Your erudition on this topic really impresses me! 
Yes, Podophyllum peltatum is available definitely. That is the species native/available in your area of the United States?
Is the flesh easy to separate from the seeds in your mouth? Sorry, I ask too many questions… But now I am very curious to try these fruits
Thank you! I just looked up what erudition meant, never heard of it before 
Nice! Yup that’s the only species I have because I foraged for it & thus the only one I have personal experience with. I’m too excited to try other species & cross them all together into an introgressed hybrid swarm, then select out the best tasting, best yielding, most adpatable plants.
No need to apologize, keep em questions coming , answering question is also another way for me to learn too!
Flesh is easy to separate from the seeds. Basically you pick a fully ripe mayapple, tear it open in half, suck the pulp, spit out the seeds & discard the skin.
Of course you can spit out the seeds onto a plastic tray for them to dry on or a table. The pulp doesn’t adhear to the seed like Cucumber, Kiwano, Tomatoes & other “wet seeds” that come with seed gels.
I also did a video on Mayapples with my bro
This is a very exciting idea! Please keep us updated on any progress with this project @Professor_Porcupine
Will do, but most of the progress will be research related until I get land to grow them on or until I get different species.
Are you also growing mayapples?
Yes, I love speaking to people who know a lot about niche or very little known topics. A hidden gem… Not too many people on our planet have such an extensive knowledge on these plants as you, I think.
Love your video lol, the ninja is your brother? Foraging ninja is new to me!
@Professor_Porcupine I don’t, no. They’re not native here, and I’ve read that they can be invasive. I’m still interested in the project!
Likewise! It’s how we continue to learn every day.
Indeed! Forums is where it’s at, I’ve learned so much by joining here.
Thank you! My Ninja brother doesn’t do much foraging (More of a Fitness Guy with Artistic/Crafts skills), most of the info he learned from me but if it weren’t for him showing me the first wild edible I learned, the mulberry, I would’ve never went down the wild edibles learning adventure to begin with. That Mulberry Tree is like a gateway drug for wild edibles, it makes it click in your brain that food actually does grow wild.
I am very blessed to have my brother, I wouldn’t have became who I am today without him.
@WildApple23 No worries. Mayapples aren’t that Savage yet to be “Invasive”. I hoping I can breed them to be more “invasive” so there’s food for everyone, Johnny Mayapple seed style 
! I want my crops to thrive on neglect. If I don’t, there’s risk Climate Change will cause species extinction of many Mayapple species.
I have some big patches of wilds that grow in my woods. Never tried eating one.
Getting in the woods here in May… you may get eaten yourself by ticks and chiggars.
I know how to dress and spray for that… but not sure if a mayapple would be worth it.
So… what so they actually taste like ?
How do you know when they are ripe ?
Thanks
TNHunter
Per the top of the thread:
Here’s what unripe Mayapples look like (Green, Firm & Taste Nasty). These unripe Fruits can be picked green (At just the first sign of whitening) to ripen off vine just like with Tomatoes, thus ensuring yield by beating the animals to it. This is how I ate ~40 Mayapple fruits when most foragers are lucky to even get 1, all I had to do was wait till they turn yellow
Pineapple x Sweet Tropical Passionfruit Flavor
And weird explorer https://youtu.be/0vl8h0dN0e0?feature=shared
If you find a really tasty one (or anyone) save the seeds
Most wild patches are extremely unproductive and often drop the fruits long before they are ripe. And the ripe ones are almost instantly eaten by rodents. I’ve looked for years in the many patches in my family’s woods and never found one
The very rare productive ones people have found and propagated MIGHT be worth the time but I have my doubts they would be worth it without extensive breeding
Wow! Nice. Seeing flowers is a good sign! Hopefully they got Pollinated well. Was the are you found them in somewhat sunny (Or at least partially sunny)? Mayapples will not fruit well (If at all) in thick shade.
You have got to try one, especially if you love Pineapple, Pasionfruit and any other Sweet Tropical tasting fruits.
Oh yea… don’t bother going in May, Mayapples only flower in May. Going in May is only good to scout a location if there’s potential for fruit due to presence of flowers.
In my area in Maryland, they Ripen in Early August however I don’t pick them in Early August because animals will be beat me to them (Almost everytime). So I outsmart them by harvesting fruit in Late July while they’re still green & Unripe but starting to show signs of color change with a Whitening/Yellowing color Change from Unripe Green. I harvest about like ~40 Unripe Fruits so they can ripen at home away from animals. They ripen much like Tomatoes that reached full size & start changing color.
Since your in Tennessee right? Your Mayapples will probably start to Ripen in Late August too so Arrive to that location in Late July before fruits fully ripen so you can harvest them to ripen “Off-The-Vine” exactly like with Tomatoes. Check Inaturalist around your area to get a better idea when your local Mayapples ripen.
Mayapples are definitely worth it! If you find a really good patch & beat the animals to it by harvesting unripe fruits to ripen at home. Save as many seeds as you can so you can grow Mayapples closer to home & not have to venture out so far.
If you find some seeds of a really good patch, I’d happily trade you for them (Maybe we can trade other seeds too!).
Fruit Pulp taste like a Tropical fruit, Sweet Pineapple x Passionfruit flavor. Pulp is the only part you want to eat, spit out the seeds to save for planting. Discard the skin, it’s not edible.
That being said if you by accidentally swallow a seed, it will pass thru just fine (Just like the accidental cherry pit). The important thing is to not crush the seed, otherwise you’ll taste a strong bitter flavor which is toxic.
If you byaccidently swallow the skin of fully ripe fruit, don’t be scared as a lil is unlikely to cause much harm but don’t test by going out of your way to eat the skin. It’s not edible.
@zone7a sums up my info well. Fully ripe fruit are fully yellow, softish (Thus easily tear-able with your fingers) & give off a very sweet tropical fruity smell. Sometimes fully ripe fruit even falls off the plant to hide in the leaf pile/mulch (but more often an Animal has already ate it).
Hard firm green fruit are not ripe & those just starting to show color chnage will ripen off vine at home.
I bet this is because the plants are growing in a shady spot. The only good patches that yeilded fruit have always been in sunny to partially sunny areas. Plants need sun to produce fruit well.
If any fruits form, harvest the green unripe ones that are just starting to show color change to ripen off home like you would unripe tomatoes.
The “wild” ones are worth it even without any breeding work however I doubgt the mayapples had zero Breeding Work. It’s almost certain the Native Americans Bred/Cultivated/Selected mayapples for bigger & better tasting fruit. There’s a good chance with Mayapples being perennial that at least a semi-domesticated/wild patch is still alive (or the genes thereof) somewhere in the wild.
Many Eastern Agriculture Complex Crops were annuals, thus went extinct because they easily revert back to wild forms without human selection. Perennial plants also will eventually revert back but will take much longer.
This may explain why some Wild Pawpaws & Mayapples have much better & bigger tasting fruits than other specimens. It’s very likely they had some human selection at one point or another in their evolutionary history. I mean why else are Mayapples & Pawpaws so widespread for a “Native” species?
As a wild forage plant? Maybe. It’s a question of space.
One fruit per square foot (an EXTREMELY productive self fertile one in full sun totally protected from animals) is still nothing compared to any domesticated fruit tree
So if you want one taste of a good tasting fruit fine, but the fact that they only produce one or two fruits per plant makes it really hard to justify when something like a golden berry (which have tropical notes too) will produce a dozen fruit per square foot, if they produced at a time where you couldn’t get other fruits then it might have a place but they don’t
Now, if you plant them under your fruit trees then you won’t be wasting any space with them. You’ll be more likely to notice the fruit and get it before the animals do while not designating any space for them that isn’t still being used at full capacity by your fruit trees.
I see them as an under utilized understory plant, potentially similar to goumi in that respect, and I plan to trial them underneath my fruit trees. I’ll report back on results
I’m only speaking strictly flavor perspective. It has a LOT of work to do if it wants to be a Legendary crop with high yield & good tasting fruits (Like 300+ decent sized fruits per year at least).
Mayapples are pretty much animal proof because they don’t eat unripe fruit (Which is what you harvest to store & home to ripen whenever your ready).
Only exception are stupid deer who may sometimes pull the plant by the roots for no aparent reason (There’s no food value to this behavior. I’ve never seen it happen but heard stories of deer doing this).
Indeed! Mayapples need breeding/improvemnt work! Other species have the multi-fruited trait I’m Looking for, it’s just begging to be domesticated.
Physalis are for the WIN! I can’t say which I love more, perhaps the one that gets bred for better flavor in the end 
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Fantastic! That’s where they love to thrive! Especially they will yeild more fruit in a sunny spot under trees.
Bingo! I’m excited to see how your trial goes, mayapples love growing under trees, so it should go well.
I found a couple of patches of mayapples and picked them green to ripen on the counter… hope they aren’t too green, we’ll see. The patches were in open fields in full sun and were highly productive this year. One of the patches produced extraordinarily large fruit. I’m going to dig some of the rhizomes and transplant them closer to home to monitor them.
Wow! I can’t wait to hear if that large fruit size remains constant when grown ex-situ or if it’s based on spot specific environmental factors.
Save the seeds from the large ones.
It just occurred to me, when you’re ready to cut them open, it would be cool to see the inside of the large size compared to the inside of the normal size. I’m curious if the skin is the same thickness on both sizes, but with more pulp in the big ones, or if the skin is thicker in the big ones.
Wow that’s some huge fruit!
I didn’t think they will ripen on the counter?
