Bilberries, Blueberries, Cranberries, Grouseberries, Huckleberries, Whortleberries

The fruits of these plants are all edible and disaster/emergency survival or no, are among the most flavourful that one can gather from the wilds. Some (cranberries) tend to be rather tart while others (blueberries) tend to be purely sweet. All the plants are so closely related that they are placed in a single genus VACCINIUM, their ancient Latin name. There are more than a dozen different species in Western Canada.

They are perennial flowering plants usually with blue indigo, or red coloured berries and are from the section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium  Species in the section Cyanococcus are the most common fruits sold as "blueberries" and are native to North America (commercially cultivated high bush blueberries were not introduced into Europe until the 1930s.

All Vacciniums have rather inconspicuous bell shaped flowers that later develop into many seeded berries. The flowers are white, pale pink or red, sometimes tinged with green.

Blueberries are usually erect. Prostrate shrubs can vary in size from 4 inches to over 13 feet in height. In the commercial production of blueberries, the smaller species are known as "low-bush blueberries" (synonymous with "wild"), while the larger species are known as "high-bush blueberries"(synonymous with cultivated).

The leaves can be deciduous or evergreen, ovate to lanceolate, ½ to 3 inches long and ½ to 11/2 inches broad. The fruit is a berry up to about 1/2 inch in diameter with a flared crown at the end; they are pale greenish at first, then reddish-purple, and finally dark purple when ripe. They are covered in a protective coating of powdery wax, sometimes known as bloom. All blueberries have a sweet taste when mature, with variable acidity. Blueberry bushes typically bear fruit in the middle of the growing season: fruiting times are affected by local conditions such as altitude and latitude, so the height of the crop can vary from May to August depending upon these conditions.

Evergreen Huckleberry, Vaccinium ovatum is the coastal member. It is claimed that some of the West Coast Indigenous tribes once greatly valued the fruit of the “Winter Huckleberry” which are considered good for the liver. It is also claimed that some indigenous tribes once ate the berries as a ceremonial food to ensure health and prosperity for the coming seasons. Actually the berry matures in the fall, but ripe fruit can hang on the plant until December, making it an indispensable source of winter food for many animals. This is the only Vaccinium with leaves that last through the winter. The 1-inch long leaves are further featured by sawtoothed margins. The fruit, which ripens in early fall, is usually black, shiny, and sweet. However, the berries of some plants turn red brown, but they lack the juiciness of the black ones.

Red  Huckleberry, Vaccinum parvifolium, is the most abundant Vaccinium in the lowland forests west of the Cascades. It is a rather tall shrub, 4-8 feet, with strongly riged green stems. Its growth characteristic is open and airy. It loves rotting wood and shade. The semitranslucent, bright red fruit is ready for harvest in August and September.

False Huckleberry,Menziesia ferruginea, is a poisonous plant that like the true huckleberries, has small urn shaped flowers (above). They are very similar to the Vaccinium species. The FRUIT of this plant is a small many seeded capsule. However, sometimes there are small pink berry like "fruit" on the underside of its leaves--this is actually a fungus (Exobasidium vaccinis). While all parts of this plant are poisonous, these fungal "berries" are edible

Oval-leafed Blueberry, Vaccinium ovaliffolium , grows in higher elevations than the red huckle-berry. The pinkish flowers appear before the oval leaves have reached half their mature size of slightly less than 2 inches. From about August to October, depending in exact location, one can pick the blue/black fruit, which is coated with a whit wax/powder.

Grouse berry, Whorleberry, Little Leaf Huckleberry, Vaccinum scoparium, is the diminutive form of the shrubby Vacciniums. Scoparium means broom, and the plant appears as an irregular green tuft of tiny branches protruding from the ground. The twiggy stems are completely green. The pale leaves are thin, nearly egg shaped, and ½ inch long. Being less than 2 feet and more commonly only about 8 inches tall, the plant is a woody ground cover, sometimes covering huge areas of an open forest floor. Please, avoid walking, or camping on it: Breaking the main stem can, at the very least, adversely affect the growth of the plant. Since not all plants seem to fruit, and since birds and small animals all eat the semitranslucent red berries, discovery of a small patch of ripe fruit is something to cherish.

Bog Cranberry, Vaccinum oxycoccos, is a creeping, tiny shrub that thrives in bogs and swamps. Spagnum mass is its companion plant. The small leaves are deep green above and whitish below. The leaf edge is rolled downward. The deep red fruit can reach the size of ½ inch in diameter, looking very much oversized on this delicate plant.

© Al (Alex, Alexander) D. Girvan