Black Mouth Berry / 黑嘴巴果

Today, Bei Bei and I went for a short hike up Phoenix Mountain in Zhuzhou, Hunan Province and found a patch of low-growing berries, Melastoma dodecandrum (地棯). It's edible, sweet with an astringent and slightly bitter aftertaste. The whole plant is used in traditional Chinese medicine . According to a 2003 article published in China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica , Five compounds were isolated…