Autumn berries of Shropshire

Berries are abundant in August and September and we are lucky to have several more unusual species in Shropshire.

The importance of being a berry

As summer turns to autumn, berries are brightening up hedgerows and landscapes across Shropshire, providing food for people and wildlife. They play an essential role in the life of an ecosystem, attracting insects and birds which in turn spread the plants seeds and generate new growth.

There are many well known berries which are commonly collected by humans, blackberries being a prime example and easily recognisable. There are berries such as rowan and hawthorn, which are inedible to humans when raw, but they can be made edible by roasting and boiling. They are very hard berries to digest when eaten straight from the tree, but that doesn't make them any less valuable as a food source to wildlife. Blackbirds and thrushes eat hundreds of these berries during autumn and can be seen picking them in hedgerows and trees. But an array of mammal species take advantage of the berry explosion too. Rowan berries grow in large bunches and fall off the branches when they get too heavy, creating a natural buffet on the ground for badgers, foxes, voles and even pine martens.

The moorlands and peatbogs of Shropshire provide other types of berries from the Vaccinium family. We have three species in Shropshire, some relatively rare but findable on our Stiperstones nature reserves.

Two other autumn berries, crowberry and cloudberry are also found locally, but are much rarer. All of these berries play a key role in each of these habitats...so if you do go out collecting berries, only ever take what you need and make sure that there is plenty left for the local wildlife!

Whinberry Vaccinium Myrtillus

Whinberry, sometimes also called wimberry, is the Shropshire name for bilberry. The berries are very dark blue, almost black and are often hidden under leaves so picking has to be done on hands and knees!

It is a plant found widely on the Shropshire Hills and has a long history in the local area. It was an important crop up until the Second World War when whole families would make their way onto the hills to pick the fruits to sell to the textile industry as a dye - children would often be absent from school for several days during whinberry season.

Whinberry Flower (Bilberry) Stiperstones

Whinberry Flower (Peter Cairns/2020Vision)

Cowberry Vaccinium vitis-idaea

A distinctive plant, the cowberry is a low growing shrub with scarlet red fruits appearing at the end of summer. Confusingly it has up to 25 other English names including lingonberry and whortleberry. The berries are edible but have a sharp sour taste, cooked and sweetened they make delicious jam.

The cowberry can be found on the north Shropshire Mosses. It is favoured by lots of wildlife, including song thrushes, blackbirds, mice, badgers and squirrels.

Cranberry Vaccinium oxycoccos

A low shrub with pretty bright pink flowers which produce edible orange-red fruits. Our native species favours bogs and wet heaths usually creeping amongst Sphagnum moss. It is especially suited to making jam because of the amount of pectin it contains. Your Christmas cranberry sauce is a different species commercially grown in America.

Cranberry flower - Chris Lawrence

Cranberry fruits

Crowberry Empetrum nigrum

The crowberry has blue/black berries which cluster around the stalk and are a good source of antioxidants. But beware, they are said to cause extreme flatulence! Interestingly, crowberry leaves are covered with glands that produce toxic substances. When they fall to the ground and start to decompose, leaves release toxins into the soil that prevents growth of other competing plant species.

The crowberry has an unusually large distribution in the northern hemisphere, attributed to long distance migratory birds dispersing seeds. It’s also a vital addition to the diet of the Inuit in Sub-Arctic areas.

Cloudberry Rubus chamaemorus

This relative of the blackberry is only found in one place on the Mosses of the Shropshire border. The cloudberry is native to cool climates such as Sweden, where it is a great delicacy but due to peatland extraction and drainage the species is considered endangered. It has orange marmalade coloured fruits, with the shape attributed to the cloudberries other name - knotberry. Apparently they have a sour taste and are much better as jam.

Stuart Edmunds