Tree/ berry ID help

[drz1050]

I have one of these trees in my backyard, my neighbor has a slightly larger one.. neither of us have any idea what it is. Small green berries. Help?

 

[drz1050]

Also, while picking blackberries today, I saw these other two nearby... I thought the one was holly at first, but the leaves don't look shiny, nor were they thick enough.. no idea for the other. Kinda looked like mini orange-ish tomatoes.

 

[begreen]

They look like berries from my NY childhood but have forgotten what they are called. We used them for berry fights when we were kids.

 

[drz1050]

They look like berries from my NY childhood but have forgotten what they are called. We used them for berry fights when we were kids.

Safe to eat, or nah?

 

[billb3]

The second pic/post looks like honeysuckle bush.
The only birds I've ever seen eating them late in the season was evening grosbeaks.

 

[begreen]

The second pic/post looks like honeysuckle bush.
The only birds I've ever seen eating them late in the season was evening grosbeaks.

Bingo. Thank you. Not safe to eat the berries.

 

[Pellet_Pete]

Top one is common buckthorn, Rhamnus cathartica. The second one is an Asian honeysuckle species. Both are horribly invasive, and inedible.

 

[drz1050]

Thanks, all!

Bummer to hear about the invasive-ness of them... went on a walk today with the pup, and there are lots of both of these around the neighboring woods... That tree might end up in the firepit soon though.

 

[drz1050]

Found this while just google searching for honeysuckle berries:

Here's a quick recipe for Honeysuckle Pie. Take your honeysuckle berries, boil them for fifteen minutes in 1 1/3 cups hot water, no more, no less. Then repeat seven times. Scrape the honeysuckle 'syrup' off the sides of your pan. Mix it with flour and and two cups rubbing alcohol ( to kill the poison germs) then fry in a pan over medium-high, NOT MEDIUM, heat, for three hours. Place in freezer and freeze for forty-two days, then thaw and refrigerate for seven days, then repeat freeze process five times. Then build a fire, like a campfire, and place two bricks on the embers for three hours. Then place your honeysuckle berry batter on the bricks, cover with foil, then dirt, and allow to simmer for thirty-six days. After thirty-six days, unearth batter, throw it away, and eat the bricks, because they'll taste better.

 

[begreen]

Hmm, lost me at the rubbing alcohol. I think I would pass on that one.

 

[drz1050]

But that's what kills the germs!

 

[begreen]

lol

 

[Soundchasm]

I heard the honeysuckle berries were what was keeping the robins here so late in the winter. The other thing about honeysuckle is they poison the ground for anything but themselves. My neighbor had an ailing pine tree with a honeysuckle under it and a healthy pine tree a few yards away. He finally cut down the honeysuckle and the pine's deterioration stopped.

 

[Applesister]

Hmm...knew they were invasive but not the poison part. I'll have to research that. I hate that stuff. That and privet, but I think the species I have is Morrows honeysuckle.
I have a hard time IDing bushes, or...underbrush (the nasty word)

 

[drz1050]

I heard the honeysuckle berries were what was keeping the robins here so late in the winter. The other thing about honeysuckle is they poison the ground for anything but themselves. My neighbor had an ailing pine tree with a honeysuckle under it and a healthy pine tree a few yards away. He finally cut down the honeysuckle and the pine's deterioration stopped.

Not sure if this depends on the type of honeysuckle or not, but the ones around here don't seem to be affecting anything else.. they're also growing around box elders and locust trees, so maybe those types are more resistant.