Tags
It pays to leaf through old copies of the Australian natural history magazine, before depositing them in the recycle bin. Doing just this I found an article by Tim Low in vol 22, no 5, Winter 1987. He was conducting a long-term study of the traditional foods of Aborigines, and was alerted by a botanist, Beth Gott, to the food potential of orchid tubers. She wrote about finding a colony of Pterostylis nutans, at a density of 440 plants per square metre, yielding 800 tiny tubers weighing 126 grams. Of course I was fascinated, after my recent encounter with nodding greenhoods, and so was Tim Low.
He embarked upon a taste-testing tour. Here are his findings.
Glossodia major (common wax lip). It has a single egg-shaped tuber with a pointed tip and a watery slightly sweet flavour with a bitter after taste. In his words “not nice.”
Diuris maculata (leopard orchid). This one has two bullet shaped tubers, 3cm long and 6mm wide. It is glutinous, starchy, filling and “stuck cloyingly to my gums.”
The two pea-sized white tubers of Caladenia carnea (pink fingers) tasted “sweet and juicy”.
Dipodium punctatum (hyacinth orchid) has one of the largest tubers, six fibrous roots, 8 mm thick and longer than a finger, which need cooking to make them palatable. Their rival for size is Gastrodia sesamoides (potato orchid). He doesn't comment on its flavour.
His awards for “especially tasty” go to the walnut sized potatoes of Lyperanthus suaveolens (brown beaks) and the “fragrantly flavoured starch” of the horned orchid, Orthoceras strictum.
In The biggest estate on earth, a weighty account of how Aboriginal people shaped the Australian landscape, Bill Gammage quotes Sturt's 1849 journal as he explored in what is now western Victoria / South Australia.
On the other side of Mt Terrible the country is very scrubby for some miles, until, all at once, you burst upon the narrow but beautiful valley of Mypunga … covered with orchidaceous plants of every colour, amidst a profusion of the richest vegetation.
Gammage notes that many orchids bloom after fire, and this quotation is part of his extended argument about how Aborigines managed the land with fire. These orchids weren't there by accident, but as part of a regime of harnessing wild flowers and animals for food: a form of farming in fact.
In his article Low offers a couple of interesting sidelights on orchids as food, for people other than the traditional owners of this country.
He quotes the Australian botanist, Joseph Maiden, who wrote in 1898: There is hardly a country boy who has not eaten … the tubers of numerous kinds of terrestrial orchids.
He also records an extract from Anne Pratt's 1891 book, “Flowering plants, grasses, sedges and ferns of Great Britain”, which eulogises the properties of orchid starch or salep / saloop in a working man's diet.
Salep is little used now in this country; but less than a century since, the Saloop-house was much frequented, and the substance was a favourite repast of porters, coal-bearers, and other hard-working men. It is said to contain more nutritious matter in proportion to its bulk than any other known root, and an ounce of salep was considered to afford support to a man for a day; hence those who travel in uninhibited countries have greatly prized so portable a vegetable food.
Many of the orchids Low samples are familiar to me, but I'd never thought of them as a food source. I won't be decimating the ranks of any colonies I find by conducting my own taste testing. I'll take Tim Low's word for it and thank him for giving me another dimension to my understanding of orchids.
Lisa said:
I’m interested in this having been reading about Sunshine Diuris (D. fragrantissima) and how reintroductions are helped by soil disturbance (in some circumstances). It got me thinking about whether they were a food source and promoted by digging in grasslands. They were very abundant before colonisation apparently.
LikeLike
Rosemary Barnard said:
For reliable information about the edible and medicinal uses of the tubers and stems of Dendrobium speciosum see the following link from the Royal Botanic Gardens:
https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/education/Resources/bush_foods/Dendrobium_speciosum
I remembered correctly.
LikeLike
morselsandscraps said:
Of course you did! I’ve never caught you not. Thanks so much for the link – it will stand me in good stead for other plants too. Interesting that the tubers needed to be roasted. I can feel a bit of a series coming on!
LikeLike
pommepal said:
Very interesting article but it always amazes me and makes me wonder how many died trying out these unknown food sources. I have a big clump of the rock lily, Dendrobium speciosum, in the garden and I am always away when it flowers I will be again this year. It is also ready for dividing, maybe I should put some of it on the menu….
LikeLike
morselsandscraps said:
Interesting thought. It’s another aspect of survival of survivors! Let me know what the rock lily tastes like – if it doesn’t kill you. It wasn’t one Tim Low mentioned.
LikeLike
pommepal said:
I’m definitely not brave enough to experiment. I’ll stick to brussel sprouts… Jack says maybe witch doctors and shamans tried unknown plants on unsuspecting patients and if they got better he said it was his magic, if they died it was because they didn’t believe enough…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Suzanne said:
How interesting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Rosemary Barnard said:
I read on signage at Barrington Tops north of Newcastle that Aboriginal people in that area traditionally harvested orchid tubers for food. While I can’t be sure I think that the species was the Rock Lily, Dendrobium speciosum. Given the size of the tubers they would have had quite a feed from the effort involved compared with the orchids you describe.
LikeLike
morselsandscraps said:
I was a bit surprised that the rock lily didn’t get a mention.
LikeLike
Olga said:
Interesting information and lovely presentation with the photos.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lucid Gypsy said:
I had no idea they were edible and I really hope they don’t become fashionable. Wonderful how the Aboriginal people knew just what to do, we could learn so much from them. Beautiful photos too by the way!
LikeLike
morselsandscraps said:
Orchid tubers the new kale?? Although my son tells me kale is so yesterday. Actually many orchids are protected in Australia, so they probably won’t take off as a yuppy food source. I did cringe a bit, imagining Low uprooting such treasures.
The Gammage book is a massive tribute to Aboriginal land management and makes a mockery of ‘terra nullius’, which was the basis for our takeover.
Thanks for thinking the photos are beautiful. They’re the pick of the pick of the pick, out of many hundreds taken.
LikeLiked by 1 person
pommepal said:
I believe brussel sprouts are now the in food…
LikeLike
morselsandscraps said:
Good. I’ve been in the vanguard for once.
LikeLike
pommepal said:
I actually love them…
LikeLike
Heyjude said:
Gorgeous photos (yours). Just don’t eat the daffodils…
LikeLiked by 1 person
morselsandscraps said:
Damn! That’s what I had on the menu for breakfast. Now I’ll have to replan.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Heyjude said:
Not good for rabbits either…
LikeLike
restlessjo said:
Oops- I think I’m in the wrong place here, but Jude won’t mind! 🙂 The orchid shots are fabulous, Meg, and I just assumed it was the flowers that were going to be eaten rather than the tubers. Gross! But very knowledgeable 🙂
LikeLike
morselsandscraps said:
Don’t you eat potatoes?? I’m never knowledgeable – just an avid collector of other people’s knowledge. Glad you like the photos – it took a huge amount of culling to get them. I’ve just looked through all my non-digital photos, and I’m throwing out a great bagful. Percentage? Maybe kept 10% and that includes reminders that are awful photos. So I’ve made progress.
LikeLike
restlessjo said:
Are you scanning as you go? I keep bad ones for the memory (both digital and otherwise) too. I meant to comment on your keeping pages from an NG mag. Once I start that game I’m lost for hours! Not NGs but old travel mags (of course 🙂 )
Yes, spuds- but those looked less than tempting. Much better to just admire the flowers.
LikeLike
morselsandscraps said:
No. I don’t think I’ll scan. Just file in 80% less folders, unless I need a specific photo. I still enjoy leafing through little bits of card. I’m trying not to keep magazine pages – after all old kept articles made up a significant part of what I’ve just chucked out. I’m noting names and web pages. As for admiring the flowers, wombats and wallabies eat them.
LikeLiked by 1 person