American Berry Species

Native Americans mixed cranberries with venison and fat to make pemmican.

Avid hikers may be curious about edible berries along the trail and serious gardeners may prefer indigenous shrubbery with colorful fruits for beauty or for feeding local wildlife. However, the search for native berries takes may twists and turns. The USDA lists more than 700 plants in the U.S. with the common name "berry." The real surprise may be that the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden notes that many of the things people believe are berries, are not classified as such.

Berries Defined

The common idea of berries is that of small fruits growing in clusters, and can easily be eaten raw and whole. Fairchild Gardens clarifies that a berry is a fleshy fruit with many seeds inside. The outside can be soft or hard and leathery. Strawberries are not true berries, but are related to sunflowers. Although blackberries, raspberries and mulberries fit the common idea of a berry, according to scientific classifications they are not, being in the family as olives, coconuts and peaches. Foods that meet the definition as a berry include: tomatoes, oranges, kiwi, watermelon, cucumbers, grapes, blueberries, cranberries, passion fruit, papaya; peppers and surprisingly bananas.

Blueberries

The USDA lists 23 species varieties of blueberries, all of which are native to America's lower 48 states. Of these, 21 species are of the Genus Vaccinium, a sub-division of the family in the hierarchy of plant classifications that quite simply means blueberry. Of the other two species, one is a hawthorn within the family of roses and the other is related to the willow.

Cranberries

Cranberries were first used by Native Americans as a food, fabric dye and as a healing agent; according to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association. The USDA Plants Database lists eight species of cranberries, five of which are distinctly native to America. These include the cranberry and small cranberry. Both the American and European cranberrybush belong to the honeysuckle family and are native to America. However the European cranberrybush is also native to Europe and is sometimes imported.

Going Native

If planting berry bushes, experts from Sialis recommend choosing native plants. These experts warn that non-native, or exotic, plants can cause serious ecological harm as non-native plants have a lack of natural predators to control the populations. Gardeners have a variety of native berry bush and tree options. The silky dogwood and American beautyberry are shrubs that produce blue and purple fruits, while the red current exhibits bright red berries.

References

• Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden: Classifying Fruit
• Sialis: Environmentally Responsible Landscaping for Bluebirds and Other Birds
• USDA: Plants Native Status Jurisdiction and Native Status Codes
• USDA: Plants Profile -- Silky Dogwood - Native Status L48 N
• Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association: History of Cranberries
• USDA: Search Results for Common Name Berry

Resources

• ScienceViews: Skunkbush
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Rhus trilobata Nutt.- Skunkbush
• USDA: Plants Database
• USDA: Plants Profile -Southern Mountain Cranberry
• USDA: Plants Profile - European Cranberrybush