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Viburnum edule (Michx.) Raf. Squashberry viburnum

Ripe fruits

Habitat

Squashberry viburnum, or simply, squashberry, occurs in damp, rich, coniferous or mixed woods, along brooks, in wet thickets, and in forest edges, in the northern half of New Brunswick.

Form

Squashberry is a straggling to somewhat erect shrub about 1 m tall when in an understorey, and up to 2 m tall in more open areas.

A shrub of the understorey

Morphology

The leaves are deciduous, simple, and borne oppositely in pairs at successive nodes. The leaves of lower pairs on longer shoots, and those on short shoots usually have three lobes, all well above the middle of the leaf and separated by shallow, more or less rounded clefts, or sometimes by deeper, wide,V-shaped clefts. The leaves of upper pairs on longer shoots are often unlobed, or only slightly lobed. All leaves are 4–8 cm long, sharply but irregularly toothed around the margin with stalked glands where the margin meets the petiole (which is 8–40 mm long), roundish to oval, sharp pointed at the tip, and broadly rounded to wedge shaped at the base. The leaves are dark green and smooth above and paler beneath where some hairs occur, especially along the veins and in vein axils.

The twigs are shiny, purplish or reddish brown to greyish brown, and often marked by longitudinal ridges, and a few pale lenticels. The buds are usually dark red and have two scales that meet in valve-like manner along their edges. A terminal bud is usually present.

Clustered flowers in axils of leaves

The small, milky-white flowers are borne in loose, few-flowered, branched clusters at the tips of new, lateral, short shoots each bearing one pair of leaves. Usually, the opposing short shoot also bears a cluster of flowers. These shoots arise from a pair of lateral buds on a shoot of the previous year. Fruits develop from some of the flowers in a cluster. They ripen to orange-red, berry-like drupes, 6–10 mm across. Each fruit contains a single flat, ovate stone, or pit, that contains a seed.

The bark on young stems is reddish brown. Older bark is ashy grey to brown, and may be wrinkled.

Notes

Squashberry might sometimes be confused with young highbush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum Marsh.) because some of the leaves may be superficially similar, and the buds are similar. However, the lobing is much more prominent in leaves of highbush cranberry, and all of its leaves are lobed. Also, its leaves carry glands near the upper end of the petioles, not on the lower margins of the laminae. Squashberry fruits are borne in much smaller clusters than are those of highbush cranberry.

The fleshy fruits are taken and ingested by animals and birds. This serves as a means of seed dispersal; the seeds are passed out, still in the stones, in the faeces.

The name “edule” means edible, probably implying that the fruits of this species are more palatable than are those of other viburnum species. An excellent jelly may be made from the fruits, especially after the first frost. However, gathering enough fruit may be a problem.