I’m back in DC after taking part in my beautiful friend’s beautiful wedding. Congratulations to Cailin and Jim! When I wasn’t at the festivities, I took myself on a little tour of various green spaces in Manhattan. I’ll write about some of them in the coming days. But first up, I am really hoping that someone out there will be able to identify this perplexing fruit I saw in a little West Village shade garden:
They look like cherries, but they’re decidedly oblong rather than spherical. Like cherries, they appear to get redder and softer as they ripen. The pit is also oblong, almost like a slivered almond. The leaves weren’t the same as a cherry tree, though – they weren’t glossy, and they had smooth edges instead of toothed. So, does anyone know what this fruit tree is? Is the fruit edible, or is this more of an ornamental tree?
Looks like some type of Eastern dogwood.
I agree with Marilyn and vote for Cornelian cherry, Cornus mas, which is a common ornamental because it’s a very early bloomer. The fruits are supposed to be edible but I’ve never tried them.
Very interesting! If it IS a Cornelian Cherry dogwood, here is a recipe for Cornelian Cherry marmalade. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2_XiQzKi0Wo/Rqnl5T6x4MI/AAAAAAAAASs/JNRQDZLL9t0/s400/aaron%2B014.jpg&imgrefurl=http://almostturkish.blogspot.com/2007/07/cornelian-cherry-marrmalade-kzlck.html&usg=__XOY900_Nk3fpjCSbIF1IP9vuM6k=&h=400&w=300&sz=22&hl=en&start=11&sig2=6KFvpAJ3jfNbOrMn3N3ALw&um=1&tbnid=JbFIdF_nXIZvpM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=93&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcornelian%2Bcherry%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1CHMI_enDE300US303%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=GFCASp6jF5S4tAPM17TvCg
Indeed, all my googling shows that this was indeed a Cornelian Cherry. Very cool. Thanks, all!
In Albania, the seeds are called thana. We make brandy, called raki (aswell as most of the Balkans). The fruit is very edible and delicious when ripe. I just got interested in this plant after my visit to albania and finally found it thanks to your blog. Cheers!
they are called thana and they are edible.
Hi, I am looking for the name of a fruit that is very, very close to this one in looks, and it is a very common landscaping shrub, and hedge in southern California. It ripens, seemingly year round, but maybe that’s a false observation. But for sure a couple of months ago, in Novermber december there was fruit on all the shurbs in my area.
What is particularly prominent and memorable about the fruit I am looking for is that it has a and MILKY juice inside it. The pulp is red, the skin just like an apple, red and shiny and edible. The seeds are multiple in a start pattern and take up most of the fruit, so there is not a lot of pulp to eat.
Another prominent feature of my fruit is the point on the bottom which I do not see in this fruit. Also, I do not recollect such a large leaf, since it is usually in the form of a hedge row, usually from knee high to overhead high. They CAN be grown as a tree up to like 12 feet high or so, as was the one in my yard growing up. Hardly anybody ever eats this fruit probably because it is small, seedy, bitter, semi-sweet and tangy. But I like it. My dad always told me they were dogwood berries, but on the internet I have not seen a single picture yet of the fruit and it definitely does NOT look at all like other pictures of dogwood berries I have seen.
thana is an albanian fruit and in albania there to much of them they are so much delicius
I believe the tree you talking about is a jujube tree
This is a Cornel-tree. Very popular in Bulgaria- Eastern Europe, Balkan Peninsula. The Bulgarian name of the fruit is Drenka, and the tree is called Dryan tree. Dryan is grounded in many Bulgarian traditions, as Surva, when on january 1st (New Year) the little kids make Survatchki (looks like a broom) and hit the elderly people on their backs for good health, or to be strong as a dryan tree. See the nutrition qualities here:
http://nedyalkovi.com/cornel_fruits.html