I am interested in everyone’s experiences with edible viburnums. Which taste the best? Are there any evergreen edible species? Do any species tolerate drought/heat better than others? Is anyone currently doing breeding work for edibility?
Thanks for your help!
The only breeding I’m familiar is folks like JPN, Bailey’s, Ball…breeding for better looks in a landscape.
Some ‘selections’ of some have been made…but you can do that among feral plants.
Around here theres a fair bit of cassinoides and lantanoides. Ive eaten them both some.
Cassinoides isnt great- its dry, seedy, and a bit puckery- but it is edible and isn’t terrible. Its fairly productive though, and the fruits ripen all at once, which is nice.Some people do make use of it. Forager Sam Thayer speaks reasonably highly of it. Its quite a lovely bush too.
Lantanoides is tastier and quite a beautiful bush in its own right. The fruit is fairly fleshy, with a sweet rich date-esque flavor. Its pretty good as is, though its a lot pickier about where it grows than many Viburnums in my observation. The biggest hangup in terms of edibility is the low productivity and the fact that only a couple of fruits ripen at a time. That combined with the fact that its very popular with critters of all kinds makes it pretty hard going on the harvesting end. Ive meant to get some going here for years, mostly just because I love the bush. Its diminutive too and easy to tuck somewhere, especially since it loves shade. My 1/2 hearted efforts have failed to date.
Some people really like trilobum. Most of those people are Russian, from what I gather. I want to like it, but to me it tastes good for a second and then finishes with an off putting flavor that Id liken to battery acid. Its easy to grow, almost too easy. Ive not tried processing the fruit, which could make a big difference I suppose. The best way Ive had them is dried- they hang all winter sometimes and Ive nibbled them in spring. Theyre a decent ringer for a dried cranberry at that point and the bad flavor is gone.
Probably the best most promising Viburnum Ive tasted was a specimen of lentago that I found riddled with ripe fruit on the campus of UMassAmherst years back. Im guessing its some selection or cultivar, though probably not bred per se. It was almost like a combination of cassinoides and lantanoides with the best features of each. Ive not eaten wild lentago, so I dont know how typical it was of them. The fruits had quite a bit more flesh than cassinoides and with a better flavor and texture. That and they formed big clusters that ripened at once. I have a bunch of seedlings from that bush that are nearly ready to plant out. They needed double stratification and took a few years to really get going, but now theyre at the stage where theyre ready to pop. Lentago is also a beautiful and distinctive tree. It has probably the coolest terminal buds of any tree you’ll ever encounter. Thats not usually an atribute most would ever consider salient, yet when you see it growing it really gives the bush a cool distinctive appearance.
There may be some interesting hybrids out there. Im naive to them if so, and any would be breeders have surely focused on the not insubstantial ornamental appeal.
The rusty blackhaw viburnum that we have growing here in Central texas is quite tasty. It doesn’t produce big drupes and the seed is quite large, but definitely worth sampling, and a beautiful tree.
Its rudifulum. I believe that’s the spelling.
I looked up Viburnum lentago after reading your post. I have to say the fruit does look very appetizing which is sometimes the difference between getting used or not (it helps when it calls to you). There seem to be a lot of foraging videos when I search for the species so the unimproved wild form may be reasonably worthwhile. All the nursery websites that are listing it among their offerings do not seem to be offering any particular selection, but just the straight species so what you tasted was probably representative of the wild form.
I just looked up Viburnum lentago on GRIN-Global to see if the USDA has been collecting it and they had 53 accessions! Of those, only 11 are listed as “Historic,” so 42 of them are still active in the collection. The collection is maintained at the National Arboretum in New York so it would be amazing if one of our New York members could check it out and see what stands out as worthy of attention. Seeds could be collected from the best specimens for further selection work or propagated clonally (most viburnums seem to do well from softwood cuttings in summer).
Going down the rabbit hole, I found a couple of named selections of Viburnum trilobum that seem to be superior for fruit qualities.
V. trilobum ‘Andrews’ - selected for larger fruit size, higher pectin content and reduced bush size
https://www.classicviburnums.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/7224/index.htm
V. trilobum ‘Wentworth’ - selected for early ripening and heavy fruit set
https://www.classicviburnums.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/7233/index.htm
Here, it’s not much…not as good as aronia berries in taste, and very sparse fruit.
I have Andrews , Phillips, and Redwing. Only Phillips has put on a couple fruits so far for me. I also have several seedling trilobum viburnum.
How do you rate the aesthetic vibe of Redwing® (the marketing name for ‘J. N. Select’)? I’ve seen a lot of pictures, but they generally aren’t labeled as to whether they are depicting it in the fall or in the spring so I can’t gauge how intense its red spring color is.
Hmmm…I think it’s in a 1.5 gallon pot. It has some color in spring, but only the new leaves as older ones turn ‘regular green’. I don’t recall noticing in fall…but if it had been really eye-catching I’d probably have noticed.
Phillips seem to get fireblight or some disease of those symptoms…I’ve lost some. Andrews is in-ground, but has been clipped to ground twice now to encourage good growth (in a rather poor planting spot, actually, in full sun and poor soil)…there are 15 of them being used as a hedge.
I had posted links above to some Viburnum selections from the nursery called “Classic Viburnums,” and I just called them a couple days ago to order some (they handle orders manually and not via an online form). I was happy that they had a few I wanted in stock, but they informed me that due to their age this will be the last year they operate their nursery. They have a massive collection spanning both edible and ornamental Viburnum selections, but you have to call to confirm which ones are currently available (they do ship).
I don’t know if there will ever be another nursery in the US with such a large selection from this genus, so if you’re interested in getting anything from them, please contact them to make your purchase sooner than later. They don’t list prices online, but when I called, every variety I asked about was $15, so that will probably apply to most of what they have available.
https://www.classicviburnums.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.main/index.htm
I’ve been looking for a source for something like this for the past four years or so, thanks for sharing. It’s a pretty impressive collection. It’s disheartening that they are closing shop. Hopefully they have a succession plan in place…
Thanks for the update. I thought maybe Gary Ladman had croaked already. Had not responded to a couple emails over the past year.
No succession plan is in place based on our conversation.
He did not respond to my email a couple weeks ago, so a couple days ago I tried calling and he answered. I get the impression that calling is currently the best way to contact him. As far as what’s currently available, he’s got a hand written list that he is using. I don’t want to send a bunch of people his way and overwhelm him, but at the same time, it might be nice for him if he can sell off as much of his remaining stock as possible before officially shutting down.
Not listed on his website was a yellow fruited selection of Viburnum trilobum which he just started growing last year and may have a couple of extras left to sell.
Great info! I believe @alan has also said that he’s found lentago (nannyberry) to be the best eating.
The fact that cassinoides is known as “wild raisin” suggests that it was seen as being most palatable when dried. Your observation suggest that the same may be true for trilobum.
Three years ago I placed a large order…wholesale order over $300…used arrowwood for a nice hedge, among other content I got from them. Small plants for the most part. But very cost effective.
I’ll just add that I like the wild Alaska V. edule (also ranges PNW - Minnesota or so but I only know from AK), as I mentioned in another thread (with reasons which may differ from those of others).
