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Fields, Forests & Wetlands Foods of Eastern North America
A Complete Wild Food Guide
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Huckleberry (Black)
Season: August
Urban, Rural or Both: Rural mainly
Black Huckleberry: (Gaylussacia baccata). There are plants that are in the Vaccinium Genus that are also called Huckleberries, though that would technically make them either a Blueberry or Bilberry. This entry is only for the Gaylussacia Genus, the Gaylussacia baccata specifically.
There are more Huckleberries than just the Black Huckleberry, start here to find out more about this group of berries.
Good for eating fresh or cooked, but there are two things about this one. The seeds are bigger than a similar sized Blueberry, and the taste, in my opinion, is not quite as good, but that could just be me or a regional variance. Very often the same plants have fruit that is different tasting in different areas. So, if given the choice, I'll take Blueberries, if this is what is around, I'm happy to pick them. They seem to occur in more or less the same places and habitats as Blueberries.
Growing this plant in your home garden:
For detailed instructions on how to grow Huckleberries, go to my Wild Foods Home Garden website Huckleberry page..
Description:
- Plant Size: Up to 1 meter (3 feet) tall
- Duration: Perennial Shrub that will form clonal colonies
- Leaf Shape: Generally Ovate to Obovate
- Leaf Phyllotaxis (Leaf Arrangement) on branch: Alternate
- Leaf Size: 2.5-5.7 cm (1 to 2 1/4 inches) long and 1.3-2.5 cm(1/2 to 1 inch) across
- Leaf Margin: Entire (smooth edged)
- Leaf Notes: Small yellow dots (glands) on both sides of the leaves, very short thin stem, turn red in fall and stay on plant longer than most deciduous trees and shrubs.
- Flowers: Form on a raceme coming from the leaf axils (where leaf stem meets twig), blooms from late spring to early summer, reddish to pinkish, hang down from stems, urn or bell shaped about 7-9 mm (1/3) inch long and about 6-7 mm (1/4 inch) across
- Fruit: 7-9 mm (about 1/3 inch) diameter, blue-black when ripe, green when unripe, sweet, juicy with 10 seeds per fruit, similar looking to a Blueberry, but taste is a little different. Seeds are bigger than Blueberry seeds
- Bark: Stems that are young can be yellow-green to red-brown with or without hairs. Older stems are light grey to blackish.
- Habitat: Sandy, rocky areas, root system can withstand forest fires and resprout quickly. Often found in boggy areas in the drier parts, does not like alkaline soils such as those over limestone, does well in acidic soils that are thin over bedrock and will form clonal colonies in these areas where the soil is too thin for large trees
- Recipe search on the web here (Google search) and here (Bing search).
- Pictures on the web here (Google images) and here (Bing images).
- USDA distribution map and plant profile here.
- The Biota of North America Program (BONAP) distribution map here. BONAP map color key here.
Black Huckleberry: (Gaylussacia baccata) range. Distribution map courtesy of U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA Natural Resources Service) and used in accordance with their policies.
Huckleberry drawing. (USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Vol. 2: 696)
Huckleberry drawing. This simplified drawing clearly shows leaf arrangement and flower structure. (USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA NRCS. Wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.)
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