Under-appreciated plant species (Vaccinium pallidum)

As a certifiable plant-geek and as a person who is intensely interested in eating on a regular basis, I am always on the look-out for plant species that can produce food under less-than-ideal circumstances. The Blue Ridge Blueberry is one such plant.

If you are blessed with well drained, fertile soil and rains hat arrive with clock-like precision...you will not understand. Under those conditions potatoes can produce one pound (wet weight) per square foot and corn can produce a quarter-pound (dry weight) per square foot. You are blessed.

There are many places that do not have that potential. The soils are too barren. The slopes are too steep. The bedrock is too close to the surface.

From Maine to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to the Ozarks, central Alabama to Myrtle Beach SC, V. pallidum sinks its roots into sandy banks and exposed, ridges thinly covered with soil. Vaccinium species readily hybridize so there is potential to up-grade the fruit quality.

One plant that thrives in dry, acidic soils and can rebound from fire and will grow (but not produce much) in the shade is the Blue Ridge Blueberry, Vaccinium pallidum.

In most cases, low-bush blueberries (a swarm of species) are not cultivated so much as the environment is tweaked to favor them over other species. It is assumed that if your soil is so wreaked that low-bush blueberries will survive that the birds already planted them and you just need to tilt the pinball machine to make them dominant.

That means beating back the trees that are shading them. That means suppressing grass. Regular burning is the ticket. And if you absolutely HAVE to fertilize (like it is a religious thing for you) do it with a very, very light hand since fertilizer favors grass.

A low-bush blueberry barren. The images are not V. pallidum but convergent evolution suggests it COULD be.

Low-bush blueberries are harvested with "rakes".