What Wild Berries Are Growing On Your Place?

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by BG79

I have some other berries that I cannot figure out what they are. It looks like a blueberry but doesnt taste like one at all. Normally I don't taste strange berries but the property management company came out for post rental inspection and I asked about them and he told me they were likely blueberries and popped one in his mouth. I followed suit and am still alive but I don't think it was a blueberry as it tasted like a seedy green plant but looked like a ripe blueberry. I also have something I just saw that looks like a blueberry but bright white, I figured that has to be bad for me.

I really wanted to do huckleberry picking but I ended up waiting too long and missing the optimal season.

We have those, too, nice frosted-blue berries the size of blueberries, close to the ground. I don't taste strange berries, either, so we just leave them for the bears, but I'd like to know what they are!

[mistyriver]

maybe a small serviceberry bush? There are also lowbush wild blueberries.

[mistyriver]

Usually...purple berries are almost always edible and white berries are almost always poisonous.

[banjomike]

Be very careful! There is hemlock growing all over this state, and it has white berries. Everything on that plant is poisonous from the roots up. I've know guys who pulled it up, forgot to wash their hands afterwards, and got very ill from it.

A few years ago, some idiot river guide from out of state thought it was medicinal, and brewed up some tea from it, and passed it around to his customers. He died, and they all spent a week in the hospital here recovering. It doesn't take much at all to be deadly.

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by banjomike

Be very careful! There is hemlock growing all over this state, and it has white berries. Everything on that plant is poisonous from the roots up. I've know guys who pulled it up, forgot to wash their hands afterwards, and got very ill from it.

A few years ago, some idiot river guide from out of state thought it was medicinal, and brewed up some tea from it, and passed it around to his customers. He died, and they all spent a week in the hospital here recovering. It doesn't take much at all to be deadly.

Living near the river, with creeks and ponds on the property we have water hemlock in various locations. It doesn't have berries but it looks like Queen Anne's Lace on steroids or water parsnip. We take it out whenever we can because it's supposed to be one of the most poisonous plants in the US. I don't plan on testing it.

[oldafretired]

Originally Posted by banjomike

Be very careful! There is hemlock growing all over this state, and it has white berries. Everything on that plant is poisonous from the roots up. I've know guys who pulled it up, forgot to wash their hands afterwards, and got very ill from it.

A few years ago, some idiot river guide from out of state thought it was medicinal, and brewed up some tea from it, and passed it around to his customers. He died, and they all spent a week in the hospital here recovering. It doesn't take much at all to be deadly.

Banjo, you don't mean the Western Hemlock which is a conifer?

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by oldafretired

Banjo, you don't mean the Western Hemlock which is a conifer?

Nope. I mean the water hemlock, the damned weed that killed Aristotle. I don't know if it grows in the panhandle, but it grows down here all the way up north of Salmon. Totally different from the tree.

The Western Hemlock tree is a good one for use in stringed musical instruments like guitars and fiddles. A couple of Idaho luthiers (stringed instrument makers) use it, but so far it's unknown to the trade outside of a few others in Oregon.

[Sandpointian]

Wild? Only night shade!

Otherwise: raspberries, black currants, blackberries, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, and serviceberries. Love 'em all!