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<\/a>Ripe Huckleberries on barrens by East Pine Island Pond Sep 7, 2026<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Huckleberry (Gaylusaccua baccata<\/em>)* on the barrens by East Pine Island pond yesterday were ready for pickin’. Huckleberries are as sweet as a berry can be, I told my walking mate. He agreed but a few minutes later spat a mouthful out and cursed their sourness.<\/p>\n “Those were not Huckleberries” I said. “There’s no such thing as a sour huckleberry”.<\/p>\n Sure enough I checked the spot out and there was a single shoot of Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa<\/em>) amongst the Huckleberry bushes. There were no berries on it – he had picked them, but the leaves are distinctive, at least they are when you look at them close-up.\u00a0 Chokeberries have finely toothed margins versus the smooth margins of Huckleberry leaves.<\/p>\n Huckleberry (left and right) and Black Chokeberry (centre)<\/strong> Sep 7, 2026\u00a0 Click on image for a larger version and to view differences in leaf margins between the two species.<\/p><\/div>\n Individual \u00a0Black Chokeberry berries are not easily distinguishable those of Black Huckleberry.\u00a0 However I would say there is about a 90% chance that if you see a big cluster of berries in a Huckleberry stand, they will be those of Black Chokeberry;\u00a0 Huckleberry rarely produces dense clusters of berries.<\/p>\n Also common on these barrens (or more specifically in the bushlands on the barrens) and mixed with Huckleberries were wild raisin (aka Witherod, Viburnum nudum). <\/em><\/p>\n Wild Raisin Sep 7, 2026.<\/strong> The purple berries are\u00a0 ripe and edible,<\/p><\/div>\n The leaves and the berries of Wild Raisin are readily distinguishable from those of Huckleberries. When purple Wild Raisin berries dry out a bit, they look like raisins. Wild raisin berries are edible but are tasty only for about a week after they first turn purple.<\/p>\n The purple berries\u00a0 I sampled yesterday were not shrivelled up at all and were not\u00a0 as as sweet as I am used to; I am guessing they need some sun to sweeten them up and dry weather to concentrate the sugars.<\/p>\n Mountain Holly and Black Huckleberry<\/strong> Sep 7, 2026<\/p><\/div>\n Also occurring on these barrens, sometimes mixed with Huckleberry, was Mountain Holly (Ilex mucronata<\/em>). It has \u00a0bright pink to red berries, easily distinguished from those of huckleberry.\u00a0 Mountain Holly berries are not good eating and may be toxic to humans.<\/p>\n “Everybody” , it seems, picks Blueberries (Vccinium<\/em> spp) which peak in early August on the barrens but few pick Huckleberries, perhaps because they are not as distinctive as are Blueberries. And they take more work to get a handful. But there really are enough Huckleberries for everybody. Huckleberries are the most common shrub on the barrens;\u00a0 they are the plants that turn fire engine red in October giving us a final spectacular flash of colour across the barrens landscape before the snow falls.<\/p>\n So if you haven’t yet sampled their sweetness… now is the time!<\/p>\n The barrens by the Governor\u2019s Brook residential area on Oct 17, 2016<\/strong>. Huckleberries offer a final spectacular flash of colour across the barrens landscape before the snow falls. Read more: Osprey Trail: pine barrens & whalebacks<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By David Patriquin Huckleberry (Gaylusaccua baccata)* on the barrens by East Pine Island pond yesterday were ready for pickin’. *There are two Gaylussacia species in NS,\u00a0 G. dumosa, common name “Bog Huckleberry” and G. baccata, common name “Huckleberry” or “Black … Continue reading
\n*There are two Gaylussacia <\/em>species in NS,\u00a0 G. dumosa, <\/em>common name “Bog Huckleberry” and G. baccata, <\/em>common name “Huckleberry” or “Black Huckleberry”.<\/small><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>