UnderShrubs List |
Evergreen List |
Broadleaf List |
Heather Family [Ericaceae] |
Flowers: |
Berries: (edible, but sour) |
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22nd May 2012, Doxey Pool, The Roaches, Staffordshire. | Photo: © RWD |
Proliferating in this area in pockets, especially on an old wall bank. |
22nd May 2012, Doxey Pool, The Roaches, Staffordshire. | Photo: © RWD |
Mid-green leaves. |
22nd May 2012, Doxey Pool, The Roaches, Staffordshire. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers in huddled groups, drooping groundwards. |
22nd May 2012, Doxey Pool, The Roaches, Staffordshire. | Photo: © RWD |
The stems are branched and round rather than fluted as in Bilberry. |
24th May 2009, Scotland. | Photo: © Brent Clarkson |
Young leaves are brownish red and bolt upright. It is also possible that they are instead infected with the fungal infection called Cowberry Redleaf, where the upper surface is red and the lower covered in a white powder bearing spores (although this isn't evident in the photos), and which also infects a number of other members of the Heather Family. |
24th May 2009, Scotland. | Photo: © Brent Clarkson |
Established leaves dark green, with few herringbone-pattern veins. Leaves curled backwards, margins slightly in-rolled. Flowers in bunches drooping downwards, un-opened ones reddish with white patches, opened ones the reverse. |
8th June 2009, Cairngorms, Scotland. | Photo: © Derek Mayes |
Flowers have four petals which open wider than do those of Bilberry. |
24th May 2009, Scotland. | Photo: © Brent Clarkson |
Flowers tubular to bell-shaped with four short slits and petals out-curled. A single style protruding only slightly. |
22nd May 2012, Doxey Pool, The Roaches, Staffordshire. | Photo: © RWD |
Un-opened flowers have four rounded lobes reminiscent of a Philips screwdriver head. |
7th June 2018, Burbage Moor, Hathersage, Dark Peaks, Derbys. | Photo: © RWD |
A leaf turning orange, presumably before turning red. |
7th June 2018, Burbage Moor, Hathersage, Dark Peaks, Derbys. | Photo: © RWD |
The sepal cups are short and green. They have 4 short sepal teeth which are red near their tips. |
7th June 2018, Burbage Moor, Hathersage, Dark Peaks, Derbys. | Photo: © RWD |
Open wide. Say 'aaaahhh'. There are a lot of anthers within the flower which are much shorter than the long single central styles which are longer than the petals. |
7th June 2018, Burbage Moor, Hathersage, Dark Peaks, Derbys. | Photo: © RWD |
The long pale style with white stigma atop with many much shorter fawn-brown anthers gathered around its base. The anthers seem to be in pairs in a ring around the style. |
7th June 2018, Burbage Moor, Hathersage, Dark Peaks, Derbys. | Photo: © RWD |
Fairly long red bracts (on the flower petioles), longer than the 4 sepal teeth. |
7th June 2018, Burbage Moor, Hathersage, Dark Peaks, Derbys. | Photo: © RWD |
7th June 2018, Burbage Moor, Hathersage, Dark Peaks, Derbys. | Photo: © RWD |
Green sepal cups, red bracts and the 4 red sepal teeth. |
22nd May 2012, Doxey Pool, The Roaches, Staffordshire. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers have several longish (red in this instance) bracts near their base and four short triangular sepals. |
22nd May 2012, Doxey Pool, The Roaches, Staffordshire. | Photo: © RWD |
Long bract (top right) and sepals (centre) |
7th June 2018, Burbage Moor, Hathersage, Dark Peaks, Derbys. | Photo: © RWD |
The petals have dropped off, as have the anthers, leaving the sepal cup with its 4 sepal teeth and the lime-green developing fruit within which will become the red berry. Some styles still remain. |
21st July 2012, Hathersage Moor, Hathersage, Derbyshire. | Photo: © RWD |
Beneath, the leaves are a non-shiny pale-green. Leaves haphazardly arranged on the stem, not in pairs. Developing fruit green at first, progressing to red. |
18th July 2017, Burbage Edge, Dark Peaks, Derbyshire. | Photo: © RWD |
Fruit very unripe here. |
21st July 2012, Hathersage Moor, Hathersage, Derbyshire. | Photo: © RWD |
30th July 2009, Cairngorms, Scotland. | Photo: © Derek Mayes |
The central green ovary has expanded to become the red fruit or berry. |
27th Aug 2009, Tarn Crag, Grassmere, Cumbria. | Photo: © Judith Hind |
Ripe berries red and spherical with a puncture at the far end consisting of four triangular-lips, which were the sepal teeth. |
Easily confused with : Bearberry Hybridizes with : Bilberry, the hybrid being called Hybrid Billbery or (Vaccinium × intermedium). The hybrid has darker leaves and is evergreen, whereas Bilberry is deciduous and Cowberry evergreen. It is very rare and seems to now only grow in the Grindleford, Derbyshire area.
No relation to : Cow Parsnip,
The leaves of Cowberry often suffer from a common parasitic fungus: Cowberry is a low and short creeping evergreen undershrub of moors, heaths, and open woods. The fruit is edible, but sour (some say sweet, so sweet and sour). They are used like Cranberries in preserves, considered by many to be superior to Cranberry. The leaves, on the other hand, are poisonous, and have antiseptic properties. They are astringent and act as a diuretic and used in Chinese medicines for the treatment of sore throats, coughs and colds and as a refrigerant to cool the body. The ripe fruits are used to remedy diarrhoea.
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Vaccinium | vitis-idaea | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Ericaceae |
Vaccinium (Bilberries) |
Heather Family [Ericaceae] |