Back in November, I wondered what the fruit of my Murraya paniculata (Orange Jasmine) tasted like. Well, my wait is over. The fruits are finally ripe.
The ripe fruits look sort of citrus-like. They have dimpled skin and a shiny texture. I pulled some from the plant and brought them home to taste them. I thought I should cut the fruit instead of just biting into them. I’m glad I did. There isn’t much flesh to these fruits. They’re mostly made up of large seeds. I didn’t actually chew the fruit or swallow any part of it. I just tasted the juice. It wasn’t as sweet as I expected. It just sort of tasted plant-like. Nothing special. And I guess they aren’t poisonous since I didn’t die. I’ll record that for the internet: Is Murraya paniculata poisonous? No. No it isn’t.
They look like tiny seeded tomatoes with a nut inside. Did they smell anything like the flowers or was is just plant-like all the way?
By the way – you are very brave!
It was plant-like all the way. If I had to name a food they tasted like, I would say green pepper, but not really. It was more like eating the leaf of a tree. You’ve tasted tree leaves, haven’t you? Everybody does at one time or another, don’t they?
Um, no.
When I was a kid, the house behind us had these weird little dark purple flowers that my friend and I would chew on, and they seemed sweet. I don’t think they were pansies or violets – I want to say it was like purple clover?
You didn’t eat tree leaves? Really? We must have been strange little kids.
Did you eat cat/dog food?
And my guess for your purple flowers is maybe periwinkle.
Maybe you should have some lettuce & radishes growing in your room. Then you’d always have a ready snack. Of course there would be no adventure or thrill seeking in that, so never mind.
And I never ate a tree leaf either. As kids our neighbor had a giant honeysuckle bush & we would always pull out the stems and let that drop of ‘whatever’ drip on our tongues. Mmmmm….
I
Uh-oh – y’all evidently never saw the Bull Bye DVD I’ve been
forcing my biology students to watchshowing in bio class lately, because they are careful in that to tell you that only SOME flowers/seeds are edible – like only SOME mushrooms are edible. Since I don’t personally consume fungus, I wouldn’t know. But I AM glad you didn’t die from this little experiment, sir!By the way, I think its Latin name really means “tasteless squichy red part surrounding tooth-cracking inner part”, but I’d have to look that up again to be sure.
Let me be the first to congratulate you for having the 2nd and 3rd links for the search “Is murraya paniculata poisonous?”
ha!
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