"Nature Guide Journal"

10 August 2000

Heavy with juice and fragrant in the sun, our berries are ripe!

The Oregon Coast is home to over a dozen different kinds of native edible berries, plus a few escaped non-natives. Most of the favorites fall into just two plant families, the heath family and the rose family.

Many members of the heath family thrive in this region: rhododendron, manzanita, madrone, Indian pipe, and more–including the huckleberries. Dainty, bright red huckleberries and blue-black evergreen huckleberries are small enough to require a lot of picking per quart.

Also in the heath family, the meatier, coarser-looking salal berries have enough natural pectin to make it a good jam choice, alone or with other berries.

Although the strawberries are long gone, other berry-producing members of the rose family are fruiting now. Blackberries are perhaps the most commonly picked, since the non-native Himalaya blackberry invades with such vigor. Himalaya blackberry has a sturdy, ribbed stem and five-parted leaves (five leaflets joined together). Less familiar are the introduced evergreen blackberry, with deeply cleft leaves, and the more delicate native trailing blackberry.

A few other berry-bearing members of the rose family are about done fruiting. Salmonberries have large drupelets (the little balls that together form the berry) that are usually soft orange, but sometimes darken in the sun to deep- or purple-red. Tart flavored thimbleberries look rather like fuzzy, crimson rounded-bottle-caps. The large, velvety leaves of thimbleberry may be sought after as well, under the nickname, "hunter's toilet paper."

A good rule of thumb is to never eat white berries. In our area, you might encounter the tiny berries of mistletoe, the small berries of poison oak, or, rarely, the larger berries of snowberry. All three are poisonous to people.

We also have two common purple-black berries that shouldn't be eaten: cascara and twinberry. The cascara, or "chittum," that produces bark harvested for laxatives, also produces dark spherical berries reputed to have the same effect as the bark. Twinberry's small, yellow, tubular flowers are backed by a reddish oval disk about as wide as a quarter. The paired flowers give way to paired shiny berries that are quite bitter. Some experts report them to be edible, while others state twinberries are somewhat toxic.

Naturally, check with property owners before picking their berries. While most public lands allow picking for personal use, there are occasional restrictions. And, it is best to avoid berries right next to busy roads. Besides traffic safety concerns, roadside berries may collect heavy metals from exhaust or store toxins from roadside spraying.

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Wavecrest Discoveries can craft your personal discovery of this delightful part of our world by customizing one of our distinctive guided excursions.   Our walks, tours, and special activities are wonderful ways to explore this fascinating region—and are the perfect entertainment for guests.