Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Ericales

Family: Ericaceae -- heath

Common Name: globe huckleberry, blue huckleberry, black huckleberry, thin-leaved huckleberry, tall huckleberry, square-twig blueberry

Species Code: VAGL, VAME

Origin: Native to dry to mesic coniferous forests of western North America from southern British Columbia south to Oregon and east to Saskatchewan and Wyoming.

Rare: no

Form: shrub, deciduous, 30-120 cm tall, young twigs greenish-yellow, glabrous, the bark becoming grayish and shredding with age.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: long

Habitat Type: forest

Wetland Indicator Status: FACU+

Leaves: alternate, oblong-obovate, nearly cuneate at the base, 2-5 cm long, finely serrulate, the underside glaucous and glandular, the upper side glabrous.

Mature height: 12 to 48 inches

Flowers: borne singly in the axils on a pedicel 5-10 mm long; corolla gamopetalous, globular-urceolate, pale pinkish-yellow, 6-7 mm long; calyx obscurely lobed, the lobes deciduous by fruiting, ovary inferior.

Flower color: pink

Bloom: May, June

Fruit: berry, bluish purple, 6-8 mm wide, edible and very palatable.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.
Hitchcock et al (1969) and Davis (1953) recognized V. globulare as a separate species but most other floras consider it synonymous with V. membranaceum.
x=12 (University of British Columbia 2003).
2n=48 (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993).
Flowers are perfect.
Pollinated by bees (Hunn & Norton 1984).
Fruit is a berry.
Seeds are dispersed by animals which eat the fruit.
Berries are edible and highly sought after by humans and wildlife.
V. membranaceum is a valuable browse for Rocky Mountain elk in summer and a minor browse in fall and winter (Kufeld 1973).
Vaccinium species are a host for the larva of the boreal spring azure butterfly, Celastrina ladon (Pocewicz 2005).

Comments: Requires low soil pH. Will not grow under a closed forest canopy.

Sun requirement: full sun to partial shade

Soil moisture: moist

Precipitation: 10-50 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009)

Fire: Top growth may survive moderate fires. Slow to recover from fire. Resprouts from rhizomes in mineral soil. Fire reduces tree competition, allowing V. membranaceum to thrive (Simonin 2000)

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: none required

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: 2-5 years

Seed cleaning: difficult

Planting duration: long

Seed shatter: Fruit must be collected before it is eaten by wildlife or humans.

Seed size: small

Seed comments: Seed extracted from berries may be planted immediately or dried and stored at 35^oF in an air-tight container for up to seven years (Barney 1999).

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: native upland perennial forest shrub

Propagation:
1 protocol in the Native Plant Network
cuttings, Glacier National Park, MT

Other Propagation Information:
No pretreatement needed, sow in greenhouse at 70-80^oF daytime and 50-60 ^oF during the night. Keep in pots 2-3 years, then transplant to field (Barney 1999).
Seeds of some Vaccinium species require light to germinate (Griffin & Blazich).
Some seed will germinate without pretreatment, but stratification may increase germination (Rose et al 1998).
Seedlings are slow to establish and stem cuttings root poorly (Link 1993).
Difficult to root from stem cuttings. Can be grown from rhizome cuttings collected in fall (Barney 1999).
Reproduces sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes. Can be propagated from stem or rhizome cuttings, but rhizome cuttings may damage the parent plant.

Notes: Even when regarded as two separate species, V. globulare and V. membranaceum are still considered ecological equivalents in northern Idaho (Patterson et al 1985).

References:
Barney, Danny L. 1999. Growing Western Huckleberries. Extension Bulletin 821. Cooperative Extension System, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho.

Davis, Ray J. 1952. Flora of Idaho. Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa. 827 pp.

Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/

Griffin, Jason J. and Frank A. Blazich. undated. Vaccinium L. blueberry or cranberry. In: Bonner, Franklin T., and Rebecca G. Nisley (eds.). Woody Plant Seed Manual. USDA Forest Service. Available online at http://www.nsl.fs.fed.us/wpsm/

Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.

Hunn, Eugene S., and Helen H. Norton. 1984. Impact of Mt. St. Helens Ashfall on Fruit Yields of Mountain Huckleberry, Vaccinium membranaceum, Important Native American Food. Economic Botany 38:121-127.

Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.

Link, Ellen (ed.). 1993. Native Plant Propagation Techniques for National Parks Interim Guide. USDA, NRCS, Rose Lake Plant Materials Center. East Lansing, MI.

Patterson, Patricia A, Kenneth E. Neiman, and Jonalea R. Tonn. 1985. Field Guide to Forest Plants of Northern Idaho. USDA Forest Service Intermountain Research Station. General Technical Report INT-180. Ogden, Utah.

Pocewicz, Amy. 2005. Host Plants of Palouse Butterfly Species. 2 page handout to accompany the April 2005 presentation to the Palouse Prairie Foundation.

Rose, Robin, Caryn E.C. Chachulski, and Diane L. Haase. 1998. Propagation of Pacific Northwest Native Plants. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, OR.

Simonin, Kevin A. 2000. Vaccinium membranaceum. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2009, September 29].

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Online at http://www.bcflora.org/ Accessed 9/30/09.

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 29 September 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species account from the Fire Effects Information System
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium