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The Apios Institute supports you to undertake ecological garden design, research, demonstration, and education. We support the mimicry of temperate deciduous forest ecosystems for the production of food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizers, farmaceuticals, and fun. |
Apios Wiki News!We've just rotated our free wiki content so you can get a look at recent additions like this entry on Paper Mulberry! The Edible Forest Gardens wiki is a co-creative space where ou can post photos and stories about perennial plants, polycultures, and forest gardens – and view posts from other edible forest gardeners from cold climates around the world. The wiki is growing quickly, and we'll soon be adding more features to better-categorize your forest gardens and polycultures. We look forward to your contribution. JOIN NOW!Why you should be here:We have experienced the reality that we can meet our human needs while regenerating healthy ecoystem function in our own back/front/side yards. We want to help more people do this all over the world. |
Paper Mulberry Broussonetia papyrifera
This fig and mulberry relative has a remarkable range of climate tolerance. Native to east Asia, it was carried by canoe throughout tropical Polynesia as a fiber crop for making tapa cloth. It has now naturalized extensively in many areas of the world, from Gainesville, Florida to Islamabad, Pakistan. I came across some plants in full fruit at Arnold Arboretum September 2, 2010. This was my second chance to sample the fruit, last time was about 15 years ago. Since then I have become more accustomed to tropical fruits, but it still seems pretty weird to me! Imagine a hard ball with fleshy, juicy tentacles all around it. They taste very sweet (very little sour in the specimens at Arnold), and similar to figs. I stand by my previous description of "an inside-out fresh fig," but that sounds a little better to me now.... |
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