Hobblebush

Photo: Wladyslaw — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

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.

Fruit is edible fresh once fully dark and soft, with a sweet-tart date-like flavor, though thin-fleshed with a large stone. The common name comes from its sprawling, arching branches, which root where they touch the ground and can trip ("hobble") a walker in dense thickets.

Hardiness

Zone 3–7

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Aug–Sept

Mature size

1.8–3.5 m tall by 2–4 m wide

Light

Part to full shade

Soil pH

5.0–6.5 (acidic)

Environment

Boreal to cool temperate, understory

Native range

Northeastern North America — Atlantic Canada south through the Appalachians to Georgia — cool, moist forest understory.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

4–5 yrs

Growth speed

Slow

Spacing

300 cm (118 in) apart — about 9 m² (97 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Broadly rounded to heart-shaped, 10–20 cm, finely toothed

Root system

Shallow and fibrous, and remarkable for how readily the long arching branches root where they touch the ground — the plant walks outward by layering, which is what makes a hobblebush thicket so effective at tripping walkers and how it got its name.

Fruit description

Oval drupes turning red then blue-black, ~10 mm, sweet-tart, thin flesh

Propagation

Layering (its natural habit — branches root readily where they touch soil), seed (double dormancy), or softwood cuttings.

Pollination

Insect-pollinated; showy sterile outer florets attract pollinators to the small fertile flowers within.

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.