Summer plant walks revealed a native shrub we had never documented before

One of our favourite parts of summer is exploring the trails around our land lab and discovering what is growing alongside our gardens. This season, we were excited to come across a shrub we had never noticed before: wild highbush cranberry.

At first, we weren’t quite sure what it was. The clusters of white flowers caught our attention, and after taking a closer look, we identified it as highbush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum), a native shrub that grows in moist forests and wetlands across northwestern Ontario.

Later this summer they should produce their bright red berries. While the fruit is quite tart, it has long been an important food for wildlife and has been used in traditional food systems throughout the region.

We love documenting the plants, flowers, and trees that grow naturally around our land lab, so finding a species we hadn’t recorded before was a great surprise. We’ll be keeping an eye on these shrubs over the coming weeks to watch the flowers turn into fruit.