Hi. I'm hoping someone can tell me the name of the plant in the attached pic which produces groups of purple colored berries/fruits. The location of the plant in the attached pic is Oakland, California. However, I remember the same plant (typically a tall bush which can grow over 10 ft.) growing "wild" in southern california (LA) when I was a growing up. When I was young, I was told that these berries were edible, and I used to eat the berries from this plant without experiencing any health problems. The inside of the berry is white-ish and there is a round seed in the middle (see attached pic). Thanks for the help! :) -rx
Try Callicarpa, possibly Callicarpa bodinieri , though I did not verify the berries are edible on that species. If Callicarpa flowers are close, you can report that here and others can help you a bit more.
Try Syzygium paniculatum, it has edible berries. Good call Ron. I passed over it in my search results, as our cv has a much paler leaf.
Thank you Susan and Ron. It seems that Syzygium paniculatum fits the bill quite well...in particular, descriptions of the pleasantly sour apple like flavour of the magenta or purple colored fruit. (below are some links and descriptions based on the Australian variety...can't seem to find much onlne info about California variety....) Regards, --rx see, e.g., http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/education/Resources/bush_foods/Syzygium_paniculatum http://asgap.org.au/s-pan.html
If you are wanting to purchase the plant, find a local retailer that buys from San Marcos Growers. They have a good blurb about the plant at their site: http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=1527 It is growing at Stanford too: http://trees.stanford.edu/ENCYC/SYZpan.htm
G'day............I'm from Australia and this looks like a plant we call a LillyPilly Acmena smithii.................the fruit is edible but leaves your mouth dry..............is best used to make into jam.............hope this helps
