Although most people are probably more familiar with berries that ripen in mid-summer, such as blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, many plants not only produce berries in the late fall, but they persist through winter.  Like the high bush cranberries described in a recent post, these winter berry-producing plants provide a welcome splash of color to the landscape.

Common Winterberry

One of these, aptly named common winterberry (Ilex verticillata) produces round red berries about a quarter inch in diameter, each with a black spot in the center.  In addition to its showy berries, its grey bark and its propensity to grow in wetland areas (the shrub in the photos was growing on the bank of a small stream) may help with identification.  Winterberry is a shrub in the holly family and is native to eastern North America.  Like most hollies, winterberry shrubs are dioecious, meaning each plant is either male or female, but not both.  Unlike other hollies however, winterberry shrubs are not evergreen and their leaves lack the sharp teeth characteristic of other plants in that family. Many songbird species regularly eat the berries (perhaps explaining the series of berry-less stalks in the photo below).  However, all Ilex species are somewhat toxic to humans.

Greenbrier

Blueberry season may be long over, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any blue berries left in the forest.  The blue colored berries in the photo below are produced by greenbriar (Smilax rotundifolia), although most people are more familiar with its sharp, straight thorns than its berries.  Greenbrier is a woody vine native to eastern North America, and is common throughout most forested areas.  I’ve often wondered about the origins of the name “smilax” though, as getting cut by the thorns of this plant is nothing to smile about.  But it turns out that the greenbrier genus is named after the Greek myth of Crocus and the nymph Smilax. Although there are multiple variations, the story always centers around the tragic love of a mortal man who is turned into a flower, and a nymph who is transformed into a thorny vine.

Like the common winterberry, greenbrier is also dioecious.  Since the vine often spreads through its rhizomes rather than through seed dispersal, it’s possible that a large colony could be a single sex.  In that case there would be no fruit.  Where both sexes are present, however, clusters of blue berries form in the fall and persist through the winter providing food for birds and animals. Whether these berries are edible for humans though is unclear, as I’ve read several conflicting accounts.  I did sample one, and it was rather tasteless.  That’s probably a good sign that it probably isn’t toxic, but I think I’ll leave the greenbriar berries for the birds, and wait for the spring when the tender new shoots, tendrils, and leaves appear.  Those parts of the vines are most certainly edible, are very tasty, and can be eaten raw as a snack or added to salads or cooked in a stir fry.