Survives zone 3 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 wild European heathland fruit with a long culinary and folk tradition — eaten raw with cream or made into jams, tarts and Sweden's blåbärssoppa (bilberry soup); its dark, staining juice is more intensely flavored than cultivated blueberry.
- Hardiness
- Zone 3–7
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- July–Aug
- Mature size
- Low shrub 20–40 cm
- Light
- PARTIAL — genuinely shade-adapted woodland species, but crops far better in open light
- Soil pH
- 4.0–5.5 — ⚠ STRICTLY ACID-LOVING (calcifuge). Will die on alkaline soil; use ericaceous compost + rainwater
- Environment
- Temperate to boreal
- Native range
- Northern and central Europe, north Asia, and the northern British Isles, especially abundant in Scotland, Scandinavia, the Alps and the Carpathians, on acid heath, moorland and open or light woodland.
- Status
- Wild
- Years to fruit
- 3–4 yrs
- Growth speed
- Slow — RHS notes roughly 10–20 years to reach full mature size.
- Spacing
- 30 cm (12 in) apart — about 11 per m² (10 per 10 sq ft)
- Leaf shape
- Ovate, thin, deciduous leaves with finely toothed margins, often flushing red in autumn.
- Root system
- Shallow, spreading, suckering rhizomes sitting close to the soil surface.
- Fruit description
- Small (~10 mm) blue-black berries with a waxy bloom, borne singly rather than in clusters like cultivated blueberry; the deep-staining flesh is sweet and intensely flavored, with real acidity.
- Propagation
- By seed (crush ripe berries, rinse and sow) or cuttings; needs a lime-free, humus-rich medium like the rest of the genus.
- Pollination
- Self-fertile in that isolated plants set some fruit, but shows early-inbreeding depression — cross-pollination, mainly by bumblebees via buzz-pollination, meaningfully improves fruit and seed set.
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
How it spreads. Spreads by extensive rhizomes into low mats or colonies rather than discrete bushes.
Growing tips. Deep, dark-staining juice colors the flesh (unlike blueberry, which is pale inside), giving a more intense, tart flavor than cultivated highbush. A comparatively low-chill species — one dormancy study found only a superficial dormancy state and a minor chilling requirement next to other Vaccinium.
Grow journal
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