There are certain families of berries that are edible. I think it’s easier to remember the edible berries if they can be grouped together that way.
First of all there is the Vaccinium genus. This is the genus that contains blueberries. Some of the vaccinium plants also go by the name Gaylussacia something (e.g. huckleberries).
Then there’s the amelanchier genus- a juneberry is an example of this. These and several other berries are also listed under the pyrus genus. Wintergreen is from the genus gaultheria, which includes a number of edible berry plants.
Genus rubus includes blackberries and raspberries. Genus prunus includes wild plums and cherries. The pyrus genus includes crabapples, apples and pears- there appears to be some labeling crossover with the amelanchier genus, as mentioned above. The ribes genus includes currants and gooseberries. Genus rosa includes rosehips.
Okay- so what isn’t captured by this list? Barberrys- genus berberis, bearberry, bunchberry, crowberry, elderberry- genus sambucus, hackberry/sugarberry, mulberry, partridgeberry, strawberries
Put these all together and you get most of the edible berries in Canada.
To look for berries under the genus names you can use the
search page from the plants for a future database.
posted at 14:48 on Sun, 17 Oct, 2004 |
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