Hovenia dulcis....the raches on the Raisin tree are thickening

In just a month. They're going to be tasty!

Hovenia dulcis...it's time to harvest the swollen raches

I last photographed this just about a month ago. In the interim, the fruit has ripened and the raches have plumped up just like they were supposed to. The fruit themselves are dry; I could hear the seeds rattling around inside when I shifted the inflorescence to take the picture. I did try eating one of the "raisins" but it puckered me up. Maybe they aren't quite ready? I'll wait and watch them. Then I'll probably dry them and we'll give 'em a tasting. It is surely an odd looking anatomical construction.

Camellia fruits

Okay, I volunteered to do three walks through the Asian Collections this spring. One in early March, one early April, and I think the last in late April. There will be 8 weeks between the first and the last so that we'll see the barest beginnings and progress in two jumps to full blown spring. That's not the point though. I was at the computer today thinking about these walks and what to say about them when another one popped into my head. It doesn't rain but it pours. Next fall I'll do a walk highlighting the edible plants in the collection. We do have some interesting specimens: Jujube; Asian persimmons; Hovenia, the Raisin tree; Pseudocydonia, the huge fruited tree quince; a few species of sweet Chestnuts; and so forth. It'll be fun to trek through the collections in the fall with a theme to keep us in line.

Here's where the camellias come in; I was thumbing through Wilson's travels, the chapter on fruits and I wandered over into economic plants and there were the oil trees. I love the greasy fruits of sapindus, but they're too far to get to easily, the Tung Oil tree succumbed to the elements in its second winter, but we have camellias! So I went out and had a look.

Hovenia dulcis, the Raisin Tree. I've been waiting for this to fruit for four years

since I came to the Asian Collections actually. USNA 72460-H, it's a NACPEC collection from Shanxi in 2002. I know the story of this odd edible "fruit" and I've eaten them, but never collected the fruit. As the fruit ripens, the peduncles (I don't know the plural of rachis...rachises?)  swell up like little knobby sausages and when dried are eaten like raisins. I'd say they taste about as much like raisins as jujubes do dates. I like them though, and I'm looking forward to tasting some "home grown".