From what I can tell, the plant that makes up the hedge around three sides of our property is called laurier cerise (cherry laurel), not related to the edible laurier sauce (bay laurel), but named similarly because its leaves resemble the culinary plant. The hedge is not all one plant variety, though. Many others live in and among the laurels, including some laurier sauce, holly, blackberry brambles, honeysuckle, and other viney things.
Bright red berries in the green hedge.
At first I thought these berries belonged to the chèvrefeuille (honeysuckle) that grows in a section of the hedge out by the back gate. But, on closer inspection, the vine with these berries is different, and not in the same exact location in the hedge. So I'm not certain what they are. Except pretty.
Could they be the fruits of the laurel itself?
ReplyDeleteNo, they are the fruits of a climbing annual... and poisonous, like the cherry laurel.... it is one of the Bryonys.... There are two.... Black Bryony which is a member of the Yam family and climbs by itself... and White Bryony which climbs using tendrils [a member of the Gourd family].... I suspect it is the Black, because it is more berry-ferous!
DeleteThank you, Tim, for the information.
DeleteAnd now I have to read all about Bryonys!
ReplyDeleteWhatever they are, they are very pretty!
ReplyDeletechm, I know they're not, as the laurel berries are black. But I didn't know what they are.
ReplyDeletetim, thanks!
mitch, me, too!
bettyann, :)
They evoke a line from a poem I like:
ReplyDeleteYou must not talk to goblin men/you must not buy their fruits/who know upon what soil they fed their thirsty hungry roots?