What are these berries?

If they were growing on the moors in Northumberland they would have been bilberries...

You shouldnt really of eaten them unless you are 100% sure of what is it!!! Could end up being something not edible!

I first said blue berries but then read on to say that they were size of blueberries. Possible Billberries?

Thanks for your reply, but I don't think so, I'm familiar with bilberries they have small leaves don't they, same as Whinberries which we get up north, these had large leaves !

I guess we shouldn't have eaten them, but they were so nice, didn't think they could be poisonous and we're still here !

Well, they obviously were not poisonous then, Julie!
I don't know what the shrub you are describing is but would seriously caution against eating anything unless you know that it is OK.

If you go to this link - you will see photos of the bilberry to confirm.....

http://www.stevenfoster.com/photography/imageviewsv/vaccinium/myrtillus/1032307f/index.html

They are also known as blaeberry, whortleberry, whinberry, winberry or wimberry.....which ever way - they are very tasty and make a lovely pie!!!

Can be a bit of a pain to harvest though, Alzheimer! Worth it, though.

Know what you mean.....last time I got a load - I was walking my dogs on a local moor and they roamed and I picked... and picked... and picked...LOL

And got either a sore back or sore knees or both Alz... We had a poor year for bilberries this year.

No idea what the crop was like here this year - can't exercise my old blind dog on that moor - the heather gets in her way - it is about 2-3! tall!!!!

Not friendly for your dog Alz.

Sure isn't...that's why I stick to the disused golf course....kinder on us all...LOL

Ah well we are none of us getting younger - sigh

I saw a black and white film recently from the 1940s showing how bilberries were picked in Czechoslovakia - there was an industry there bottling and exporting them.

Whole families set out with special wooden buckets on the adults' backs and each carrying a kind of tined wooden shovel, rather like an upside down splayed garden rake. They scooped these amongst the bushes, gathering large quantities of berries at once, along with leaves and twigs I imagine, and tipped them into the wooden buckets.

At the end of a hard day's picking - also by the smallest children and the grannies - the contents of the buckets were weighed by men on a lorry, money was handed over, and the berries trundled off to the bottling plant

What a fascinating story Cestina..they certainly don't seem to bother with them here..and I think they may well grow them specifically for any jelly -making... and I don't know of any company that does make it - in the UK at least.

I am wondering if the plant/berries that Julie found were actually Blueberries.
Like in "Blueberry pie" etc!! They are of the same family but have larger leathery leaves.....according to one of my trusty books...LOL

I'm sure they're not bilberries cos I'm familiar with them....pick them every year and make lovely jam. They also weren't blueberries as I grow them myself and their leaves are much smaller. These berries were like nothing I've ever seen before and the leaves were large like rhodedendron leaves, they tasted a bit like juniper berries, but they also have small leaves so they couldn't have been them. If I see them again I'll try to take a picture. Julie

That would be a real help Julie. Just don't eat any more until we i.d. them

You've got us all puzzled Julie..but as MG says - Please don't eat any more...just take a picture!!

I just find it incredible that if you didn't know what you were eating, you still thought you would try them. Ah well, you are still here to tell the tale eh! The very least I thought might happen is that you would all purge yourselves completely of that days future night soil!!

I'm wondering if it is some sort of escapee from a domestic garden.

Wish I could think what it was Fractal but nothing comes to mind.

I have a feeling you might be right, Fractal, and that it is a garden escapee. Even then berries in July?

Fascinating isn't it!! For once - it's got us all scratching our heads!!

Mr MB has been pouring over books most of the evening... I've been searching the web. No joy a berry from a shrub with a rhododendron like leaf... I give up!

Julie, please go walking there again soon (like this weekend) with your camera to, hopefully, put us out of our missery.

Go Julie....GO!!!!

Hi there, thanks for all your replies, you got me thinking about the garden escapee thing and I remember reading that Viburnum berries could be eaten and some of these have big leaves so I'm wondering if it was one of these. Also I have a confession I think it was September...not July ! sorry. Also the black berries were a bit 'sucked in' at the bottom. I've tried to find some pictures of Viburnum berries on the net but didn't have a lot of luck. Apparently these all have black berries: Bitchivense, Tomentosum, Sieboldii, so if anybody has one of these, it could be helpful. I'll try to get there again, but we were on holiday, it was along the path to Rivington Pike. I'll see what I can do, but the berries will have gone now, might have to wait till next year....I might pick some and make a pie if we can find out what they are. Happy gardening...Julie x

OK Julie...but PLEASE get them ID'd first before you make that pie!!!!!

Remember the rule of thumb with any wild foods if you can't positively i.d. it don't eat it!

We're hoping to go tomorrow for a walk and take camera, don't suppose there's any berries left now, so I hope I can find the bush and identify with the leaves....watch this space, hopefully photo to follow. Thanks for all your help sorry to cause you so much head scratching !!

Good for us - actually having to do some thinking lol

Hi there. I've added pictures, but I don't know if anybody can see them ? I might have done it wrong, never done it before ! Is there anybody out there ? Anybody know what the berries are ? What rubbish gardening weather we're having ! Have to dash out between the showers !

We can see the pictures, Julie. Going into thinking mode!!!

Hi Julie...panic not - the pics are fine ....it is my brain that isn't!!!
Back anon...hopefully!

Yup... we are all going
oh.... um....

I can only think it is one of the buckthorns...not sure which...any help MG and Mr ??

I don't think so Alz. buckthorn berries don't have that little 'star' on the bottom. But damned if I know what it is even now. Mr MB has his books out...

I can see a similarity in the leaves and berries with some of the buckthorns (Rhamnus sp.)but I have not found one close enough to say YES.
The RHS say that ingestion of the berries will cause 'severe discomfort' which does not seem to fit in with Julie's experience.

I noted that too...and it made me think twice but just hoped it would maybe nudge you in the right direction folks!
How about the Juneberry (Serviceberry - Amelanchier canadensis) then? Trouble is that makes it a probable escapee....but at least it is sweet and multi-seeded and does have the star on its bottom...which makes it one of the rosaceas for sure
Any help?

I've added another picture of the shrub. This could very well be a garden shrub as opposed to something wild, there were also a few other garden type shrubs on the walk and the paths/walk is near to an old terraced garden (rivington terraced gardens) there were quite a few of the shrubs around and as you can see they are quite substantial. Lots of berries for the picking next September....lots of pies if they are edible. We did not have any adverse effects at all from eating them. Thanks for all your help !

Hi there me again... I've looked at some pics of Alzeimer's suggestion and I don't think so, sorry, all these berries seem to have a star at the bottom but it hangs down whereas my berries were 'sucked in' at the bottom, hard to explain, probably not a very technical description. Hopefully you can see from the pictures. They tasted really nice, a bit 'juniper' ish, very strong flavour, kinda floweryish ! Thanks you guys ! Julie

I thought a Bearberry (Arctostaphylos) but I can't find one with a black berry. It looks like a low growing shrub, even if the heather is rank it can only be a couple of feet tall. Amalanchier tend to be taller trees.
Surely someone must recognise it.

There is an Arctostaphylos with black berries A alpina but I'm not convinced
http://i.pbase.com/o4/80/642980/1/66319823.Y5lWsgMV.ARCTALP_4854_web.jpg

Quite agree folks - it can't be the Juneberry as I suggested as they are normally a LOT taller...but when I was hunting around I didn't have the pic of the plants growing in among heather!!
Your Bearberry Alpina sure has black berries but the leaves don't look the same as Julies. Also do you know - for I sure don't - if they are drupes or multiseeded!!!!

I 'think' they are drupes so that counts them out... sigh - and I realise the pix of whole shrub wasn't there when you posted about the Amelanchier

Deep sighs all round...back to the drawing boards folks!!
Might I suggest that this be made into a blog...as the original Q has long since gone off the boil so to speak and would - as a new blog - automatically reach a wider audience!!!!
Somebody as you say out there must know and it is doing MY head in - never mind anybody else's....LOL

I think mine is DONE in Alz :-))

I HATE admitting defeat...but I think you are probably right MG :-))
Off to turn up the B music...the whizz-bangs have started ...b####r them!!
Honey is NOT amused....Lady Di is coping so far!

There are advantages in heavy rain, Alz. Not many, but some.

Yes you are correct and on Sunday when the Municipal Wallahs were due to "light blue touch paper and retire"...the merry old bonfire was under four feet of water.....yippee!!!! Not nice of me I know and honestly tonight being the 5th - I don't mind - IF I thought that would be all....but of course it won't.....they will go on ....and OFF.. for the next week or so!!

Aha, the power of a photograph!

I know this! It's Gaultheria shallon. We have/ had one for years growing at the GC I work at under a pine tree :-)

ps, I beleive it grows en-mass at a local National Trust place not too far from me (Cragside).

I've come to this one late but my thoughts are it's a vaccinium of some sort. According to my book on wild flowers, that could make it:
V.uliginosum (bog bilberry) although that is only listed for mainland Europe or
V.vitis-idaea (cowberry)
The book also lists:
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (bearberry) although that is listed as having red berries or A.alpinus (alpine bearberry) but this is only mentioned as being in Scotland

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
Fractal....Thank you - you deserve a medal. Spot on...I have just looked at a pic of it and of course it is exactly that......TG you have solved the puzzle...I have to say my Gaultherias aren't the black berried ones......just the 'umble procumbens!!
Now we can all sleep tonight.....LOL
PS ...are the berries edible....by humans I mean!!!

Hi Andrew, I am very familiar with this plant, and though your suggestions are good, it is definitely Gaultheria shallon. :-)

Alz, I got one thanks:-))

http://www.growsonyou.com/amblealice/blog/7170-congratulations-fractal

See what you mean, Fractal..LOL Just been and "read all about it"
Top of the class, Sir....and a well deserved accolade obviously...Congratulations.
I will know who to turn to when stumped next time too!!!!

Well done Fractal, of course it is Gaultheria although I am not familiar with G. shallon.
And it is edible, Julie, enjoy harvesting them next year.
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Gaultheria+shallon
see Plants for a Future Database entry.

Now WHY didn't the three of us think of that! It is so obvious now Fractal has said it... we even have Gaultheria in the garden though not this one. I tell you sometimes I wonder about my own knowledge...

It's not my knowledge I wonder about MG...as I KNOW it is very limited ...it is my research abilities that have suddenly plummeted! I just hate to be beaten .....my Xwords in the olden days - before laptops I may add (LOL) used to have me up to my ears in my books until the wee sma' hours!!!!

The Plants for a Future site that I quote above indicate that this is a very useful berry for eating. Anyone tried growing it as a crop plant for the berries? Is its yield worthwhile?

I'll have to try the fruits of the one at work. It's much more robust and upright than G. procumbens and has made quite a large patch. The irony is that this area of the garden centre is about to get completely revamped and the garden removed :-( so I will have to take a few rhizomes with stems attached. Wouldn't mind it in my garden and it will remind me of a colleague that planted it in the first place who is sadly no longer with us.

Wow ! I'm so happy that I can eat them ! thanks everybody ! they are definitely worth growing for the berries, cos the shrubs were literally covered in them in September and they are really yummy even raw without sugar ! whereas blueberries and whinberries and blackcurrants really need cooking to bring out the flavour and need sugar, these berries didn't. I'm sure they'll make excellent jams and pies...I can't wait !! quite a nice shrub as well, I would grow them myself, but it says in the internet that they don't like clay soil, so I'd be wasting my time ! Anyway happy gardening everybody and I'd seriously recommend that you plant this shrub ! Julie

Good luck Julie...

Gaultheria shallon is quite invasive - another of spritz's thugs!