Bearberries,Arctostaphylos

Bearberries are rather mealy, and tasteless, so they are not going to be your favourite berry, or food, of choice, but, they are very often abundant; and they remain on branches all year, so they can, and do, provide an important survival food-for all animals. Survival is not about your favourite and many Canadians have traditionally used them for food and to survive in hard times.

Edibility: Edible, not palatable

 

Arctostaphylos alpina, with the common names Alpine Bearberry, and Red Bearberry is a trailing shrub, and usually found growing in the mountains. The leaves are wrinkled with veins, and the flowers are pinkish-white. The berries when ripe are purple-black and juicy but insipid. The taste is improved by cooking.
Distribution:
Circumpolar: at high latitudes, from Scotland east across Scandinavia, Russia, Northern Canada, and Greenland.At southern limits: Europe, in the Pyrenees and the Alps; Asia, to the Altay Mountains and Mongolia; and in North America, to British Columbia in the west and Quebec in the east.
This plant is also INCORRECTLY, now called kinnikinnick; which can not be; now or ever, because kinnikinnick is not; and never was; a berry, or an individual plant; said usage is but another Amerifictation.
Common Black Bearberry, Artostaphylos uva-ursi,  a trailing shrub with leathery, spoon shaped evergreen leaves. Flowers appear from May To June and produce the mealy fruits by late summer. Grows in well drained, often gravelly, or sandy soils, open woods, and rocky, exposed sites at all elevations throughout British Columbia. 
Hairy Manzanita, Arctostaphylos columbiana, is a much taller shrub Fruits are red. Grows in open coniferous forests, and openings in extreme South western British Columbia.
© Al (Alex, Alexander) D. Girvan. All rights Reserved.