Viburnum edule : Highbush-cranberry

Scientific Name:

Kingdom: Plantae

Division:

• Tracheophyta (vascular)
• Spermatophyta (seed bearing)
Angiospermae (enclosed seed)

Class: Dicoteldonae (two seed-leaves)

Family: Caprifoliaceae (Honeysuckle Family)

Genera: Viburnum (Arrow-wood) (Classic Latin name for a species of this genus.)

Species: edule (Lat. edible from edere= to eat; reffering to the edible berries)

Synonym(s): V.opulus

English Name(s):

Highbush-cranberry, Squashberry, Pembina, Lowbush-cranberry

First Nation Names:

Structure:

• Bark smooth, dark gray.
• Erect branching shrub to 2 meters tall.

Leaves:

• Opposite
• 4-7 cm long
• Palmately viened with 3 to 5 nerved (main viens).
• Margins coarsely toothed.
• On a petiole (stalk).
• Upper leaves usually simple while lower leaves usually 3 lobed. Are orbicular or ovate to obovate in shape.

Reproductive Parts:

• Flowers perfect (Bisexual).
• Calyx (sepals) less than 1mm long, 5-lobed.
• Corolla (petals) milky white, 4-7 mm wide, 5-lobed with lobes much longer than the tube.
• Flowers in compound corymbose cymes originating from the leaf axils (bases).

Seed:

• Drupes (berries) 8-15 mm in diameter, acidic, juicy, bright red, edible.
• Fruit are 1-seeded drupes (berry-like).

Not to Be Confused With:

• Ribes triste (Wild Red Currant) is a simmilar looking shrub of same size, 3-5 lobed leaves and red berries.
• R.triste Flowers (and berries) are in drooping racemes not compound corymbose cymes.
• Leaves R.triste (Wild Red Currant) are similar but are always 3-5 lobed rather than the simple to 3-lobed leaves of V.edule (Highbush Cranberry).

Physiology:

• Caution: Some people are sensitive to the berries. It has been reported that they can cause stomach and intestinal disturbance when eaten raw. Other folk eat them raw with no side effects.

Life Cycle:

• Perennial

Seasonal Cycle:

• Finished blooming by mid-July.
• Leaves are deciduous (falling off).

Animal Uses:

• Grouse and other birds like to eat the berries. It is said that if the berries have started to ferment on the shrub (which they will do) they will cause the birds to get 'tipsy'.

Habitat:

• Woods, thickets, open slopes, stream banks and lake shores.

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Traditional Gwich'in:

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