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Old 05-10-2008, 08:40 PM posted to aus.gardens
Richard Wright Richard Wright is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 70
Default Question about the weed Pampas Lily-of-the-Valley

I have a question about the edibility of the fruit of Pampas
Lily-of-the-Valley (Salpichroa origanifolia).

For general illustrations and description see:

http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/DPI/Vro/vr...as_lily_valley

Understandably most of the entries produced by Googling have the
Exterminate! Exterminate! theme of the Daleks.

I want to know whether I can eat the berries before exterminating.

W.T. Parsons and E.G. Cuthbertson in their Noxious Weeds of Austgralia
(2001) state that: ""The fruit is sometimes used in preserves and is
sold in the markets of Argentina and Paraguay for this purpose."

Unfortunately I have an earlier edition of this book (by Parsons
alone), which does not describe Salpichroa.

I have looked at the Google scan of the 2001 edition. 'Further
Reading' for this entry is on page 609, which is not included in the
Google scan.

Can somebody tell me whether the further reading on p.609 points to an
entry on edibility?