"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:44:48 -0700 (PDT), NT
wrote:

Hi

I'm new here, and I hope I can ask about the identity of 4 plants I've
found in garden, which might well turn out to be quite handy to keep,
depending what they are. Basically I'm looking for food bearing
species.

First things first: don't use sites with sex ads thrown in -- not to
be trusted.

pointy red berries, which I suspect are toxic:
http://tinypic.com/r/29g2693/7

Bittersweet, or Woody Nightshade. Solanum dulcamara. Toxic.

red berries with a roughish end, about quarter inch across - they
ripen red
http://tinypic.com/r/i3e2zb/7

The haws which give hawthorn its name. Not much to eat on them, as the
seed is relatively big, and the flesh is tasteless. I don't think
they're toxic, buit I did once read a suggestion that they were
suspect.

They make really good wine, so they are probably safe.
I once found about how good the wine they made was when visiting a friend's
house. We were all self-sufficiency aspiring, goatkeeping people in a nice
local club in the 80's.
"Try our hawthorn wine" they said. So we did. It was nice, so they gave
me another glass, and then asked if I wanted to try another home made wine
they'd made from tea. I said, Ok as I felt fine and I was not driving.
That was very nice too. As was the next glass of hawthorn. Suddenly I was
really drunk.
My husband managed to drive us home. He'd had two glasses of the hawthorn
wine and realised "stop. NOW"
I doubt he would have passed the breath test.
So, hawthorn berries are not toxic. But they can give you a bad headache
the next day ;-)

Tina