This would make a fantastic children's book/"kidcyclopedia" for teaching kids the fruits and vegetables

I take a similar approach in this children's book: https://github.com/ralienpp/book-two. In the end there is a section about the trees* that grow in the area, their leaves and fruits - so kids can learn to identify them. I'll incorporate some of these materials in the next iterations of the book.

The first link in the repo readme is for the on-screen PDF, you can look at the pictures.

* One of the characters in the story uses trees to figure out where they are and find their way back home.

It would be cool if there was like an interactive and facillitated way to filter all the stuff for that which is local and that they can seek out, like Pokemon Go or whatever

Maybe not. Would be confusing for the children.

After taking a quick look, many of this fruit varieties don't exist anymore. Other were renamed and other paintings reflect fruit diseases, not the fruit itself. Botanical art is valuable art, but this work does not reflect the present.

Why is ur sense of wonder so ant-sized?

Maybe it could focus on what's still around but there's a section later on where they deal with older or non-existent stuff.

How disappointing; an entire article about a new fruit but not a word about whether it's edible or what it tastes like.

Figuring that out in a safe way is likely not easy.

In survival conditions, the process is messy, painful and dangerous. If you don't have a strong need, I'd think you'd happily wait for the next person to figure it out.

I forget where i read it, whether book or anecdotal, i wanna say there are general rules for testing these

I think first you're supposed to rub the leaves on your skin and see if a rash or reaction occurs. If not you proceed to lick or chew the leaf/stem, spit it out, then await a any reactions...

This continues to consuming a small piece, then the fruit, ... Etc.

Again just what i remember hearing before

Which, for certain mushrooms, would lead to concluding that you can enjoy a plate of the tasty speciments. After which your DNA will be ripped to pieces over the course of a week, followed shortly by death from general organ failure.

Wow that's insane. Any examples in particular? I knew about some plant seeds that if eaten raw have toxins like canavanine that cause malformed proteins but wouldn't be obvious at first or (afaik) if you still overwhelmingly had enough protein in your diet... but getting your DNA completely shredded like that from a source other than radiation sounds so intense.

Destroying Angel and similar mushroom's have a toxin in it which kills some kind of rna enzyme needed for cell's to function properly. Not sure if it exactly fits the bill of DNA shredding but it'll give you irreversible organ failure in a matter of hours

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroying_angel

Yeah, I think this kind of procedure is basically for "you're stuck in the wild, and if you don't find something to eat soonish, you're dead anyway".

So it's inherently risky, not sure there _is_ a non-risky way out. But you definitely wouldn't want to do this without need.

This happened on Naked and Afraid where some guy found chicken mushrooms but didn’t boil them before eating them and almost died of liver failure.

Not mesmerizing, probably. Coprosma is a Rubiaceae, the most famous member of the family by a mile is the coffee. I would assume mildly sweet without any particular taste

Coprosma shrubs (of a different species) can be bought in any decent plant nursery from warm and temperate areas, the plant is hard, easy to care and famous by the lacquered appearance of its small leaves.