Red Huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium)

This text was originally published in Coastal Grower (formerly The Island Grower) in Victoria, British Columbia. For subscription information, please call Susanne Steele at the Coastal Grower at 250-478-0825.

Huckleberries, blueberries, bilberries and whortleberries are common names for various delicious native berries belonging to the plant genus Vaccinium, known generally as the blueberry. Though the fruit of most of the members of this genus is blue to black, several species such as the grouseberry (Vaccinium scoparium), lingen berry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) and red huckleberry produce red fruit. Though many people are familiar with, and grow various blueberries, few know that the tasty red huckleberry can easily be cultivated in the garden too.

Red huckleberry and its relatives are members of the large and diverse Heather Family (Ericaceae). Red huckleberry forms an airy, green-twigged shrub that may reach 4 m tall, but usually grows to 1-2 m. The branches are flexible and sharp angled, mainly erect but spreading outwards at the ends. They bear thin, small, oval to oblong leaves that fall off over the winter, though a few young leaves may hang on to the spring. Small pinkish green blooms develop along the twigs in April to June. Each flower has the shape of a perfect little swollen bell with 5 tiny teeth around the edge of its mouth. Inside five stamens surround a single pistil. In mid summer the ovary matures into a bright red glistening globe up to 1 cm (0.4") in diameter.

Red huckleberries thrive along the coast of British Columbia ranging inland up major river valleys. Scattered populations also occur in the Kootenays of southeast B.C. The North American range of the species extends from south coastal Alaska to central California. Red huckleberries love the raw humus of the moist floor of closed to partly open forests. They enjoy perching on top of rotting old stumps as if surveying the interior of the woods. Several clumps may line an ancient log laying on the ground. The seeds are widely spread by forest birds.

Red huckleberries will thrive in almost any garden setting in the wet zone of the BC coast and in shaded, regularly watered sites in drier climates. Basically a good rhododendron bed with humusy moist soil makes a good red huckleberry home. Order plants through a garden centre or specialty nursery, or grow them from seed sown in peaty soil. Seedlings need care and attention to bring to garden size. Stems can also be layered to yield new plants. The tastiest and most abundant berries are produced on plants in partly open, occasionally sunny situations.

Aboriginal peoples of the BC coast often made long expeditions to gather the tart and juicy fruit. Berries were either picked by hand, shaken off the bush onto mats, or removed from the bush using a scoop with wooden teeth. The fruit was cleaned of leaves and debris by rolling it down a wet board, a useful technique even today. Some people simply ate the berries fresh, whereas others mashed and dried them into cakes. Berries were also boiled and mixed with red salmon spawn and covered in skunk cabbage leaves and eulachon (a type of fish) grease for later use. Early European settlers learned to use red huckleberries for making preserves and pies that taste like those prepared from sour cherries.

The origins of the Latin name Vaccinium stretch back into the obscurity of ancient Mediterranean languages. It has apparently nothing to do with cows (vacca in Latin) though this origin is sometimes suggested. Parvifolium means small-leaved.