Environmental Monitoring

Botanically speaking, a fruit is the plant part that contains seeds. Before the invention of modern refrigeration, fresh fruit was only eaten when it was in season. To enjoy fruits at other times of the year, preservation was necessary. Drying fruits by burying them in sand or sun-drying them is the oldest method, beginning in ancient Egypt over 6,000 years ago. Plums, currants and cranberries are all native to northern Europe and Canada, and would have been the most common dried fruits in these areas. Raisins were being imported to northern Europe in the 11th century, and dates and figs in the 13th. Dried, rather than fresh, fruits are key ingredients in many traditional northern European and Canadian Christmas dishes.

(Vaccinium spp.)

For many people, a Christmas turkey dinner would not be complete without cranberry sauce. Cranberries are closely related to blueberries and grow in similar habitats: sandy and peaty soil. Cranberries are sometimes harvested by flooding the entire field and scooping up the floating cranberries. The North American cranberry (V. macrocarpon) is larger than the European cranberry (V. oxycoccus) or lingonberry. Dried cranberries are used as substitutes for raisins and currants in fruitcakes, and are sometimes added to the Austrian fruit cake Kugelhopf. Cranberry kisel is a popular dessert in Russia. Cranberry or lingonberry sauce is a traditional accompaniment to roast turkey or goose.

(Ribes spp.)

Although similar in appearance to raisins, currants are more closely related to gooseberries than to grapes. Confusing the matter, a variety of small, dark raisins are called currants as well. Currants are native to North America and Europe, and grow on shrubs that reach 1-metre. Many currants have spiny stems and are easily identified by their lobed, palm-like leaves. Historically, dried, wild black currants were put into fruitcakes and fruit breads by Canadian women before foreign fruits became common.

This blog is part of a series on The Botany of Christmas. Learn more in:

Christmas Nuts

Christmas Spices

The spices we typically associate with Christmas baking, like nutmeg and cinnamon, all grow in tropical areas. Before the shipping of spices became reliable, they were rare and expensive in Europe, and for this reason used only for special occasions like weddings and holidays. Many traditional Christmas desserts are made with a variety of exotic spices. Mulled beverages, like wassail, are prepared by heating the liquid with a mixture of whole spices wrapped in cheesecloth or placed in a tea ball. The most popular spices are described below.

(Cinnamomum spp.)

Cinnamon and Cassia are trees native to India and Ceylon. Cassia is cheaper than cinnamon but not as flavourful. Once Cinnamomum trees are three years old, the outer bark is harvested. This distorts their growth forms into dense shrubs rather than trees. Cinnamon and Cassia have been popular for a long time; Egyptians imported it from China in 2000 B.C.! Cinnamon is a common spice used to flavour Christmas puddings, cakes, cookies, and the Danish pastry Klejne.

(Zingiber officinale)

Ginger is the rhizome (an underground stem) of a tropical herbaceous plant native to southern Asia. Ginger has been cultivated for over 3,000 years! In Asia, ginger is mainly used fresh or pickled in savory dishes, like curries and stir-fries, but in Europe it was traditionally used dried, in desserts like gingerbread and gingersnaps. This is because, until recently, ginger was not sold fresh in other parts of the world. Ginger is also sold crystallized and coated in chocolate, another popular Christmas snack.

(Crocus sativus)

Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice, costing over $10,000 per kilogram!  The tiny orange threads are actually the stigmas, or pollen-receiving organs, of a crocus flower that is native to southwest Asia.  The stamens on these tiny flowers must be hand-harvested, which is extremely expensive.  Fortunately, very little saffron is needed to add flavour and colour to a dish.  The Scandanavian Lussebulle or saffron buns are traditionally made on St. Lucia’s Day, December 13, and served by young women dressed in white.

This blog is part of a series on The Botany of Christmas. Learn more in:

Christmas Nuts

Christmas Fruits

For many people, roasting chestnuts and snacking on fresh nuts is a Christmas tradition. Besides humans, the only other animals that can effectively crack the shells of nuts are those with strong, chisel-like teeth, namely rodents. Rodents, like squirrels, harvest nuts in the fall and store them for the cold winter months just like we do. Nuts are a good source of protein and contain many vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats. Not all nuts are alike; some nuts, like hazelnuts, are fruits with thick outer shells. Other nuts, like almonds and walnuts form a hard pit in the centre of a fruit called a drupe, like a peach or a cherry. Sadly, many people in North America have developed life-threatening allergies to nuts.

(Bertholletia excelsa)

Brazil nuts grow in clusters of 12-24 inside coconut-like capsules. Native to South America, Brazil nuts are popular snacks in Europe and North America. Brazil nuts are not commercially grown outside South America as they perform poorly in monocultures, relying on wild bees for pollination. One of the only animals that can eat Brazil nuts is the Agouti, a large rodent. Agoutis use their sharp incisors to open the hard capsule and shell. Since Agoutis hide nuts they don’t eat, they disperse them into new habitats. Brazil nuts are commonly added to South American fruitcakes.

(Carya illinoensis)

Pecan is a large, wind-pollinated deciduous tree native to North America that can reach heights of 170 ft. The nut is encased in a leathery, green husk that cracks open when ripe. A single tree can yield over 400 lbs of pecans each year. Pecans were harvested extensively by eastern Indigenous peoples. European settlers quickly embraced the pecan, eating them plain, spiced, or in baking. Pecan pie, often served at American Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, is a classic example of pioneer “fusion” cooking. Pecans are sometimes added to Canadian butter tarts instead of raisins, as well.

This blog is part of a series on The Botany of Christmas. Learn more in:

Christmas Spices

Christmas Fruits

I come from a long line of European women who did a lot of baking: fresh bread and buns, pies, squares, cookies, and strudels. Although my mother and grandmother baked throughout the year, Christmas was my favourite time because that’s when the really special treats were made, things that you didn’t eat just every day: hot roasted chestnuts, fruitcake, butter tarts, honey cake, shortbread, and chocolate Yule logs.

Learn more on:

Christmas Nuts

Christmas Spices

Christmas Fruits

When people find out that I study and collect wild plants I suspect that they have visions of me tromping through the woods to study beautiful orchids and majestic wildflowers. The fact of that matter is that attractive plants, orchids in particular, are pretty well-studied compared to many other groups.

Orchids attract a devoted cult of nature lovers who, for fun on their weekends and vacations, wander through bogs and remote forests in the hopes of discovering new species or taking a perfect photograph of a rare Lady’s-slipper. In fact Manitoba has three non-profit organizations (Nature Manitoba, Native Orchid Conservation Inc. and Conserve Native Plant Society Inc.) that are involved in some way or another in the appreciation, documentation and conservation of orchids. So I’m not too worried about the orchids-I know that they are being meticulously documented by their legions of fans.

What I am worried about are the ugly plants-the wind-pollinated ones with tiny flowers that grow in very specific microhabitats. These plants are either completely overlooked or regarded as weeds and stepped on. They are like neglected younger siblings in a large family that only get attention when they do something bad, like grow in someone’s garden or in a crack in the sidewalk. We don’t know much about the distribution and ecology of these ugly species and since they are unattractive and sometimes hay-fever inducing, no one loves them enough to study them. No one but me. I’ve developed and odd fondness for these homely plants because they are a challenge to locate and identify. I find it very satisfying to be able to identify plants that most amateur and even some professional botanists ignore.

One of my recent projects has been to identify “taxonomic gaps” in the botanical collection here at the Museum. I prepared a list of plants that I know have been found in Manitoba but that we don’t have many (or any) specimens of. Most of them were “ugly” wind-pollinated sedges, rushes, grasses or exotic, naturalized “weeds.” Others were rare native annuals that don’t germinate every year and can be hard to find. Some were at the edges of their North American ranges and not present in high numbers. Quite a few are aquatic plants (like pondweeds) that grow in lakes, sloughs and rivers. Not a single native orchid though is unrepresented in our collection. In addition to our collection of specimens we also have a slide collection which features mostly pretty plants; there are 300 photographs of orchids but only one slide of goosefoot plant.

So I don’t really need a lot beautiful wildflowers in my collection (unless they are from a part of the province that hasn’t been visited before). What I DO need are the weeds growing by the side of the road, the pondweeds that cling to your leg when you’re going for a swim in the lake and the grass-like plants that grow in damp, muddy areas. But no orchids please, they’re just not ugly enough.