Hansen's Northwest Native Plant Database


Vaccinium membranaceum (Mountain Huckleberry)

Kingdom

 Plantae – Plants

Subkingdom

 Tracheobionta – Vascular plants

Superdivision

 Spermatophyta – Seed plants

Division

 Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants

Class

 Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons

Subclass

 Dilleniidae

Order

 Ericales

Family

 Ericaceae – Heath family

Genus

 Vaccinium L. – blueberry

Species

 Vaccinium membranaceum Douglas ex Torr. – thinleaf huckleberry

A tall, deciduous shrub, Mountain Huckleberry is common at mid- to high elevations in open areas, especially after a forest fire.

Found from Alaska to California and east to the Great Lakes (USDA 3-10), it is versatile and does fine at lower elevations.

While it prefers moist sites, it can survive seasonal drought.

This huckleberry has fine, oval leaves that turn vibrant shades of fire red or maroon in the fall.

The flowers are yellow-pink and small, while the purple to black, shiny fruit are delicious for pies and jam (that is if you manage to not eat them all when picking them – a definite challenge!).

 

For a short comparison of northwest native huckleberry family plants, click here.

Photos We Share!

It is our pleasure to share the photographs in this section with you under the Creative Commons License (see link below for details). We retain ownership of the photos but you may use them freely as long as you credit our website for them.  

        

Creative Commons License
These photos by http://www.nwplants.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Contact:  star@chillirose.com ~ Copyright 2012 © Wallace W. Hansen ~ All rights reserved