Vaccinium membranaceum

Vaccinium membranaceum is a species within the group of Vaccinium commonly referred to as huckleberry. This particular species is known by the common names thinleaf huckleberry, tall huckleberry, big huckleberry, mountain huckleberry, square-twig blueberry, and (ambiguously) as 'black huckleberry'. Vaccinium membranaceum is native to western North America, with a range extending in the northern from southern Alaska, Yukon, and Northwest Territories south as far as Utah and the northern mountains of California. It can be found from the mountains next to the Pacific Ocean in the west, to the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills in the east. Isolated populations of this species have been found in Arizona, North Dakota, Minnesota, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and Ontario. Vaccinium membranaceum grows at higher elevations in subalpine and alpine environments. It occurs in both pine and spruce dominated forests and in open meadow ecosystems. In forests V. membranaceum often dominates the forest understory during early to mid stages of succession. Vaccinium membranceum is fire adapted. The leaves and stems of the huckleberry are resistant to low-intensity fires, and if burned away they will resprout vigorously from rhizomes buried under the soil. Vaccinium membranaceum is an erect shrub growing up to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) in maximum height. The new twigs are yellow-green and somewhat angled. The deciduous leaves are alternately arranged. The very thin to membranous, oval leaf blades are up to 5 centimeters (2 inches) long. The edges are serrated, with each tiny tooth tipped with a glandular hair. Solitary flowers occur in the leaf axils. Each is around 6 millimeters (1/4 inch) long, urn-shaped to cylindrical, and pale pink to waxy bronze in color. They are pollinated by bees. The fruit mature fruit ranges from red through bluish-purple to a dark, almost black berry about a centimeter wide. Each fruit contains an average of 47 tiny seeds. The plant rarely reproduces via seed, rather, it usually spreads by cloning itself from its rhizome or shoots. The seeds do germinate if dispersed by animals, however, as evidenced by populations of the plant growing on the recovering section of Mount St. Helens. Other than the study by Yang et al. (2008) reports of V. membranaceum sprouting from seed are quite rare with other scientists who have studied this species reporting only 6 seedlings observed during 18 years in the field. Vaccinium membranaceum is the species that is the most commonly collected of all of the wild western huckleberries, and it has great commercial importance. In a good year Vaccinium membranaceum shrubs produce a lot of fruit. The amount of fruit produced by these shrubs is legendary, with stories being told of mountain sides turned purple by all of the fruit, or shrubs being weighed to the ground by large, and abundant berries