# blueberry, not blueberry



## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

what is a plant that looks like a blueberry but is not?
we were climbing a ridge last week and I saw what I thought was a blueberry bush. There were in fact several. There were a few 'blueberries' on them still that looked a little dried out, so I ate one. Almost the whole thing was one solid seed and it tasted yucky, so I spit it out. What was it?

the bushes were low ground bushes and had a only a few stems .


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

If you were further south, I'd say sparkleberry:

http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/Sparkleberry/sparkleb.htm



But I don't think they grow that far up.


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

problem is, I dont think there were any leaves left on the stem. just a cluster of a few berries near the tip of the branch.


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

Might be Huckleberries. Here in MI, they usually bloom in summer, in the northern part of the lower Penninsula. I used to eat them when on the late June Cross State Trail Ride. Taste like blueberries, just very small. These grew wild in the woods, had to keep an eye out for Black Bears! Bushes were about knee high, with a few berries on each one, so you had to work to get a handful.

Maybe the birds and animals missed a few, to let you find them. 

I have got Elderberries growing in my garden, also tiny and dark. Birds don't seem to like them until they get into Fall, so they hang around on bushes until then. Elderberries were wild at one time, might be a possibility. There are several kinds of Elderberries, if you wanted to look them up. I do remember an old song about Elderberry wine!

All the woods vines, trees and plants seem to have a VERY abundant crop this year with the rain. Grapes are so thick the small trees are bent over. Plenty of black cherries and other dark berries, Honeysuckle in the woods here, so no birds should be hungry right now.


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

I was thinking maybe huckleberries, but are the seeds that big? They tasted nasty. I guess I won't actually know until next year when they start over, sigh...


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## Meconella (Dec 21, 2008)

We hunted huckleberries as kids. They are just small blueberries and also have small seeds.


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## Harmless Drudge (Mar 9, 2010)

lonelyfarmgirl said:


> what is a plant that looks like a blueberry but is not?
> we were climbing a ridge last week and I saw what I thought was a blueberry bush. There were in fact several. There were a few 'blueberries' on them still that looked a little dried out, so I ate one. Almost the whole thing was one solid seed and it tasted yucky, so I spit it out. What was it?
> 
> the bushes were low ground bushes and had a only a few stems .


Black currants. The wild ones have very little fruit and are mostly seed. Their leaves look almost like crinkly maple leaves, but drop at the same time as early deciduous trees. The wild currants are rather useless. Some places actively seek to destroy them because they are an infection vector in white pine blister rust.


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

Thats very interesting. I will look that up. I know the leaves had already mostly dropped, and there weren't a ton of them, but several in that immediate vicinity. I wonder if they would cause problems if you had domestic currants planted nearby?


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