Edible pink flowers, now in blossom
January 8, 2011
The blossom of Gliricidia sepium (Fabaceae) is now decorating Dokmai Garden in Chiang Mai. This small tree from South America is often planted in Thailand as a barrier between properties. It grows quickly, but still has a quite hard wood which many of our tropical gardening school students know by now. It is deciduous, so the pink blossom can be admired without difficulties. I think of the colours of wild strawberry ice cream with vanilla when I see these lovely flowers. Take a handful, eat them raw, and you will find them nutty and firm. Why not surprise your relatives from over seas with a green salad, topped with these sweet flowers?
Eric Danell
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they are realy yummy!!
(much better then tasting the flesh of strychnos tree fruit by accident ;o)
Thanks Martina! Some locals do eat the golden pulp of the strychnine tree (like you), but do not swallow the nut, or you will die from cramps due to the neurotoxin strychnine! Remember, the tree is a good mother, offering food (pulp) for anyone bringing her child (the seed) to a new good place. If you try to kill and eat her child, she will kill you too!