Plants Pacific Northwest

Vaccinium Ovalifolium - Oval-leafed Blueberry

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Plate 136 Plate 137

Plate 138 Plate 139

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Vaccinium Ovalifolium: Ovalleafed Blueberry, ovalleaf huckleberry.

This low growing deciduous shrub only grows to about 2 meters tall. It is slender, spreading, and erect, with reddish to yellowish, angled, grooved twigs when young, often greyish when old. The leaves are alternate, oval, to 4 cm long, blunt-rounded at both ends - the margins usually lack teeth green above, paler beneath. Flowers are rather pinkish, globular, and urn-shaped (bells) about 7 mm long. (single bells, in axis of leaves-appearing before leaves, but sometimes with leaves) The fruits are blue-black 6-9 mm across and very edible.

This berry was highly regarded by the coastal aboriginal tribes as delicious, early ripening fruit. They were often eaten fresh, or dried into cakes,tasting a lot like dark raisins. The berries were often eaten with oil or oolichan greese, or preserved by soaking in fish, or animal grease.

Huckleberry (Vaccinium spp.) foliage is relatively high in carotene, manganese, and energy content . The nutrient content of ovalleaf huckleberry browse varies seasonally. Fruits of Vaccinium spp. are sweet and contain high concentrations of both mono- and di-saccharides. Berries are rich in vitamin C and energy content but contain little fat.

Huckleberries are an extremely important food source for grizzly bears. Both black and grizzly bears typically exploit areas with dense concentrations of berries. The habitat value of huckleberry shrubfields to grizzly bears can be increased by permanent or at least seasonal road closures, by coordinating timber harvest dates to have minimal impact on habitat use patterns, and by considering the cumulative effects of habitat modification across a broad area. In general, site preparation should include minimizing soil compaction, using cooler broadcast burns rather than hot slash burns, or by eliminating site preparation entirely wherever possible. Grizzly use can be favored where hiding cover is retained by treating small, irregular patches instead of large contiguous areas, and by leaving stringers of timber within larger cuts.

Seasonal trail closures have been implemented in major ovalleaf or blue huckleberry fields in British Columbia's Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park in an attempt to reduce the likelihood of hiker-grizzly encounters. In many areas, bear-human conflicts are much more likely to occur during years of huckleberry crop failure as wider-ranging hungry bears encounter recreationists or wildland residents. Damage to crops and beehives, and livestock losses also typically increase during poor huckleberry years.