Twila’s Reviews > When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy > Status Update

Mom taught me the concept of "if there are three, let it be." This worked because poison oak, which makes clustered fruit that could be mistaken for unripe blackberries, has compound leaves with three leaflets, whereas wild blackberry was in the "if there are five, let it thrive" category of plants that are not likely to be harmful and possess compound leaves with five leafiets

This use of pecans by Indigenous people should not be surprising given that that the name of the nut, “pecan" itself is thought to be derived from the Algonquin word "pakani, which translates to "a nut too hard to crack by hand" or, alternatively, "a nut requiring a stone to crack."