wolfyvegan

Hello and thank you for your thoughtful comment. In general, I agree. I was not insinuating that Dipteryx oleifera trees (or plants in general) are only valuable as a source of food. They provide a myriad of ecosystem services, and all life in the forest is connected and interdependent. I simply meant that while some fruit-bearing plants are widely planted outside of their native range for food (durians, mangos, peaches, and probably most things that we both eat), this particular tree is probably not worth planting for its fruit alone (especially considering its size), and therefore it doesn't make sense to grow it outside of its native range as one might do with some other fruit trees. Within its native range, it could be worth planting for the sake of restoring the forest, in which case eating the fruit would be a bonus.

Of course, no animal is food.

It's more beautiful than delicious, honestly. The fruit doesn't have a very strong flavour, and the spines and seeds make it difficult to eat many of them out of hand, BUT blended with other things, it can be quite nice.

Is "spikes" a euphemism for durian?

Do you have plum blight in your area? Something to be aware of if planting native Prunus species. If you don't have problems with fungus there, then I definitely recommend Prunus americana.

I also second the suggestion of Diospyros virginiana. I've heard praise of the 'Meader' cultivar in particular.

Are you familiar with Amelanchier laevis? It should be native to Ohio.

For those finding this post for the first time, OP is now an admin of https://lemmy.vg/ which is a Lemmy instance run by vegans for vegans.

There are people trying to reforest the Amazon pasture lands with food forests which should reduce the incidence of fires as well as providing many other benefits.

The Dunstan chestnut is a traditional hybrid developed decades ago. It wasn't exactly the same as the original American chestnut (Castanea dentata), but was that really such a problem?

There is one type of regenerative agriculture that is good and should be promoted: Regenerative Veganic Agriculture. Veganic farming is the organic cultivation of plants and crops with a minimal amount of exploitation or harm to any animal. For instance, no use of animal manure or bone/fish meal, and use instead mulch, vegetable compost, green manure, or chipped branched wood. No pesticides and no use of animals to plough fields either. Veganic farmers try to produce their sources of fertility directly on the farm and use crop rotation and polyculture. Regenerative Veganic Agriculture is the transformation of veganic gardening or small-scale veganic farming into a scalable solution to address the current global environmental crisis.

Regenerative veganic agriculture is exactly what is needed, especially tree-based agriculture (agroforestry) using syntropic methods to build fertility. If more people would convert pasture land to largely tree-based agricultural systems, like various projects are doing around the world, then that would spare existing forests from agricultural expansion while simultaneously planting trees as a by-product of growing food on land that would not have otherwise been allowed to naturally reforest itself anyway. It is by far the most sensible and sustainable form of agriculture, with the potential to be the most ethical as well.

Thank you for taking the time!

Lychee can grow at tropical latitudes, but it needs hot (rainier) summers and (drier) winters w/ 50-150 hours at 0-12°C in order to fruit well, so it's more of a subtropical fruit.

!fruit@slrpnk.net welcomes you!

Thank you for sharing such beautiful words of wisdom in these troubled times.