Edible Plant Species

Ceanothus americanus Linn. Rhamnaceae. MOUNTAIN SWEET. NEW JERSEY TEA. WILD SNOWBALL.
North America.
The leaves were used as a substitute for tea during the American Revolution.

Cecropia peltata Linn. Urticaceae. INDIAN SNAKEWOOD. TRUMPET TREE.
American tropics.
The young buds are eaten as a potherb.

Cedrela odorata Linn. Meliaceae. BARBADOES CEDAR. CIGARBOX WOOD.
South America.
Smith says, in China the leaves of this tree are eaten in the spring when quite tender.

Cedronella cana Hook. Labiatae. HOARY BALM OF GILEAD.
Mexico.
This pretty and very fragrant plant is useful for putting in a claret cup.

Cedrus libani Barrel. Coniferae (Pinaceae). CEDAR OF LEBANON.
Asia Minor, Syria, Afghanistan, Himalayan region and Algeria.
A kind of manna was anciently collected from this tree.

Celastrus macrocarpus Ruiz & Pav. Celastraceae. STAFF TREE.
Peru.
It has savory, alimentary buds. The seeds yield an edible oil.

C. scandens Linn. BITTER SWEET. STAFF VINE. WAXWORK.
Northern North America.
The Chippewa Indians use the tender branches. The plant has a thick bark which is sweetish and palatable when boiled.

Celosia argentea Linn. Amaranthaceae.
Cosmopolitan tropics.
In China, this plant is a troublesome weed in flax fields but is gathered and consumed as a vegetable. In France, it is grown in flower gardens.

C. trigyna Linn.
Tropical Africa.
According to Grant, this plant is eaten as a potherb.

Celtis australis Linn. Urticaceae (Ulmaceae). CELTIS. EUROPEAN NETTLE. HONEYBERRY. LOTE TREE.
Europe, temperate Asia and East Indies.
The European nettle is a native of Barbary and is grown as a shade tree in the south of France and Italy. Dr. Hogg considers it to be the lote tree of the ancients, "lotos to dendron" of Dioscorides and Theophrastus; Sibthorp and Stackhouse are of the same opinion. The fruit is about the size of a small cherry, yellow, dark brown or black. The modern Greeks are very fond of the fruits; they are also eaten in Spain. They are called in Greece honeyberries and are insipidly sweet. In India, Brandis says a large, blackish or purple kind is called roku on the Sutlej; a smaller yellow or orange kind choku.

C. occidentalis Linn. HACKBERRY. NETTLE TREE. SUGARBERRY.
Southern and Western United States.
This celtis is a fine forest tree. The fruits are sweet and edible.

C. tala Gill.
Mexico.
This is the cranjero or cranxero of the Mexicans. The berries of this shrub are of the size of small peas, oval, orange-yellow and somewhat edible though astringent.

Centaurea calcitrapa Linn. Compositae. CALTROPS. STAR THISTLE.
Europe, north Africa and temperate Asia.
The young stems and leaves, according to Forskal, are eaten raw in Egypt.

C. chamaerhaponticum Ball.
Mediterranean coasts.
In Algeria, according to Desfontaenes, the root is edible and not unpleasant to the taste.

C. pygmaea Benth. & Hook. f.
Mediterranean countries.
The roots have an agreeable flavor and are eaten by the Arabs in some parts of Africa.

Centranthus macrosiphon Boiss. Valerianeae. LONG-SPURRED VALERIAN.
Spain.
Valerian is an annual cultivated in gardens for its handsome, rose-colored flowers and is used as a salad in some countries, notably in France. It appears to combine all that belongs to corn salad, with a peculiar slight bitterness which imparts to it a more distinct and agreeable flavor.

C. ruber DC. FOX'S BRUSH. RED VALERIAN.
Red Valerian is said to be eaten as a salad in southern Italy.

Centrosema macrocarpum Benth. Leguminosae.
British Guiana.
The beans are eaten by the Indians, according to Schomburgk. The leaves, according to A. A. Black, are also eaten,.

Cephalotaxus drupacea Sieb. & Zucc. Coniferae (Cephalotaxaceae). PLUM-FRUITED YEW.
Japan.
The female plant bears a stone-fruit closely resembling a plum in structure. The flesh is thick, juicy and remarkably sweet, with a faint suggestion of the pine in its flavor.

Ceratonia siliqua Linn. Leguminosae. ALGAROBA BEAN. CAROB TREE. LOCUST BEAN. ST. JOHN'S BREAD.
This tree is indigenous in Spain and Algeria, the eastern part of the Mediterranean region, in Syria; and is found in Malta, the Balearic Islands, in southern Italy, in Turkey, Greece and Grecian Islands, in Asia Minor, Palestine and the north of Africa.
It was found by Denham and Clapperton in the Kingdom of Bornu, in the center of Africa. The pods being filled with a saccharine pulp, are eaten, both green and dry and were a favorite food with the ancients; there are specimens preserved in the museum at Naples which were exhumed from a house in Pompeii. The Egyptians extracted from the husk of the pod a sort of honey, with which they preserved fruits; in Sicily, a spirit and a sirup are prepared from them;l in the island of Diu or Standia, the luscious pulp contained in the pod is eaten by the poor and children and is also made into a sherbet. These pods are imported into the Punjab as food for man, horses, pigs and cattle and are imported into England occasionally as a cattle food. In 1854, seeds of this tree were distributed from the United States Patent Office.

Ceratostema grandiflorum Ruiz & Pav. Vacciniaceae.
Peruvian Andes.
This tall, evergreen shrub produces berries of a pleasant, acidulous taste.

Cercis canadensis Linn. Leguminosae. JUDAS TREE. REDBUD.
North America.
The French Canadians use the flowers in salads and pickles.

C. siliquastrum Linn. JUDAS TREE. LOVE TREE.
Mediterranean countries.
The pods are gathered and used with other raw vegetables by the Greeks and Turks in salads, to which they give an agreeable odor and taste. The flowers are also made into fritters with batter and the flower-buds are pickled in vinegar.

Cereus (Echinocereus) caespitosus Engelm. & A. Gray. Cactaceae.
Texas.
The fruit, rarely an inch long, is edible, and the fleshy part of the stem is also eaten by the inhabitants of New Mexico. The fruit is of a purplish color and very good, resembling a gooseberry. The Mexicans eat the fleshy part of the stem as a vegetable, first carefully freeing it of spines.

C. (Echinocereus) dasyacanthus Engelm.
Southwestern North America.
The fruit is one to one and one-half inches in diameter, green or greenish-purple, and when fully ripe is delicious to eat, much like a gooseberry.

C. (Echinocereus) dubius (enneacanthus) Engelm.
Southwestern North America.
The ripe fruit, one to one and one-half inches long, green or rarely purplish, is insipid or pleasantly acid.

C. (Echinocereus) engelmanni Parry.
Southwestern North America.
This plant bears a deliciously palatable fruit.

C. (Echinocereus) enneacanthus Engelm.
Southwestern North America.
The berry is pleasant to eat.

C. (Echinocereus) fendleri Engelm.
New Mexico.
The purplish-green fruit is edible.

C. (Carnegia) giganteus (gigantea) Engelm.
Texas.
This cactus yields a fruit sweet and delicious. The Indians collect it in large quantities and make a sirup or conserve from the juice, which serves them as a luxury as well as for sustenance. The Mexicans call the tree suwarrow; the Indians, harsee. The sirup manufactured from the juice is called sistor. Engelmann says the crimson-colored pulp is sweet, rather insipid and of the consistency of a fresh fig. Hodge, in Arizona, calls the fruit delicious, having the combined flavor of the peach, strawberry and fig.

C. (Peniocereus) greggii Engelm.
Texas.
The plant has a bright scarlet, fleshy, edible berry.

C. (Echinocereus)polyacanthus Engelm.
Texas.
It bears a berry of a pleasant taste.

C. quisco C. Gay
Chile.
The sweetish, mucilaginous fruits are available for desserts.

C. (Stenocereus) thurberi Engelm.
New Mexico.
This plant grows in the Papago Indian country on the borders of Arizona and Sonora and attains a height of 18 to 20 feet and a diameter of four to six inches and bears two crops of fruit a year. The fruit is, according to Engelmann, three inches through, like a large orange, of delicious taste, the crimson pulp being dotted with numerous, black seeds. The seeds, after passing through the digestive canal, are collected, according to Baegert and Clavigero, and pounded into a meal used in forming a food. Venegas, in his History of California, describes the fruit as growing to the boughs, the pulp resembling that of a fig only more soft and luscious. In some, it is white; in some red; and in others yellow but always of an exquisite taste; some again are wholly sweet, others of a grateful acid. This cactus is called pithaya by the Mexicans and affords a staple sustenance for the Papago Indians.

Ceropegia bulbosa Roxb. Asclepiadeae.
East Indies.
Roxburgh says, "men eat every part."

C. tuberosa Roxb.
East Indies.
Every part is esculent; the roots are eaten raw.

Cervantesia tomentosa Ruiz & Pav. Santalaceae.
Peru.
Its seeds are edible.

Cetraria islandica Linn. Lichenes. ICELAND MOSS.
Iceland moss is found in the northern regions of both continents and on elevated mountains farther south. It serves as food to the people of Iceland and Lapland; the bitterness is first extracted with water, after which the plant is pounded up into meal for bread or boiled with milk.3