Vaccinium species

I don't have anywhere nearby where I can pick the real Huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum), but we do have several closely related species in and around the high mountain meadows. The three species I describe in this post, which can be found in the same area, often growing intertwined, which is why they all described together here. All of these berries resemble the huckleberry in shape, that is, round with the characteristic blueberry-like belly-button on the end.

Vaccinium uliginosum var. occidentale

Vaccinium uliginosum var. occidentale has the closest resemblance to huckleberries, and is known by a variety of common names, including "western blueberry", "western huckleberry", "bog bilberry", or even "bog whortleberry". Personally, I am currently preferring the "bilberry" name, even though that name is more commonly used for Vaccinium myrtillus. The "bilberry" name is used for any blue Vaccinium berry which is smaller than the common huckleberry, and this is the most common one which fits that description in my area. This is a low shrub which is commonly found at the edge of wet meadows, with marsh plants growing on one side of the shrub patch and dry plants growing on the other. Some meadows will have a border of these shrubs growing nearly all the way around them. 

The branches are round and brown; the leaves are entire (i.e. not toothed) which distinguishes it from most other species in the genus; and the berries are blue and small (4-7 mm in diameter). The berries grow from the leaf axils, often singular, but are also found in clusters of 2-4. The flavor is not as good as real huckleberries, but still very good, both juicy and sweet. Collecting them can be rather hit-and-miss, because many bushes will have few or no fruit (perhaps having already been picked clean by wildlife), while occasionally a bush will be found with a lot of berries. 

Vaccinium scoparium

Vaccinium scoparium is a very small (3-5 mm), red berry, found growing as a green ground-cover under high mountain coniferous forests. The stems are green and angled, and much less shrub-like than most other species, and are described as "broom-like" because they grow a lot of branches close together and upright, so that you could pull up a plant and imagine using it as a broom. The most usual common name for these is "grouseberry", but it is also known as "whortleberry", "littleleaf huckleberry", and even "grouse whortleberry" (for those who prefer some sort of indecisive compromise in their names).

They are very wide-spread and common, but the berries are very small, with just a few per plant, so that picking any good quantity would like quite a while. They are so small that it's hard to get the taste from a single berry; it is much better to pick several and eat them all at once, so you can fully taste them. Nevertheless, despite the tiny size and need to search over a large area of plants, I personally like the flavor of these the best, out of the three berries described here, especially if I can find them in the very ripe stage where they start to turn purpleish. 

Gaultheria humifusa

Gaultheria humifusa is another similar berry, which I still feel comfortable including here, because of its close resemblance to berries in the Vaccinium genus. So close, in fact, that some botanists have included it in that genus, and Vaccinium humifusa is a recognized synonym for it. It has a relatively uncontroversial common name of either "Alpine Wintergreen" or "Alpine Spicywintergreen". 

Unlike the shrubby plants of Vaccinium, this plant hugs the ground, forming a sparse mat of leaves and red berries. It seems to prefer spots where the soil is too thin for other most other plants, but can also be found growing under the other species described here. It still has woody stems, but they are mostly under the surface, with just few leaves and a berry or two where the stem emerges. The berries are red, fading to white on the underside when less ripe. They are wider around than they are long, and about 5-7 mm in diameter.

The taste is similar to the other berries described here, sweet with a bit of tartness, but these are firmer and less juicy than the others. Even though they are a wintergreen, they do not seem to me to have a strong wintergreen flavor, although there may be a slight suggestion of that in the tartness side of the flavor. Some sources suggest eating the leaves, but when I tried them they were very tough, and did not have a very good flavor.