HAVE: Seeds from heirloom 6' tall bush w/ lovely, shiny, small green leaves. In Spring, it gets tiny pink/white flowers shaped like teacups. And in Autumn, it has purplish-blue berries. As I am unable to identify the bush, I believe them to be NON-EDIBLE. The leaves turn a lovely shade of pinky-peachy-gold in Autumn. Pictures are on this website, which is not mine: http://ramblinganne.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html Not sure if this is what you're looking for, and they're probably not edible. Am mostly interested in flowers, mostly perennial. Let me know if you're interested in a trade. Thanks.

incredibly invasive... see link potentially poisonous ... nearly impossible to kill or dig the tuber ... and you are going to have a big problem for a decade if you leave those seeds to the birds ... trust me.. been there.. done that.. had to move.. to get rid of them... and they are now at the new house ... darn birds .. ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

While you are waiting for an expert to respond, I'll throw in my two cents: My intial take is that it is not a highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), because of the color of the berries. V. corymbosum also has an interesting bark - it looks like a dark brown or tan bark has been stripped away in segments to show a lighter underbark -- there is something muscular or shredded looking about it. But I'm not sure this isn't true for other members of the family. The location is right for V. corymbosum, but it's also right for other berry-making plants, such as various native and non-native buckthorns (the non-natives are invasive) and the huckleberries. I believe buckthorns are toothless (at least the European is), while blueberries and huckleberries have toothed leaves. The general rule with the color of blueberries and huckleberries is that blueberries are more blue than black and huckleberries are more black than blue. Also, blueberry seeds are numerous and tiny, so you don't notice them when you eat the berry, while huckleberries (at least Gaylussacia baccata) have a small number of larger seeds, and you notice them. I live in eastern Mass. and have noticed in some wetter (but not swampy) areas, a lot of dangleberry shrubs (Gaylussacia frondosa?), a huckleberry, that may match your plant: black berries, toothed leaves (I think) and larger than some of the smaller huckleberries and blueberries (I think - wasn't clear from description). My only question is the wavy white line on the berries, which doesn't seem to fit with my understanding of either blueberries or huckleberries. As I said, I'm not an expert, so I hope someone will jump in and correct me if I've led you wrong. -- wd

Thanks, Jane. The winterberry may well be another of those native plants that would much rather have a nice, moist environment but will make do with whatever it can get so long as it's not too dry. Mine was probably a volunteer from the wild that my mother left in place many years ago. I suspect there is some underground water there; possibly originally from the house next door which is higher, but now there's a septic leach field nearby to please anything with deep roots. I have three, maybe four seedlings that appeared in beds I keep moderately watered and I'm hoping that at least one of these will be a male for a pollinator. I have no idea where the current male is and I'm afraid the bees have a long journey between them. Claire Here is a link that might be useful: Ilex verticillata at hortuconn