Nature  Bulletin No, 311-A   September 7, 1968
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Richard B. Ogilvie, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:BLUEBERRIES AND HUCKLEBERRIES

In 1831 in northwestern Wisconsin, the traveler and historian, Henry 
Schoolcraft, wrote: "Both banks of the river are literally covered with 
ripe whortleberry -- it is large and delicious. The Indians feast on it. 
Thousands and thousands of bushels of this fruit could be gathered with 
little labor. It is seen in the dried state at every lodge. All careful Indian 
housewives dry it . ., . Pieces of duck were thrown in a large kettle of 
boiling water, which was thickened with whortleberries for the family 
supper". Indians and explorers sometimes included these berries in their 
preparation of pemmican.

Whortleberry from the Anglo-Saxon and Bilberry from the Danish are 
European names for Blueberries, Fifteen or 20 species of them are 
found in North America. Most kinds bear fruit in clusters. There are 
also about 40 species of Huckleberries, all native to North America, but 
in some parts of the United States the name "huckleberry" is improperly 
used for both blueberries and true huckleberries. Other people 
mistakenly believe that blueberries always have blue or bluish fruit, and 
that all huckleberries are black or purplish black. However, there are 
dark-colored blueberries, and huckleberries that are distinctly blue, but 
there is a sure way to tell one from the other: blueberries have a large 
number of tiny soft seeds, whereas the huckleberries have 10 rather 
large, bony seeds.

The Black Huckleberry is the most widespread of the many kinds and 
the only one found in the Chicago region. It is a low-growing shrub, 
from one to three feet tall. The small stiff oval leaves are very resinous 
and feel sticky when pinched. Its fruit is spicy and sweet but rather 
"seedy".

The Highbush, the Lowbush and the Canada Blueberries are also found 
in a few places near Chicago. These reach their greatest abundance and 
importance in the other states and the Canadian provinces around the 
Great Lakes, and in New England. Although only a part of the wild 
crop is harvested, over three million dollars worth per year is picked 
and sold -- fresh, canned or frozen. Six wild species are marketed 
commercially. All kinds require an acid soil.

The highbush blueberry grows in swamps and woodlands and may 
exceed 15 feet in height. The lowbush and Canada are upland species 
averaging about a foot high. In nature, the seeds of these low 
blueberries are spread by birds, mammals and various other ways. They 
are so variable that no two plants originating from seed are exactly 
alike. A few attempts have been made to cultivate them but most 
lowbush blueberry land receives little care except for systematic 
burning, every third year, which prevents a crop that year but destroys 
the weeds and the insect pests such as the blueberry maggot.

Within the past 50 years, since the discovery that the wild plants are 
always associated with a nitrogen-gathering fungus, the highbush 
blueberry has been cultivated extensively, especially in New Jersey. 
Dozens of hybrids or varieties have been developed for various 
qualities such as size, flavor, color, yield, date or ripening and 
resistance to disease. Some of these berries are almost an inch in 
diameter. But it was the wild native blueberry that inspired Robert Frost 
to write.

The blue's but a mist from the breath of the wind."