles (Urtica incisa, pictured) can be utilised in much the same way as European ones (e.g. U. urens). Once boiled, the stinging hairs lose their power! © JPM, 2023. Finally, a massive stand of native grapes (Cissus hypoglauca, pictured)! I have reformed my view of this so-called bush tucker: these fruits were insipid, astringent and like Tim Low says, burned the back of the throat for some time. Apparently making wine of them does nothing to alleviate this. © JPM, 2023. The aptly-named fan flower (Scaevola calendulacea) does develop small, edible berries. Sadly not on this trip! The West-Australian maroon bush (Scaevola spinescens, not pictured) is another common native edible fan-flower. © JPM, 2023. Seablite (Suaeda australis) was once a common green used for pickles or as a boiled vegetable by early European colonists. It now sits unmolested in parks, beaches and other saline areas. © JPM, 2023. One of Australia's many saltbushes, the aptly named grey saltbush (Atriplex cinerea) is reasonably common along Australia's southern coastline. It is excellent stock fodder, and once boiled makes a good vegetable as well; an inland variety, old man saltbush (A. nummularia, not pictured) is used as an Australian dried herb. © JPM, 2023. Bungwall fern (Blechnum indicum, left) was once a staple food for aboriginal tribes the length of the east coast, its starchy edible rhizome being a favourite food item of that bygone era. Right, a native geebung (Persoonia pinifolia) was in bloom. © JPM, 2023. Sweet pittosporum, also known as native daphne, cheesewood and mock orange (Pittosporum undulatum) has fascinating, sticky, resinous seeds. These are generally considered inedible, but one desert species, weeping pittosporum (P. phylliraeoides), enjoyed the status of 'maybe edible' by some desert tribes. These tasted resinous and stuck to my teeth (I spat out the seeds). This tree is a serious weedy pest overseas in various places. © JPM, 2023. Another species of Pittosporum I could not identify in the field (Pittosporum revolutum - Credit: Ross). This one was short, shrubby, and had giant, colourful fruits at the branch tips. © JPM, 2023. A protected species, native cycads (Macrozamia communis, pictured) were once a major staple food for the First Nations. It is easy to see why - the cones are gigantic, the seeds plentiful and the plants can be put to flame to spur additional seeding. The seeds are very poisonous and must be leached in certain ways to remove the toxic principles. © JPM, 2023. Two items of prohibited forage. A blotched hyacinth orchid (Dipodium variegatum - Credit: Ross) with stunning flowers, left, and elsewhere a native tuberous lily, Golden Stars (Hypoxis sp.). I agree with Tim Low that these plants, while bearing edible tubers, are just too beautiful and protected to become dinner items any more. Certain orchid and lily tubers were once staple foods for many Australian First Nations prior to their demise by the introduction of grazing animals like sheep and cattle. © JPM, 2023. While I usually have merely a passing interest in flowers, I could not help include these beauties in this slideshow.
Three native flowers whose identities escape me, but identified thanks to Ross in the comments! Left, heath milkwort or matchheads (Comesperma ericinum); centre is hop bush (Goodenia ovata), right is still pending (suspected Coopernookia barbata but I disagree based on ALA photography of that species). © JPM, 2023. These were growing at the side of the highway from Bateman's Bay all the way to Eden; probably an introduced lily-turned-weed (Taiwan lily, Lilium formosanum - Credit: Ross). © JPM, 2023. My highlight of the trip, the beautiful common heath (Epacris impressa) jumped out of the low coastal scrub like candelabrum on scarlet steroids! I am unsure if this is a species that turns into edible berries, but many other species of Australian heath certainly do. © JPM, 2023. Last of all for this public journal are my unidentified bush foods. If you know any of these plants, drop a comment! Yes, I did apply my taste-testing procedure to some of these (but never swallowed any amount - the taste never got past the tongue). Even a moderately experienced bush food forager like me has to leave some things behind!
[Edit - a huge thank you to Ross for assisting the identification of many of these plants]
An exceedingly bitter and unpalatable beach creeper. Even if I find out what these are, I will never eat them again (Ross suggested Alyxia ruscifolia, I would like to refine that to Alyxia buxifolia due to the latter's southern range and the former's lack thereof). © JPM, 2023. Soft, juicy, dark-purple but toxic berries grow in abundance on this common Green Cape coastal shrub (Inkweed, Phytolacca octandra - Credit: Ross). American forager Green Deane has an article about preparing poisonous pokeweeds for the table. © JPM, 2023. See [HERE] for Green Deane’s instructions for preparing American pokeweed, (Phytolacca americana). It is uncertain if similar instructions may apply to inkweed, pictured above; TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Lemon grass, Gahnia or something else? (Black-seeded saw sedge, Gahnia melanocarpa - Credit: Ross). © JPM, 2023. A weed I did not attempt to try! Thornapple (Datura stramonium - Credit: Ross). © JPM, 2023. Somehow I do not think this vine is native woody pear (Xylomelum sp.). It is common milk vine (Marsdenia rostrata - Credit: Ross). © JPM, 2023. I could not quite tell if this was a proper marshmallow (Malva sp.) or something else, as it had no 'cheese wheel' fruit on it. Australian stork's-bill (Pelargonium australe - Credit: Ross). © JPM, 2023. Was this my first encounter with the geebung lookalike, tie bush (Wikstroemia indica)? But the leaves were too furry to be tie bush?! (Ross thinks this is Notelaea longifolia, the inedible 'native olive'). © JPM, 2023. While it had no fruit, the flowers were stunning, and promising that something tasty might follow. Sadly not! This is the rarer 5-petalled variant of the scentless rosewood (Synoum glandulosum - Credit: Ross). © JPM, 2023. This eucalypt-forest mushroom had white gills, potentially marking it as a deadly death cap (Amanita phalloides), but it was lacking the yellowish colour on the cap, and did not seem to 'hatch' out of an 'egg' like death caps do. (Likely a Macrolepiota sp. - Credit: Ross). © JPM, 2023. Ink caps, perhaps (Coprinus species)? I am an inexperienced wild mushroom forager so I leave all mushrooms I find during my travels alone, as the taste test rule for plants does not apply to mushrooms! © JPM, 2023. Thank you for joining me on my adventures. Stay tuned for new bush tucker and edible herb and weed entries coming soon!
Cheers,
JP.
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Foraging in the Garden of Eden
JP, here’s the IDs, in order from unnamed first plant photo onwards-
Solanum pseudocapsicum, Jerusalem Cherry
Pittosporum revolutum
Dipodium variegatum, a saprophytic orchid
Comesperma ericinum, Matchheads
Goodenia ovata, Hop Bush
Coopernookia barbata ( nice find)
Formosanum Lilies from Taiwan
Then your UNID species-
1. Alyxia buxifolia, Sea Box
2. Phytolacca octandra, Ink Weed
3. Gahnia melanocarpa, Black fruited saw sedge
4. Datura stramonium, Thornapple
5. Marsdenia rostrata
6. Pelargonium australe
7. Notolaea longifolia, native olive
8. Synoum glandulosum, scentless rosewood.
And the mushies
9. A likely Macrolepiota sp.
10. You’re on the money.
Cheers,
Ross
What a treasure trove! I have cape gooseberry and Atherton raspberry on my property. Absolutely deliciouss.