Look for spicebush flowers in late winter/early spring, leaves by mid-spring, and green fruit by late spring. Essentially, I do their pruning for them, snapping back intruding twigs in winter and collecting fruit most likely to fall in an area where constant travel would impede their growth. Because it grows so profusely along hiking trails in my area, I collect it at state and national parks (HEAVEN FORFEND) where the park rangers already clearly maintain a trail. If not, sampling a handful of leaves or a few winter twigs won’t harm the plant much. It should be abundant, if you wish to collect flowers or fruit (“spicebush berries or spiceberries”). Its leaves are soft and fairly large, with a distinctive fragrance that echoes the flavors and aromas to be found in the other parts of the plant. It tends to congregate along paths, trails and natural clearings, anywhere it can get a little extra light during the growing season.
#Twig and berries free#
It can be found in areas dominated by deciduous hardwoods–spicebush flowers in the early spring and sets fruit early, so it needs the canopy above to be relatively free of evergreen foliage. Spicebush is an understory plant, a deciduous shrub, and a native plant. This is a good time to throw these little buds in the pan for stir-fries and sautés. Spicebush leaves just emerging when the flowers are still dropping from the tree. A lot more than at first might meet the eye, or indeed, tongue. If you can, if you do, you will find an ingredient that will constistantly surprise you with how intense its flavor is, and how pliable and useful that flavor is in the kitchen. That doesn’t mean you’ll see it as often as I do–but you may see it often enough to consider collecting it for use as a food and seasoning. If you live in the broader eastern half of the United States, then you are within its’ range, from Maine to northern Florida, west to Texas and Iowa. At least, it’s everywhere if you live by me. Immediately afterwards, you realize it is everywhere. It’s precisely the kind of thing you don’t take notice of until you are looking for it. It passes by quite unnoticed along many a hiking trail or watershed. Our native spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is a plant that greatly exceeds expectations. Spicebush leaves reach for the sky in a striking, characteristic fashion in spring.
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