Pacific Northwest Wild Berries

Though many berries are edible, it’s best not to eat anything unless you’re completely familiar with it. If in doubt, ask at a forest service station or park visitors center. But whether you eat them or not, the array of berries, including their spring flowers, can be enjoyed as a part of the Pacific Northwest’s magnificent forest flora.

Below are some of the most common berries you'll find in Northwest forests and coastal areas.

Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)

From deep pink flowers of early spring come salmon-colored fruits of summer. The Salmonberry is a member of the raspberry family, but can taste a bit blander than its cousins. Nevertheless, they make good munching out in the woods, where they can be plentiful in damp locations. Along the Oregon Coast they often grow in profusion, especially near streams. Leaves are divided into three toothed leaflets. Flowers are five-petaled and about an inch across. While berries are generally orange, they may also appear in a deeper red. These berries are wide-spread throughout the Northwest.

Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus discolor)

The Himalayan Blackberry is an introduced species that has adapted so completely to the region it is considered a pest when it invades fields and natural areas where it’s not wanted. Nevertheless, its berries are sweet and tasty. For many a child growing up near the woods, summer isn’t really summer without picking blackberries to take home for pies and cobblers or to eat right out of your hand. Adults get into the act too, turning out huge batches of blackberry jam for winter breakfasts. It grows rapidly, forming thick, thorny tangles. Flowers are pink with numerous stamens in the center. Berries ripen toward late summer. The toothed leaflets die back in winter.

Native Trailing Blackberry (Rubus ursinus)

While Himalayan blackberries make themselves most obvious, this native species is less conspicuous. Trailing blackberries are low-growing. They’re most often found in forest clearings and in coastal areas.

Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus)

Another native from the Rubus (raspberry) family, thimbleberry is perhaps best known for its large soft leaves, which make good hand towels and Kleenex in the wild. The maple-shaped leaves are covered with fine hairs that give them a velvety feel. The stems have no thorns, making this a much friendlier berry plant to approach than others in this family. The white tissue-paper textured flowers are followed by soft red raspberry-like fruits beginning in late June and July. They taste rather bland.

Red Huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium)

A soft pink tinges the buds of new spring growth, making the red huckleberry a standout in the forest in late March to early May. Small white and pink urn-shaped flowers give way to smooth red berries in mid-to-late summer. These shrubs are not of the thorny variety as are most members of the Rubus family. Instead their stems are smooth and angled into an upright understory shrub. Leaves are small, thin and bright green. It often grows from stumps that remain after a forest fire or logging. The berries are tasty.

Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)

The dense, dark-green foliage of this huckleberry is prized for floral arrangements. Flowers appear in April, followed by dark blue or black berries in fall. The leaves are thick, ovate and toothed at the edges. Pale pink, bell shaped flowers hang from the underside of the branches. Huckleberries are common along the Pacific Coast from British Columbia to northern California. Locals and coastal visitors alike collect them for pies, jams and syrup. The huckleberries are related to blueberries.

Beach Strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis)

These low creeping strawberries have large white flowers and glossy leaves, making them a favorite groundcover with coastal gardeners. The plant grows wild on sandy Pacific beaches, bluffs and dry plains from Alaska through South America and Hawaii. It’s easy to recognize for its berries that look just like the strawberries at the grocery store, but much smaller. Unlike the woody-stemmed blackberries and raspberries above, strawberries are an herb, with non-woody stems. Their evergreen leaves are divided into three fairly even leaflets. They spread by sending runners out across the ground surface.

These berries can be enjoyed for their beauty, but remember that positive identification is necessary before eating anything in the wild!

References

Wild berries of the Pacific Northwest: on the Bush, on the Table, in the Glass, by J. E. Underhill, (Superior Publishing Co., Seattle, 1974).

Coastal Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest, by Elizabeth L. Horn (Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1993).

Thimbleberry, flower and berry

Himalayan Blackberry Flower

Red Huckleberries

Trailing Blackberry

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