Late May Flowers and Plants

The persimmons are flowering now at the farm.  In early fall the persimmon fruits will begin to ripen. I love wild persimmons.  They are super sweet, but if you try to eat them when they aren't completely ripe your whole face will pucker up. The fruit has to be ripe to the point that it will feel squishy if you press them between your fingers and they will easily detach from the tree without much pulling.  If it seems close to ripe but doesn't detach easily, give it half a day and it will probably be worth eating.  
The milkweeds are starting to flower as well.  They are wonderfully fragrant. 
Plants like this pokeweed are already taller than me.  The plant is poisonous to humans, but when pokeweed is very young the shoots can be eaten by humans if it has been boiled in three or more changes of water.  I've never been interested in eating something that needs to be boiled in multiple changes of water so I haven't tried it yet. The plant is supposed to be poisonous to all mammals, but bison love pokeweed. They actually seek it out.  The pokeweed in this picture is in a section of the ranch I just reopened to the bison. I expect that the next time I see this plant it will be eaten down to the stalks.  Maybe bison have an adaptation that allows them to eat it.  I doubt anyone knows for sure. 

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