Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). Arctostaph is the Greek for
“bear grape,” applied to this genus because bears eat the berries of some
species, especially Arctosaphylos uva-ursi. Various American Indian tribes
enjoyed this meal berry, too, and made a beverage from it as well. They
also used the “kinnikinick’s” leaves like tobacco and as a drug.
Bearberries haven’t been a very popular fruit over the years, even though
a tea made from its leaves was long a folk medicine for urinary troubles,
but it can be used like cranberries in many recipes-in fact, another name
for it is the hog cranberry. Bearberry has been called the ‘prettiest,
sturdiest, most reliable groundcover” for poor soils and will thrive in
pure sand. A shade-tolerant evergreen creeper with stems up to 6 feet
long, it has handsome, leathery green leaves that turn red in the autumn,
white pink-tipped flowers shaped like urns, and scarlet berries 1/3 inch
in diameter. The stem roots at the joints, actually increasing where it is
stepped on because this forces the stems into contact with the soil. The
care-free plant shouldn’t be fertilized and only needs watering in very
dry seasons. Its chief disadvantage is that it is extremely difficult to
propagate; in fact, the accepted way is to dig up frozen clumps in
midwinter and plant them immediately in a prepared bed of 6 parts sand and
4 parts acid humus. Plants bought from nurseries in the spring should be
planted in the same manner. Bigberry Manzanita (Arctostaphylos glauca) is
one of many tree or shrub forms of the bearberry. This California native
grows to about 14 feet and has brownish berries about ¾ inch in diameter.
Bearberry plants are available from Alpenglow Gardens, 13328 King George
Highway, Surrey, B.C., Canada.
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