Now, that’s old!!
During the winter, Katriina Anttila of the Swedish seed saver organisation (SESAM) kindly sent me seed from two old Swedish Hablitzia plants. They were sown on 24th January and put outside to stratify (cold treatment). I potted one of them   up a few days ago (from Norrtälje; see also the picture). Seed was also sent to the Nordic Gene Bank (Nordgen) as a backup and the accession form for the Norrtälje seed can be seen below. I believe seed is also being offered to SESAM members!

I always ask for as much information about the history of the plant, how it was used etc. and this is what Katriina found out:

“This Hablitzia plant is growing by a toy shop called Dubbelboa Leksaker och Hobby.  Address: Tillfällegatan 3, 76130 Norrtälje, Sweden. Owner of the shop: Bo and Ingrid Andersson. Their Facebook page: https://sv-se.facebook.com/Dubbelboa-Leksaker-och-Hobby-304814032902981 

Talking to Bo Andersson, he said that the plant has been growing there even before the previous owners, who had the shop since the 1950’s. So according to Bo Andersson, the plant is at least 50-60 years old. He didn’t know that it is edible. By the way, Bo Andersson told me that botanists have been visiting this plant several times. They also told him not to destroy the plant, but to preserve it. Here is one picture account from a field trip that Gothenburg Botanical Society made to Uppland, and there are several pictures from this exact plant by the toy shop. http://www.bfig.se/Upplandsecondday.html  (see below)”

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