Cannabaceae

Hemp Family

Hackberries

FAMILY: Hemp family (Cannabaceae) – Celtis genus. This genus was formerly placed in the elm family (Ulmaceae).

SPECIES: #1 desert or spiny hackberry (Celtis ehrenbergiana (Klotzsch) Liebm. = Celtis pallida Torr. = Celtis spinosa Spreng. var. pallida (Torr.) M. C. Johnst.). #2 netleaf hackberry or sugarberry (Celtis laevigata Willd.).

TO UTILIZE AS FOOD: All southwestern species of the Celtis genus are edible. Hackberries produce excellent fruits (drupes) that were important to Native Americans living in the Southwest. Fruit production is reliable, but harvesting the fruits is labor intensive.

Desert hackberry (C. ehrenbergiana) produces berry-like fruits with a flavor suggesting tropical mangoes. The fruits are sweet, orange, solid, juicy, crunchy, and shaped like tiny peaches. A solitary white stone inside each fruit imparts the crunch. The stones are no harder than corn chips. Fruits ripen in summer. Remarkably, desert hackberries are rarely infested with bugs or devoured by birds. Most of the crop matures unharmed. Gathering a supply of desert hackberries can be a painful experience thanks to the spiny branches. Tongs are recommended when gathering this wild food. Ripe fruits should readily detach. Only unripe fruits resist. Little stalks (pedicels) often remain attached to the fruits. These stalks are easily removed and barely noticeable to a hungry forager. Since the fruits are solitary, they must be picked one by one, or two by two if you’re ambidextrous. Ultimately, the reward is worth the effort. For thousands of years, desert hackberries have been enjoyed as natural candy. Dried fruits are brownish-orange. They’re suitable for making natural fruit bars and essential for recipes calling for good flavor!

Netleaf hackberry (C. laevigata) produces delicious fruits. The fruits are mostly rock hard pits. Pulp layers are paper thin and adherent to the pits. The two cannot be separated easily. Netleaf hackberry fruits can be eaten fresh off the trees, but the pits present a choking hazard. Fruits are 5-10 mm in diameter and red, orange, or purple, or a combination of these colors. Young fruits appear in spring, but they don’t mature until autumn. Mature fruits can persist into winter, and provide a source of seeds when few other wild foods are available. Whole fruits can be prepared into a beverage as follows: pound fruits into a coarse meal, boil for about 10 minutes, and filter out the debris. Little remains of the fruits in winter, except for dry skins covering hard pits. Seeds inside the pits are fairly large and well preserved. Obtaining the seeds requires some effort. An appropriately sized rock can effectively crack the shells. Separating the shell fragments from the seed meal is accomplished by boiling the mess. The seed meal tends to float while the shells tend to sink. Seed meal can then be skimmed off the surface. It’s not a perfect solution, but it helps. Fresh seed meal has a bland flavor and a soft texture. Netleaf hackberry produces good seeds, but the shells are unfortunate. Fresh fruits are naturally dry enough to store without refrigeration. They come with little stalks attached, but these stalks are easily removed. Netleaf hackberry is a fine resource found in canyons throughout most of the Southwest.

IDENTIFICATION: Currently, about 10 species of the Celtis genus are recognized in the United States, of which only 2 occur in the Southwest.

Description of desert hackberry (Celtis ehrenbergiana): FORM spiny shrub about 1-3 meters tall; LEAVES simple; alternate; deciduous; blades lance-ovate to elliptic, uneven at the bases, and less than 2 cm wide; margins smooth or toothed; surfaces rough-textured; FLOWERS regular, perfect or imperfect, ovary superior, and arranged individually or a few in clusters; sepals 4-6, greenish; petals 0; styles 0; stigmas 2, feathery; stamens 4-6 (usually 1 per sepal); FRUITS drupes globe-shaped, orange, and sweet; HABITAT deserts; southern half of the Southwest; blooming April to June.

Description of netleaf hackberry (Celtis laevigata): FORM spineless shrub or tree about 2-5 meters tall; LEAVES simple; alternate; deciduous; blades lance-ovate to cordate, uneven at the bases, tapering at the tips, and more than 2 cm wide; margins smooth or toothed; surfaces rough-textured and net-veined; FLOWERS regular, perfect or imperfect, ovary superior, and arranged individually or in clusters; sepals 4-6, greenish; petals 0; styles 0; stigmas 2, feathery; stamens 4-6 (usually 1 per sepal); FRUITS drupes globe-shaped, red, orange, or purple, often a combination of colors; HABITAT desert uplands and foothills, especially along streams; throughout the Southwest; blooming April to June. NOTES: Varieties are based on leaf features and leafstalk (petiole) versus flower stalk (pedicel) length. Arizona hackberry (var. brevipes), endemic to Arizona, has flower stalks shorter than or 1-2 times longer than the leafstalks. Netleaf hackberry (var. reticulata), widespread throughout the Southwest, has flower stalks 2-4 times longer than the leafstalks.

REFERENCES: #1 desert hackberry (Celtis ehrenbergiana = Celtis pallida): fruits and kernels Couplan (p. 60). #2 netleaf hackberry (Celtis laevigata): fruits and kernels Couplan (p. 60).

Hops

FAMILY: Hemp family (Cannabaceae) – Humulus genus.

SPECIES: #1 American or eastern hop (Humulus lupulus L. var. lupuloides E. Small = Humulus americanus Nutt.). #2 common or European hop (Humulus lupulus L. var. lupulus). #3 New Mexico or western hop (Humulus lupulus L. var. neomexicanus A. Nelson & Cockerell).

TO UTILIZE AS FOOD: The rhizomes and young shoots are edible. Although several references indicate that hops (dry, papery, cone-like fruit structures filled with seeds) were used to make bread, hops do not appear to be a source of flour. Common hop (H. lupulus) is native to temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. It’s divided into 5 varieties, of which only the neomexicanus variety grows in the southwestern United States. All varieties can presumably be used in the same way. The young shoots are cultivated as a vegetable in Europe (Small 1999 pp. 75-80), but very few references indicate that the rhizomes are edible. Hops are better known as a flavoring agent for beer. The genus name comes from “humela,” an old German word for hops.

Hop shoots about 6-10 cm long branching off the rhizomes are reported to be an excellent vegetable. They can be eaten fresh or cooked. In hop-producing areas of Europe, they’re served in fine restaurants. The French call these shoots “jets de houblon.” The flavor has been described as aromatic with a touch of bitterness, and the texture has been described as dry and gritty. Older shoots quickly become tough. Knowing the locations of colonies greatly simplifies the task of finding and identifying the shoots. Since hops are perennial, a forager can return to those locations year after year. Hops have a distinctive aroma that should help distinguish the young shoots from other shoots growing nearby. Young shoots are generally available from late spring to early summer.

Hop seeds were used in making bread (Kirk p. 109), but apparently as a flavoring rather than flour. No references were located to confirm the use of hop seeds as flour, so the following notes are not meant to imply that the seeds are edible other than as a flavoring. Hop seeds are contained within cone-like structures called strobiles (or hops). As strobiles age, they turn from green to brown and eventually become dry, flaky, and papery sometime in autumn. If the strobiles are still moist, drying will be necessary to release the seeds. Moisture is a sign of immaturity, but a few seeds may be ready to harvest. Once fully mature, the papery chaff weighs less than the seeds and readily blows away, thus making the seeds easy to obtain. Commercially grown hops destined for beer breweries are harvested prior to maturity when partially green, firm, and high in resins. Hulling the seeds is unnecessary. Hop seeds are grayish-tan and dotted with yellowish resins. Surprisingly few seeds come out of the hops. The resins are sticky and strongly aromatic. If hop seeds are eaten raw, these resins impart an extremely acrid flavor. Toasting improves the flavor but often fails to subdue the resins. Low heat is recommended to minimize scorching. Boiling more effectively improves the flavor than toasting. A combination of toasting, followed by boiling, and then discarding the cooking water seems to yield the best results. After these steps, the flavor is pleasantly starchy and marked with resinous accents. The texture is completely chewable, nonfibrous, and not bran-like. Overall, hop seeds seem to be an excellent resource, but confirmation of their edibility was not possible.

NOTES: My experiences with hops are based on the neomexicanus variety and limited to the seeds. I first discovered hops along a remote section of Mineral Creek in western New Mexico. Access to this location involves a fairly strenuous hike. The area is primarily a pine forest and definitely worth visiting. At a later point in time, I found more readily accessible colonies of hops near a place called Osiris in central Utah. My notes are based primarily on these Osiris colonies. Several sources indicate that the Apache Indian name for hops means “to make bread with it.” I misinterpreted this to mean the seeds were edible. Since mature hops are dry, papery, and unsuitable for consumption, it’s reasonable (though incorrect) to assume that the seeds inside were the part used to make bread and the chaffy parts were discarded. Apparently, both parts were used as flavoring rather than flour. In the past, yeast for making bread was prepared by culturing wild yeast in a decoction (tea) of water and hops. The hops added flavor and prevented the yeast from spoiling. Hops are used by beer makers for the same reasons. In reference to the use of hops among the Apache Indians, Edward Castetter (1936 p. 47) states, “Hops (Humulus lupulus neomexicanus) were gathered in October, boiled, and used for flavoring in a considerable variety of ways. Formerly they were mixed with mesquite and screwbean flour (see p. 41) but at present they are mixed with wheat flour; they were also combined with wild potatoes to give flavor. More commonly they were used to flavor tulbai, the drink made from fermented maize.” This passage clearly indicates that the hops were used as flavoring rather than flour. Unfortunately, I never tried the rhizomes or young shoots, and a return trip to Mineral Creek or Osiris for those parts was not possible.

IDENTIFICATION: Worldwide, the Humulus genus is currently represented by 3 species. Only 1 species, common hop (H. lupulus), specifically the neomexicanus variety, is found in the southwestern United States. Nothing else looks similar to this vine. The overall form, palmately-lobed leaves, and papery cone-like fruit structures (strobiles or hops) effectively identify this vine.

Description of hops (Humulus lupulus): FORM aromatic vine up to several meters long; climbing, twining, spreading, or shrubby LEAVES simple; opposite; blades palmately 3-7 lobed; margins serrated; surfaces rough-haired and resin-dotted; FLOWERS small, regular, imperfect, inconspicuous, and arranged in clusters; male and female flowers on separate plants; MALE flowers arranged in axillary panicles about 4-10 cm long; each flower with 5 sepals, 0 petals, and 5 stamens; FEMALE flowers ovary superior and arranged in pairs on each bract of the flower structure; each flower with 5 sepals, 0 petals, 1 pistil, and 2 hair-like stigmas; FRUITS (hops, strobiles, or cones) greenish-brown, scaly, aromatic, resinous, and containing achenes that are much smaller than the scales; HABITAT canyons at mid elevations in juniper, oak, and pine communities nearly throughout the West; blooming in midsummer. NOTES: Western populations belong to the neomexicanus variety.

REFERENCES: #1 American hop (Humulus lupulus var. lupuloides = Humulus americanus): young shoots Kirk (p. 109-110). #2 common hop (Humulus lupulus var. lupulus) rhizomes Facciola (p. 70); young shoots Facciola (p. 70) and Fernald (p. 163). #3 New Mexico hop (Humulus lupulus var. neomexicanus): hops (as a seasoning) Castetter (1936 p. 47) and Moerman (p. 129).