Subject: [NAFEX] Mystery berry - can you help me identify this?
Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 08:07:43 -0400
While looking for wild blueberries that weren't quite ripe in the lakes
region of New Hampshire last week, my husband and I came upon a a small
tree bearing fruits that looked a lot like blueberries. It was near
peak, with lots of ripe berries and lots of ripening berries. The tree
was about 15' tall, with a central trunk about 2-4" thick (not very
round). It was growing on the edge of an island, leaning out over the
lake. The bark was smooth.
The leaves were "leaf shaped" simple leaves, a little bigger than the
wild blueberries, but within the range of sizes I've seen for domestic
highbush blueberries. They were softer in texture than a blueberry
leaf - less leathery - and has tiny sharp serrations pointing towards
the tip. Each little point was a couple of millimeters long (maybe
less) and they were fairly uniform.
The berries were large for wild blueberries, although smaller than
domestic blueberries. They grew in loose clusters of about 20 or more,
and each berry has a prominent blossom scar, with long "tags" of skin
around it. We each ate a couple fresh, and they tasted similar to
blueberries, but not as good. A couple days later, when neither of us
got sick, we ate a lot more. They were pleasant, but seedy and a bit
bland. They were not terribly popular around the table, but that may
have been partly because I couldn't say for sure what they were.
My first guess is some kind of service berry, although it didn't
exactly match any of the ameliamchor in the only tree book I could
find. I have a good photo of a twig with fruit that I can e-mail to
anyone who wants to take a stab at identifying it, but I don't know how
to post to NAFEX space, and I think we are requested not to send
attachments to this list.
Thanks for any ideas,
Ginda
[NAFEX] Mystery berry - can you help me identify this?,
list, 07/20/2003