Squashberry (Viburnum edule)—Photo: Dave Powell, USDA Forest Service
A Native Cranberry Feast
by Melonie Ramsey
Squashberry fall colors—Photo: Melonie Ramsey
As cranberry sauce makes its way to our Thanksgiving tables, consider a native cranberry for your garden. Highbush cranberry, also called squashberry or mooseberry (Viburnum edule), is not a true cranberry. It is a deciduous shrub native to moist forests, streambanks and wetland edges across the Pacific Northwest. It grows 2 to 8 feet tall, with clusters of white flowers in spring and maple-like leaves that turn brilliant shades of red in fall. Set against the shrub’s clusters of red-orange berries, that fall color is a feast for the eyes as well as for the birds.
The berries ripen in late summer and often cling to the branches well into winter, and that staying power is what makes the shrub so valuable to wildlife. Because the berries are sour and low in fat, many birds pass them by at first, then return once richer fruits are gone. That makes squashberry a winter pantry when food is scarce. Watch for American Robins, Varied Thrushes, Song Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Northern Flickers and Steller’s Jays, along with any lingering Cedar Waxwings.
Squashberry is adaptable. It grows naturally in partial shade and moist soil, but it also thrives in full sun with supplemental water during the dry summer months. Plant several together for better fruiting. When shopping, make sure you’re getting Viburnum edule. The European guelder rose (Viburnum opulus) is sometimes sold as “highbush cranberry” and can spread aggressively.
The Peninsula also has a true native cranberry: bog cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos), a tiny trailing plant of sphagnum bogs. It needs the wet, acidic conditions of a bog, so it is best enjoyed in the wild.
November’s rains make this an ideal month for planting. A squashberry planted now is a gift of thanks that will feed birds for many winters to come. Find them at local native plant nurseries, the Clallam Conservation District Native Plant Sale etc. I found mine from an Etsy shop out of Anchorage Alaska. If you buy online verify that what you are getting is Viburnum Edule.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Melonie Ramsey
OPAS Co-Vice President
National Wildlife Federation Habitat Steward