North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Jim Fruth" <jfruth@tds.net>]

   Marsh called it Viburnum trilobum, Linnaeus called it Viburnum Opulus 
and the pictures of it do not do it justice.  The High Bush Cranberry has a 
strange flowering habit that I've not seen on another plant.  It produces a 
cluster of tiny perfect flowers surrounded by bracts that closely resemble 
real flowers.  The bracts are each  about 1/2" in diameter and are brilliant 
enough to attract passing pollinators to the insignificant flowers in the 
center of the cluster.
   If you get a chance to see one in bloom, it is worth the experience just 
for the unusualness of it.
   Oh, and if you should ever have the opportunity to get enough of the 
fruit to make jelly, be sure to stand up-wind when cooking it and be 
prepared for down-wind neighbors to complain of the stench.  It makes a 
wonderfully tasting jelly, one of my favorites, but, when you first open the 
jar, it smells of dirty socks.  It is not one of our best sellers but we do 
sell alot of it, mostly to folks whose mothers or grandmothers made the 
jelly.

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN  56472
For jams, jellies & syrups:
www.bberryfarm.com
(877)265-6856 [Store]
(218)831-7018 [My Cell]