RED HUCKLEBERRY

(Vaccinium parvifolium)

A plant of red huckleberry

Family:  Ericaceae

Other names: Red whortelberry

Red huckleberry inhabits forests throughout the western coast of North America, including Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and California.  It generally grows in coastal regions and west of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada.  With a wide geographic range, red huckleberry is also widely distributed at elevations ranging from sea level to 1600 m.

Description:

An erect deciduous shrub upto 4 m,  sharply angled, slender green branches that become grayish-brown at maturity.

            Leaves are simple, alternate, and up to 3 cm long. Finely serrat. 

            Flowers of greenish-yellow to pinkish, up to 5mm long, bell-shaped, pentamerous, and occurring singly in leaf axils; corolla lobes alternate with sepals. stamens 10, occurring in two whorls of 5 each;  ovary epigynous;   anthers short, pore-bearing tubes and prominent awns or tubules, which are direct apical continuations of the anther lobes; 

Red hucklrberry fruit

            Fries, bright red, upto 10 mm wide, with a somewhat sour taste.

            Seeds 15-20,  smooth, reddish, seeds 1-1.2mm in diameter. 

Utilization:

The fruits are eaten fresh.  .  Some coastal tribes, such as the Sechelt, often eat berries accompanied by oil or animal fat and mixed with berries of other species, such as salal. The fruits are also made into make jams, jellies, and desserts

            The berry juice is used as a mouthwash and appetite stimulant.  It is said to cure sore throats and inflamed gums.   

Cultivation:

In nature, red huckleberry plants generally grows on rotting logs, snags, or stumps as well as on the ground.  In fact it is a dominant component of stump vegetation.  The plants appear to have a preference for loamy and acidic soils with significant decaying organic matter.

            New plants of red huckleberry can be raised by seed.  The germination is around 25 per cent.

Input from:

Freya G. Holm

The Evergreen State College

Olympia WA 98505

USA