Photo: Dave Powell, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Squashberry

Viburnum edule

Also called mooseberry, few-flowered highbush cranberry, few-flowered cranberry bush, Viburnum pauciflorum.

A northern viburnum with lobed leaves that turn brilliant red in fall and sour red fruit for jam, for cool, moist woods and stream banks.

EdibleWildlife valueFall colorTolerates wet soilBears young

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 2–7 ft
USDA zones: 2–8
Growth rate: Fast
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Stream banks, the forest understory, the Appalachians, swamps and wet flats
Native range: Alaska and 15 other states, north to Washington, south to Colorado and west to Oregon
List all 16
Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming
Also recorded in 1 other state, outside its native range. See what is native in your state

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Squashberry is a straggling viburnum of the northern forests, from Alaska across Canada to Newfoundland and south into the northern states. Its three-lobed leaves look like those of our mapleleaf viburnum, but they are not softly hairy beneath, and its fruit is red, not black. The sour fruit makes a good jam or jelly. It is common in the North and rare at the southern edge of its range. New York and Vermont list it as threatened and Wisconsin as endangered, and NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in New Hampshire. Plant it along a cool, shaded stream or at a woodland edge in the North, where birds and people can share the fruit.

Size, growth and what to expect

Squashberry grows fast, nearly three feet a year in its youth on an average site in our growth estimator's model. It makes a straggling to upright shrub 2 to 7 feet tall, sometimes 12 feet, with smooth gray bark. Seedlings begin to fruit at about 5 years and then crop nearly every year.

Small, rounded clusters of white flowers, about an inch across, open from May into July. The fruit ripens red from August into October, a juicy drupe a quarter to half an inch across with one seed. It is sour and best picked for jam a little before it is fully ripe. It hangs on the twigs into winter, and songbirds, grouse, small mammals and bears eat it. The leaves turn brilliant red in fall.

It grows wild from Alaska to Newfoundland, south to Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Its home is moist woods, the gravel and rocky banks of streams and lakes, and the edges of swamps and bogs, often under spruce, aspen or birch. New York knows it from 14 small stands, most along Adirondack streams.

How to grow Squashberry

Squashberry grows in sun, part shade or shade, and it grows best with more light. It wants a cool soil that stays moist, and a well-drained loam beside water suits it best. It does not stand drought. Heat and dry air set the southern edge of its wild range, so give it a cool spot. Plant it 4 feet from a wall and set plants 6 feet apart. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch ring clear of the stems. Seed needs 3 to 5 months of warm, damp conditions and then 3 months of cold. Take it from fresh fruit and sow it before it dries, since fresh seed comes up better than stored seed. Sown outdoors in fall, half an inch deep, it comes up the second spring.

Water weekly through the first two summers, and keep a mulch of leaves over the roots, which grow in the soil's upper, leafy layer. Deer, moose, rabbits and hares browse it, so cage young plants where they are many. A plant damaged at the base sprouts again from the root crown.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, and insects carry the pollen. Tent caterpillars feed heavily on it in outbreak years. A leaf spot and a rust turn up, but neither is serious. The viburnum leaf beetle may become a threat.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (16)