sept 4 2012
They taste sweet at first and then there is this burst...of soapberry taste
and i have been using them to do dishes, and they actually work quite well
female flowers ( the ones producing berries)
Sheperdia canadenssis
Elaeagnaceae oleaster family
photo taken on the hill here in Mendenhall subdivision
May 12 2012
It is blooming now, It's berries are bright red
I do not pick the berries they are very tart, some people do make indian icecream with them. i do not know anybody who likes it.
Yet to nibble on one berry is kind of refreshing, i will describe the taste in the fall when actually nibbling
Shepherdia named after English botanist, W. Shepherd, 1764-1836
and soapberry because this berry contains saponin.
male flowers
a close up from the flower on May 27 2012,
update july 2016, as i have many soapberry bushes in the yard, and use them for doing dishes, I learn that they are
dioecious yet i wonder in what way, because, the same plant will one year produce fruits and other years not and the other way around. The one closest to the house around the old swing poplar, hardly ever has fruit but does so , lots, this year ( 2016)