On 6/27/2012 2:33 PM, BorderCollie wrote:
Hello everyone,

First time here and also first year of really getting interested in
growing things, mostly edible things

In my garden I have a tree which I just noticed has a profusion of
little purple berries, it has spiky leaves a bit like holly. I'm trying
to find out if they are edible. The strange thing is the berries all
have a little 'spike' on the opposite end to the stem. It's not a spike
but a long thin bit of berry

Does anyone know what it could be?

Martin


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Purple berries are pretty common but on a spiky plant Mahonia comes to mind:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahonia

Mahonia japonica (or some similar hybrid) is grown around here as an
ornamental but thanks to birds the seeds get scattered widely and finding
them growing randomly in woods and along roads is pretty common. Wikipedia
says that the berries are edible "though with a very sharp flavor" but I've
not known anybody not a bird to eat them.