Vaccinium stamineum L.

Common Deerberry; Squaw Huckleberry

Shrub

Perennial

Vascular

Common Deerberry is a native deciduous shrub in the Heath family (Ericaceae). It can be found throughout Alabama. Common Deerberry occurs in sandy pine woodlands, in dry oak woods, on rocky ridges, in sand hills, and in dry secondary woods. It is a shrub from 3 to rarely 10 feet in height, often forming colonies from suckers. Older stems are twisted and have peeling reddish-brown bark. The younger twigs are rounded, greenish in color, and pubescent or glabrous. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, elliptic to oblanceolate in outline, yellowish green to deep green in color, with entire margins. The blades are glabrous or densely pubescent and often glaucous below. The leaves turn red to maroon-purple before falling in the autumn. Flowers are produced in 2-7 flowered racemes. Individual flower pedicels are subtended by leaflike bracts. The flowers are campanulate with 5 sepals and 5 white or greenish-white petals. The fruit is a green, purple, or black berry that is often glaucous and sometimes pubescent or glandular. The fruit is tart or bitter in taste and often dry. It is consumed by birds and small mammals. Common Deerberry is highly variable, and numerous species or varieties have been described. Common Deerberry is sometimes available from native plant nurseries. It prefers an acidic, organically rich, sandy soil in full sun to part shade. Established plants are drought tolerant. —A. Diamond

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Native FACU (NWPL)

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