Gransnet forums

Chat

Is this fruit edible, please?

(115 Posts)
oldgoat Wed 26-Aug-20 10:41:40

I really enjoy making preserves from foraged fruit. Can anybody, please, tell me the name of this fruit which is growing wild nearby, and is it edible? It has a rough surface and the leaves look a bit like a chestnut.

Callistemon Wed 26-Aug-20 11:39:24

If it looks like a chestnut it may well be.
It's hard to tell from the leaves but are they palmate with 5 - 7 leaves?

Horse chestnuts are mildly poisonous to humans.

Whitewavemark2 Wed 26-Aug-20 11:41:04

Walnut?

EllanVannin Wed 26-Aug-20 12:15:14

It looks like it might have a grub or two inside it grin
Not a walnut or chestnut.
Break one and look at the inside.

jenpax Wed 26-Aug-20 12:20:38

Try the plant identifier app you can down load on a smart phone, you just take a picture and it will tell you what the plant is

geekesse Wed 26-Aug-20 12:26:31

Yes, do what EllanVannin suggests. If it’s a walnut, it will be immediately obvious. It doesn’t look like the sweet chestnuts I used to have in my garden - they were spiky enough to need gardening gloves to handle, but they may be a different variety.

EllanVannin Wed 26-Aug-20 12:28:12

They look for all the world like Lychees, except for the colour.

travelsafar Wed 26-Aug-20 12:58:50

I thought it was a conker!!! grin

felice Wed 26-Aug-20 13:02:35

They could be Cob Nuts, very popular here, and very tasty. There are lots of trees in the road my doctors surgery is in and you see people collecting them when they fall.

oldgoat Wed 26-Aug-20 13:26:27

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I'm off out with the dog soon so will pick one and cut it open.

BlueBelle Wed 26-Aug-20 14:09:59

ellenvannin my first thought was lychee then I thought no it’s U.K. can’t be

Callistemon Wed 26-Aug-20 14:50:38

I don't think they're cobnuts, which are in fact hazelnuts. We have hazel trees in the garden and the squirrel deposits the leftovers all around and buried his winter supply; they have a smooth husk.

Callistemon Wed 26-Aug-20 14:52:12

oldgoat

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I'm off out with the dog soon so will pick one and cut it open.

Let us know; if it's a sweet achestnut you could have a good supply for winter.

Callistemon Wed 26-Aug-20 14:55:42

The fruit looks a bit like a lychee but the leaves are quite different. The leaves of a lychee tree are elongated and glossy green.

shysal Wed 26-Aug-20 16:10:15

They look like conkers to me!

Callistemon Wed 26-Aug-20 16:14:17

I think they are too!

oldgoat Wed 26-Aug-20 16:28:52

They are not spiky enough for conkers, and they are brown, too. The outside of cockers is green.
I think they are going to be walnuts, but have to get help to pick one because I am vertically challenged

Callistemon Wed 26-Aug-20 16:34:01

If you can break into one they would be easily identifiable.

There's a tree near us but it's in someone's garden; I can't see it from here unfortunately.

JuliaM Wed 26-Aug-20 16:41:58

If it is a Walnut, you will need gloves on to peel it, as the thick husk gives off a sap that stains your hands the same colour as Nicotine does!

Chewbacca Wed 26-Aug-20 16:48:26

Definitely not cob nuts. I've got a bag of them that I collected yesterday and they're nothing like the photo. Like Whitewave, I wondered if they could be walnuts.

MaizieD Wed 26-Aug-20 17:23:47

No, they're definitely not walnuts. We had a tree in our garden when I was a child**. Walnut husks are smooth and green. The leaves are completely different, too.

I tried reverse searching on the photo but it didn't come up with anything remotely like it!

(**I really, really miss that walnut tree. Fresh walnuts are delicious. Wish I'd planted one where I am 20 years ago. We'd be swimming in walnuts by now grin )

MaizieD Wed 26-Aug-20 17:25:27

I'm all agog for when you can get one down and open it up for us to have a look at, oldgoat...

Callistemon Wed 26-Aug-20 17:30:06

I tried reverse searching on the photo but it didn't come up with anything remotely like it!
How did you do that, MaizieD?

I still think they're conkers or sweet chestnuts. They will still be immature.

Callistemon Wed 26-Aug-20 17:32:33

Horse chestnuts are less prickly than sweet chestnuts.

EllanVannin Wed 26-Aug-20 17:42:27

There are different types of lychee, which are grown in this country quite successfully----probably not in the cooler NW where I am, but definitely South.