Gaylussacia baccata

Gaylussacia baccata, the black huckleberry, is a common huckleberry found throughout a wide area of eastern North America.

Black huckleberry
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Ericales
Family:	Ericaceae
Genus:	Gaylussacia
Species:	G. baccata
Binomial name
Gaylussacia baccata (Wangenh.) K. Koch 1872
Synonyms[1]
List Andromeda baccata Wangenh. 1787 Decachaena baccata (Wangenh.) Small Adnaria resinosa (Torr. & A.Gray) Kuntze Decamerium resinosum Nutt. Gaylussacia resinosa (Aiton) Torr. & A.Gray Vaccinium glabrum P.Watson Vaccinium parviflorum Andrews Vaccinium resinosum Aiton

Distribution

The plant is native to Eastern Canada and the Great Lakes region, the Midwestern and Northeastern United States, and the Appalachian Mountains, the Ohio/Mississippi/Tennessee Valley, and Southeastern United States. The range extends from Newfoundland west to Manitoba and Minnesota, south as far as Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia.^[2]

Description

Gaylussacia baccata closely resembles the native blueberry plants (Vaccinium species) with which it grows in the same habitats. However, it can be readily identified by the numerous resin dots on the undersides of the leaves which glitter when held up to the light. Gaylussacia baccata is a shrub up to 150 cm (5 feet) tall, forming extensive colonies. Flowers are in dangling groups of 3–7, orange or red, bell-shaped. Berries are dark blue, almost black, rarely white.^[3]

Berries are sweet and tasty. People and animals eat them raw, jellied, or baked into pancakes, muffins, and many other items.^[4]: 39

Ecology

The shrub is considered fire-resistant due to surviving rhizomes quickly sending out new shoots following fires.^[5]

It is a larval host to the brown elfin, Gordian sphinx, Henry's elfin, and huckleberry sphinx.^[6]

See also

• Vaccinium membranaceum — with "black huckleberry" as common name also.

References

1. "Gaylussacia baccata". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – via The Plant List. Note that this website has been superseded by World Flora Online
2. "Gaylussacia baccata". State-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
3. Sorrie, Bruce A.; Weakley, Alan S.; Tucker, Gordon C. (2009). "Gaylussacia baccata". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 8. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
4. Gibbons, Euell (1962). Stalking the Wild Asparagus. New York: David McKay. pp. xiii+303. ISBN 978-0-911469-03-5. OCLC 16227916.
5. Matlack, Glenn R. (1997). "Resource Allocation among Clonal Shoots of the Fire-Tolerant Shrub Gaylussacia baccata". Oikos. 80 (3): 509–518. doi:10.2307/3546624. ISSN 0030-1299.
6. The Xerces Society (2016), Gardening for Butterflies: How You Can Attract and Protect Beautiful, Beneficial Insects, Timber Press.

External links

• Photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Maryland in 1966