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Printable information sheet to attach to Ieva. Bird cherry, hackberry, hagberry, or Mayday tree
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Ceļotājs ir veltīts Latvijas bagātībai - dažādiem kokiem.
Stārastiņ, velna bērns,
Nesit man ar ievas kūju,
Dievs tev liks nosmirdēt
Kā tam ievas kociņam. /LD 31499-501./
Rijnieciņ bāleliņ,
Nekul meitas ievas kūju:
Dancos tava dvēselīte
Ievas kūjas galiņā. /LD 31600./
Vagarīte vagarēja,
Ievas nūja rociņā.
Dievs dod tev tā nobirt,
Kā ievai ziedi birst. /LD 31515./
The TB is dedicated to the treasures of Latvia - to the different trees.
The fruit of this tree is seldom used in western Europe, but, once upon a time, it may possibly have been commonly eaten farther east. According to Herodotus writing about 2500 years ago, a strange race of men and women, all bald from birth, who live in what may possibly be the foothills of the Urals, pick the bean-sized fruits of a tree called "pontic" to make a black juice from, and from the leftover lees of the fruit make a cake-like dish, this juice and cakes being the main sustenance of the bald peoples. According to A. D. Godley, a translator of the works of Herodotus published in the early 1920s, it is said that the Cossacks make a similar juice from Prunus padus and call this juice a similar name as the bald men called their juice according to Scythian traders according to Herodotus.
It was used medicinally during the Middle Ages.
The bark of the tree, placed at the door, was supposed to ward off plague.
The variety commutata is sold as an ornamental tree in North America under the common name Mayday. It is valued for its hardiness and spring display of fragrant, white flowers. The common name Mayday tree is not related to the distress signal mayday, as the name for the tree was in use prior to the adoption of "mayday" as an international distress signal.
A taboo on the use of the wood of the hackberry (or hagberry) was reported by natives of Advie, in northeast Scotland, being regarded as a "witches tree".
In Siberia the fruit of the tree is used for culinary purposes. The dried berries are ground and turned into flour of varying degree of fineness that serves as an ingredient in the bird-cherry cake. The flour is brown, and so is the cake, even though there is no chocolate in it. The flour and the cake can be purchased at stores and bakeries. Fresh berries can be run through the grinder and turned into marmalade.