Out in the Garden - Red Huckleberry

The delicate, bright green, zigzagging branchlets of Vaccinium parvifolium, and its  glowing, slightly translucent red berries have always captured my interest and appreciation. A mid-sized native shrub, red huckleberry has an affinity for Douglas-fir and hemlock-dominated forests, where it is often found growing right out of the duff at the base of the trees, out of stumps, or on nurse logs. Thanks to birds' dispersal of their seeds, red huckleberries have been known to grow out of snags up to 50 feet off the ground. 

If you'd like to add red huckleberries to your native plant habitat, amend the soil with ample decomposing woody plant material, provide a shady spot, and keep moist—but not wet! — until well established. They are not as adaptable and easy to grow as Vaccinium ovatum, the evergreen huckleberry, but the glow of their berries and their graceful form make them well worth a try! The berries are enjoyed by birds and small mammals, and some people actually prefer them to cranberries.

The Latin name 'parvifolium' comes from two words: 'parvus' meaning small, and 'folium' meaning leaves.