Photo: Leila Dasher — CC BY 4.0 · source
Survives zone 5 through 7
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
A rare, high-elevation Appalachian endemic bearing translucent scarlet berries in late summer — not a spreading vine despite its cranberry name, and essentially unavailable in cultivation.
- Hardiness
- Zone 5–7
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- July–Sept
- Mature size
- Deciduous shrub 0.5–2 m, upright and open
- Light
- Partial (montane forest)
- Soil pH
- 4.0–5.5 — ⚠ STRICTLY ACID-LOVING (calcifuge). Will die on alkaline soil; use ericaceous compost + rainwater
- Environment
- Montane
- Native range
- A Southern and Central Appalachian endemic — West Virginia and Virginia south through the mountains to western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and northeastern Georgia, on high-elevation rocky ridges, balds, bogs and spruce-fir forest.
- Status
- Wild
- Years to fruit
- 2–3 yrs
- Growth speed
- Slow — RHS gives 10–20 years to reach its full 1–1.5 m
- Spacing
- 120 cm (47 in) apart — about 1.4 m² (16 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Narrow oval to elliptic, 4–6 cm long, slightly downy underneath, deciduous, turning brilliant red in autumn.
- Root system
- Shallow and fibrous, almost entirely in the top 30–40 cm, and unusual in having few or no root hairs — the plant relies on ericoid mycorrhizal fungi for most of its water and nutrient uptake instead. Two practical consequences: it dries out fast and wants steady moisture, and it resents cultivation around the base, so mulch rather than hoe.
- Fruit description
- Small (~6 mm), glossy, translucent scarlet berries; sources disagree sharply on flavor, calling it anywhere from excellent to sour to insipid.
- Propagation
- Softwood cuttings taken in late spring or semi-ripe cuttings in early summer, grown on in pots before planting out.
- Pollination
- Self-fertile, better with a 2nd cultivar
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Growing tips. Despite the "cranberry" name this is an upright shrub, not a spreading vine like true cranberry (V. macrocarpon) — a common point of confusion. Fruit flavor is inconsistently described across sources, from "excellent" to "sour" or "insipid", so treat quality claims with some caution; it's a rare high-elevation endemic, not commercially available.
Grow journal
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