Page 51 - Edible Trees For Tucson

Yucca (Yucca elata)

Yucca is a native perennial shrub that can reach 30 feet
high. Soaptree yucca plants have either a basal rosette
or a rosette atop a trunk. The leaves have sharply
pointed tips and narrow white margins and are long,
green, narrowly linear, leathery,
and produce white fiber along
margins. Flowers of the soaptree
yucca are loosely clustered at the
tops of tall stalks. Gather young
flowers in spring and boil them to
remove bitterness. Use the cooked
flowers in soups, salads, and vegetable dishes.

Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus)

Blackberry vines are perennial with roots and crowns
persisting year to year. Aboveground, biennial canes
can be erect to trailing. They produce vegetative canes
the first year, fruit the second year,
and then die to the ground. There
are both crown-forming and
rhizome-forming types with
thorned and thornless varieties.
Blackberries may be eaten fresh,
frozen, or processed into juice, jams, jellies, dairy,
bakery, and cereal goods.
Gogi berry

(Lycium barbarum; L. chinense)
Goji berry shrubs are perennial woody plants in the
wolfberry family. Lycium barbarum is a deciduous
shrub that grows to 18 feet tall.
Lycium chinense is a smaller
shrub, growing to 6 feet tall.
Both species have a long history
of cultivation for food and
medicine. Fruit are scarlet to
orange-red berries, and mature
from August to October.
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