Nov 06 2008
Berries Through the Seasons: Red Winter Berries
Our driveway is lined with these beautiful berries. I can’t understand how, but these berries have appeared to have been in their prime for months on end.
I took these first two photos a good month or two ago.
And now, a month or two later, the leaves have turned but the berries still seem to be in perfect order.
Look, here they are in the first snow! I picked a berry, and it’s still as plump and firm as it ever was.
Does anyone know what these berries might be called?
Gorgeous! I love to see berries like that! I grew up in cherry tree country and always loved the entire season of those threes — blossoms, berries, and then turning orangey-red in the fall. I miss them!
All we have here are the ornamental varieties and they are pretty but not as lovely as the cherry pies, turnovers, ice cream, and other goodies we enjoyed as children.
Sigh.
:)
Blessings,
Lacy
I don’t know what the berries are-but they are beautiful! And an amazingly lone growing season too.
Oh oh oh! I am very new to wild edibles identification and without leaves to examine it is difficult to tell but this looks like a highbush cranberry to me (or perhaps its close relative the squashberry)! They aren’t actually cranberries, they are Viburnum trilobum and Virburnum edule respectively. I’m going by the pictures in Edible Wild Plants by Elias and Dykeman.
Although you would obviously need to do more reserach on this…have you tasted them? I’ll be interested to hear what you find out!
becca
http://swampyankeesfromouterspace.blogspot.com
Those look like currants to me…both the leaf and the berry look right for currants. They make a mean jam too. Anyhow, search currants on google images and I think you’ll find your match. We had a couple of bushes of these as kids and they were fun…we (my bro and I ) mainly smashed them on each other. Fun times!
They look like currents to me, too. You should always take one into town with you — I bet someone there can confirm.
How wonderful it would be if they taste as good as they look!
hmmm… berry pics.. could be choke cherries? I have no idea if that is an official term or an Island term …. that is my guess!
Hmmm…currants had been my first guess when I saw these berries but…currants, atleast the ones I’ve seen, are more like grapes, with berries coming off of a long central stem (see: http://www.pick-your-own.org.uk/currants.htm).
Highbush cranberries on the other hand have flowers (and therefore fruits) in clusters. (scroll about halfway down the page: http://www.ontariowildflower.com/shrub.htm). The berries, like in the picture posted above, fall kind of flat because they originate from the same place on the stem.
You may just have to wait until it flowers again to see.
becca
Although I have lived on the Island for most of my sixty years I am not sure what the official name is for these berries. Could be Hi bush Cranberries, Choke Cherries or even just plain red winter berries. But…The part that I really like about the berries is watching the Robbins and Cedar Waxwings eating them. Although there can be a couple of problems occur at times.
1) The berries can ferment and the birdies get a little drunk after having a feed.
2) The berries can act as a laxative and the red in the berries makes for interesting droppings.
Leaving the berries on the trees should attract some feathered friends to your property this winter.
Smiles :o)
Gary
You, my friends, are geniuses!
I was pretty useless trying to figure this out on my own… Typing “red berries” in a google search turned out to be pretty much just as useless as you can imagine it would be!
I needed a little guidance and a prod in the right direction, and you gave it to me. Thank you!
I checked out a bunch of images of red currants, chock cherries, and high-bush cranberries.
I agree that all three are splendidly similar! Well done, you botanist types, well done!
I can tell by comparing photos that, although similar, they are not choke cherries. Now whether they are red currents or high-bush cranberries is difficult to discern. I don’t even know myself!
Becca, your point about how the berries grow off the stem was very helpful. For this reason, I think that they’re probably high-bush cranberries, but I am not %100 certain.
Thank you, wise friends and people of the woods!
Yes, these are indeed red currants. I grew up on a farm w/ lots of misc. berry bushes, and these were my “fallback” berries when the nearby raspberries were all dried up. They pretty much stick around forever, as they have tough skins.
Excellent in jam w/ lots of sugar, I believe. Enjoy!
Mystery solved. I didn’t even play. Of course, I never was very good at plant identification. My beloved Aunt Judy could tell you its latin name and social security code. Okay, not the social security code but you get the idea. She’s great to take on walks because she points out various plants and even eats some of them. She’s my hero.
Blessings!
Lacy
I can safely identify two varieties of plants: dead and alive. :-)
LOVELY pics!