Bilberry

Tags: Berries, Foraging Description: The bilberry has small green leaves with small teeth along the edge. The leaves fall off in autumn. The bilberry’s stem is green and angular. In early summer the plant produces small white-pink flowers that later become bilberries. The berry has a blue-white film of wax around it that prevents it from drying out. Some years there are masses of berries in the woods, other years there are almost none. If there are few bilberries, it may be because there was frost during the night while it was flowering, or because it was dry early in the summer. The bilberry plant is adapted to half-shade and often lives in not-too-dense spruce forest. It can adjust to the light conditions by changing the size of its leaves and how many chloroplasts they have for carrying out photosynthesis. The bilberry is an important browse plant. The plant itself provides food for elk, roe deer, hare, red deer, small rodents and woodland grouse. The bumblebee loves the sweet nectar in the flowers, and the berries are eaten by bears, red foxes, badgers and birds. The weight of elk calves varies from year to year, and in the years that are good bilberry years, the calves grow biggest. Use: For dessert, jam, or simply eaten as they are. Habitat type: Mountains, Woodland Edible: Yes Equipment: A bucket, tin or bag to put the bilberries in. A berry picker makes the picking go faster. Written by: Lærke Stewart

, via Wikimedia Commons](Bl%C3%A5b%C3%A6r/Blbr.jpg)

Bilberry. Татьяна Прозорова, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Vaccinium_myrtillus_30999834.jpg, via Wikimedia Commons

Bilberries, ready to be eaten. Photo: Gina Wigestrand

Next steps

• Cranberry — another berry
• Cloudberry — another berry
• Foraging — berry foraging
• Food from nature — wild plants — preparation
• Plants — the hub

Learn more

• Artsdatabanken — species, status, Red List
• SNL — Norwegian botany — encyclopaedic
• Sopp- og Nyttevekstforbundet — courses and identification checks
• Botanisk forening — the Norwegian botany community