can anybody identify this berry?

Food, Nutrition and Agriculture
butterbean
Posts: 94
Joined: Fri Nov 29, 2013 3:29 pm

can anybody identify this berry?

Post by butterbean »

IMG_2221.JPG
can anybody help identify this berry/currant.
our friends have lived where they are for 4 years, and we were round there for a bbq today and i roamed there garden and noticed this tree down the bottom that was so full of these berries, i couldnt believe how many were on there, i asked what they were and they didnt even realise they were on there nevermind what sort they were. the fruit looks really ripe and i would love to take it all, as theyve said i can have as much as i want. but im not stupid enough to consider trying something i know nothing about, i was tempted on doing the old trick of rub on the skin for and leave for a while, then on the lips for a while but thought if i could find somebody who knew what it was to get me started that would be easier.

cheers
success leads to complacency, complacency leads to failure. Only the Paranoid survive!!
featherstick
Posts: 1124
Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:09 pm

Re: can anybody identify this berry?

Post by featherstick »

Looks very much like a laurel. Highly toxic.
preppingsu

Re: can anybody identify this berry?

Post by preppingsu »

Try to identify the tree first.
The leaves look shiny so possibly it is an evergreen.

Whatever you do, do not try them! You need to know what they are.
preppingsu

Re: can anybody identify this berry?

Post by preppingsu »

butterbean
Posts: 94
Joined: Fri Nov 29, 2013 3:29 pm

Re: can anybody identify this berry?

Post by butterbean »

Brilliant. Cheers.

I've just had a google and checked that link and it definitely looks like it's that.

I shall have to tell them as they have 2 young kids and have started playing in the garden a lot now they're big enough

Thanks again.

I knew I could rely on this site for help. Even my wife said ask the prepper friends
success leads to complacency, complacency leads to failure. Only the Paranoid survive!!
Bosworth
Posts: 266
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2013 11:03 pm

Re: can anybody identify this berry?

Post by Bosworth »

Definitely Laurel. Not life threatening, but likely to cause an upset tummy and make them feel miserable for a day or two.

I've got 3 young kids myself and, personally speaking, I'd chop it down and plant something edible...
Arzosah
Posts: 6323
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: can anybody identify this berry?

Post by Arzosah »

Yep, me too - laurel. People use it as a hedging plant round me nowadays, I suppose its one step better than leylandii, but its mostly pretty useless, and toxic, whereas at least leylandii aren't toxic. What I *have* noticed is that the bees seem to love the berries - but there's lots of more useful plants that bees also love.

If the laurel is yours, you have to keep cutting it back too - there's a hedge nearby thats doubled in height in 5 years.
jansman
Posts: 13625
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: can anybody identify this berry?

Post by jansman »

Same again. Laurel.
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butterbean
Posts: 94
Joined: Fri Nov 29, 2013 3:29 pm

Re: can anybody identify this berry?

Post by butterbean »

thanks for all the replies, i told my mate today about it and hes decided to play it safe and have it down.
theres no chance he will plant anything in its place though.

which is a shame, his garden his huge and could take on so much stuff if he could be bothered
success leads to complacency, complacency leads to failure. Only the Paranoid survive!!
featherstick
Posts: 1124
Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:09 pm

Re: can anybody identify this berry?

Post by featherstick »

Not totally useless. Greek soothsayers and oracles used to breathe a smoke of the dried leaves to help them enter a trance when they needed to prophesy : )