Subject: [NAFEX] Strange flowering on High Bush Cranberry
Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 10:23:38 -0600
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]
[NAFEX] Strange flowering on High Bush Cranberry,
Jim Fruth, 02/03/2008