What's it??? Solved: Creeping Snowberry - edible

[SwampDonkey]

Creeping, pubescent stem with rounded waxy leaves and white berries.

So what is it?

[sprucebunny]

Partridge berry   Mitchella repens

[SwampDonkey]

Try again, good guess.

[Tom]

Gaultheria hispidula
Creeping Snowberry   ?

[SwampDonkey]

Gaultheria hispidula
Creeping Snowberry   ?

Yup!    Tom do you folks have some down that far? It's hard to find them at the right timing to get the berries. But they are edible.

[Tom]

Are you kidding?   Snow is a descriptive word here used for up-there. 


I don't know the range of the one you have.  We have a Snowberry  (Chiococca alba) but I'm not familiar with it.  I like eating stuff in the woods and if it were very popular fare, I'm sure I would have tried it. 

[SwampDonkey]

It's a species of wintergreen, maybe it's not that far south. There are very few wild white berries I'de dare eat unless I knew what they were. If you eat a handful of white baneberry for instance, you'd literally loose your breath in a short time.

[Riles]

My dendro professor was showing us American mistletoe Phoradendron serotinum last week and I mentioned the old survival school rule on berries. 90% of white are poisonous, 90% of blue are edible, and red are 50/50. He'd never heard of it and didn't think they were poisonous. I hit the Internet and man did I find conflicting information. Somebody's just gonna have to go out there and chomp down on a handful.

[SwampDonkey]

My dendro professor was showing us American mistletoe Phoradendron serotinum last week and I mentioned the old survival school rule on berries. 90% of white are poisonous, 90% of blue are edible, and red are 50/50. He'd never heard of it and didn't think they were poisonous. I hit the Internet and man did I find conflicting information. Somebody's just gonna have to go out there and chomp down on a handful.

It's never been confirmed, so I wouldn't want to be the guinee pig. 

Another white berry is from the red osier dogwood, it's not poisonous but very unpleasant.

[Stephen_Wiley]

Around these parts, snowberry (Symphiocarpus spp.) are considered poisonous natives use to use them in bread mix.  However even they recorded serious upset stomach along with the runs.s.s.s.s.s.s...s.s.
 

[SwampDonkey]

Around these parts, snowberry (Symphiocarpus spp.) are considered poisonous natives use to use them in bread mix.  However even they recorded serious upset stomach along with the runs.s.s.s.s.s.s...s.s.
 

Gotta be careful of the species for sure.

[Dana]

Swampdonkey, we have a plant here in Michigan that looks very similiar. However the berrys are red. My dad always called it squawberry.

[SwampDonkey]

Could it be wintergreen? Also a Gaultheria species.  And an ingredient I'm told of the mighty RUST REAPER.

Does it have a mint smell when crushed?
http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=148

There is also partridge berry.
http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/mrepens.htm

[Dana]

The link to the partridge berry is it. Thanks

[SwampDonkey]

Just bringing this post up top because of another Gaultheria species, one found in the Pacific Northwest. It may be of economic importance according to this link. If you ever had to work in it, you might not be as passionate about it. Salal is very tolerant of both open sun and shady conditions. In coastal areas it can form deep, nearly impenetrable thickets.

http://www.royalroads.net/ntfp/casestudies/case-studies/salal/

It is salal, Gaultheria shallon. It grows extensively on the lowlands of Graham Island (one of the Queen Charlotte Islands in NW BC).